Rights vs. Privileges: An example of words as a weapon in the hands of judges
Well, time to break out the old B.S. button again!
A Florida judge just used the word “privilege” when speaking about hotels renting rooms, and I’ll get to that in a moment. But first. . .
Americans had damn well better take to the streets with pitchforks and torches, tar and feathers, pretty soon or we’re going to lose it all – every single thing we hold dear – or used to anyway.
Our entire nation is premised on the notion that we are all endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that governments only operate with the consent of the governed (paraphrasing). There are no “privileges” in the history of American governance and our ideas of Liberty. We had “privileges” under King George III.
Do you have a right to do the things necessary, without injuring others or stealing their property, in order to feed yourself and your family or is it a privilege bestowed upon you by government?
At our most basic scientific level, we humans are simply hunter-gatherers trying to find food and shelter just like our ancestors. But, have we changed our natural human rights to care for ourselves and our families into “privileges” bestowed upon us by a benevolent, yet omnipotent, ruling elite who make laws governing our business interactions with others, what we can and cannot plant in our gardens or how much, and even worse?
What ever happened to our “unalienable rights” of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness codified by Thomas Jefferson and the rest of our Founding Fathers in our Declaration of Independence? When, exactly, did they become mere privileges?
I have three specific examples.
I have tried to research it but have not been able to determine when driving on American roads legally became a privilege instead of a natural human right. That’s right, I believe we have a natural human right to come and go – to hunt and gather – in order to provide for ourselves and our families using the modern conveyance we choose and can afford in our modern society.
There were no “horse driving” licenses or wagon driving licenses. Yes, I know, people can and do kill other people with cars. So what, that does not render driving a privilege rather than a right. We have laws in place to deal with people who kill and injure others through neglect, crimes and even incompetance.
But I also want to know when owning a business became a privilege rather than a right and why otherwise free Americans are so willing to sit back and have their natural human rights taken away from them with the switch of two words – rights and privileges?
Here is a recent example from a Florida court wherein counties were suing online travel agencies to pay higher hotel taxes when booking hotels for their clients. According to a report by Michael Peltier of the News Service of Florida, a judge in Tallahassee, FL wrote the following in a recent case in ruling against the counties:
“The primary problem for the county is that the tax is on the privilege of renting out rooms,” Lewis said in a written opinion. (emphasis added)
“It is, in essence, a tax on the hotelier for the privilege of enegaging in that business. The OTCs are not hoteliers and do not engage in that business.”(emphasis added)
I don’t really care that the counties lost and the companies apparently won. What I do care about – a great deal – is the judge’s characterization of renting out hotel rooms as a privilege because it is that exact attitude that has led to the ever increasing loss of our Constitutionally protected unalienable human rights to hunt and gather by engaging in even the modern incarnation of “commerce.”
Let’s revisit driving again.
It is called a privilege to drive on “public roadways” and government uses that distinction to attack other rights naturally belonging to the free citizens of America, such as deciding whether or not to wear a seatbelt, buy a car without an air bag, buy insurance or be stopped at a checkpoint with no probable cause or reasonable suspecion of a crime. But the initial thesis, driving is a privilege, is patently false.
Every single driver has paid to build and maintain our “public roads” and has every right to drive on them until or unless they do something wrong. Not to mention the fact that as a free adult you have every natural human right, as I said earlier, to hunt and gather to support yourself and your family and the fact modern society has evolved to a point where our landscape is carved up by paved roads does not diminish your natural human rights.
Society, through its government, does not have the right to force you to ride a bicycle, take a bus or walk if you do not jump through their predetermined hoops and have comitted no crime for which your civil and natural human rights can be infringed.
My friend and radio show producer, Jerry, asked a simple question one time while renewing his business license; “what do I get for my money?” In response he was told by a city official that he got the privilege of owning a business in the city. There was no cost of inspectors or code enforcers to pay or support, no protection for potential customers who may be defrauded. His money – his license – was simply for a “privilege,” and I think that’s a load of B.S.
Boy are modern Americans stupid! My oh my, how our Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves and John Adams repenting in heaven that he ever took such risks for his posterity.
July 31st, 2012 at 3:51 pm
[...] wrote an article July 19th entitled “Rights vs. Privileges: An example of words as a weapon in the hands of judges” and we have yet another example, but this time the weapon is in the hands of a [...]