Rights? What Rights?

(Hat tip to Galt for getting us thinking about this.)

Over the last several decades, it seems that just about every demographic group you can think of has managed to dream up ever more bizarre "rights" which they demand that the courts enforce, usually with your money.

It should be noted that John Locke postulated that there were three inalienable rights -- the right to life, liberty and property. (How that last one got morphed into "the pursuit of happiness" is stil being discussed. But we note with disdain that the rights-mongers have even managed to bastardize that into the "right" to happiness at all costs, paid for if necessary by someone else.)

In the beginning -- as is with all such things -- it began innocently and properly enough. There was never any excuse for the legalized discrimination against Blacks. The law should have been perfectly neutral on the subject. If you choose not to serve Blacks at your lunch counter, so be it. No matter how petty and/or short-sighted that might be. But for the law to mandate that you are not allowed to serve Blacks at the same lunch counter as Whites is just flat-out wrong. And so we had the beginnings of the "civil rights" movement.

Unfortunately, as with all fanatics, the professional do-gooders weren't satisfied with simply overturning bad laws. They insisted on having the courts enforce their particular brand of "morality" -- at the point of a gun, if necessary. And so we wound up with "women's rights", which led most notably to the right to commit murder for the convenience of the mother. Now there's "'gay' rights", "immigrant rights", and who knows what else.

Oddly missing in all of this hysteria about everyone's perceived "rights" is any talk at all of responsibility. Apparently, almost everyone has a right to almost everything, but no one has any responsibilities.

Perhaps P. J. O'Rourke said it best: "There is only one basic human right -- the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human obligation -- the obligation to take the consequences."

Right on.