Alexander Hamilton

“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments and musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature by the hand of the divinity itself and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”

-- Alexaner Hamilton (quoted by Ron Chernow)

This, of course, is from the revolutionary period, as Hamilton took his crack at expressing the idea of natural rights - those inalienable rights granted by the Creator. In other words, Hamilton and his fellow compatriots did not believe that they should be bound by old contracts with the King of England.

Pics

( Read more... )

The NRA

The National Rifle Association came out today with a response to the Connecticut school shooting. Although liberals were skeptical about what Mr. Wayne LaPierre, the NRA pointman, would say, there was some hope that maybe at last the group would moderate its position.

You have to laugh.

That hope for moderation is now dead. He blamed video games and the media for the mass shootings that continue to plague our country. His solution was also predictable: more guns!

Mr. LaPierre argued, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” At least he did not call for arming teachers, or at least I don't think he did. He said that the schools should have armed policemen. He does have this nice rhetorical line: “So why is the idea of a gun good when it’s used to protect the president of our country or our police but bad when it’s used to protect our children in our schools?”

Going by the media and news reports: people were not impressed with this response. At least not as a solution. We are impressed that the man and the NRA are mad-crazy! Wow...

(Source: New York Times)