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Positive vs. negative human rights

By on Oct 6, 2011 in Politics

… the United States [has a] constitutional tradition that sees human rights as “negative” rights–rights against government–not “positive” rights that can be used to oblige government to take action to secure people’s livelihoods. I was stopped by this quote in the article, “Who says food is a human right?”, in The Nation’s recent Food Issue. While I am a huge advocate of Medicare-for-all and other progressive, social safety net programs, I have always felt uncomfortable at the mention that “Healthcare is a human right” or “Food is a human right.” For some reason the idea that healthcare or food or shelter are human rights on par with freedom of speech or religion feels wrong to me. I could say that historically food or shelter haven’t been rights, but then neither has freedom or speech or...

Why is Wisconsin surprised?

By on Feb 21, 2011 in Politics

When I first heard about the Wisconsin protests against anti-union legislation by the new Republican governor, a protestor commented that she voted for “less government intervention,” but “not this.” Protecting the rights of citizens and minorities IS GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION.

Dashboard Politik: Gun Control.

By on Feb 6, 2008 in Politics

I shot a gun for the first time in my life this year. It was loud and it hurt. It was also kinda cool when I figured out how to actually hit the targets. On the long car ride from upstate to NYC, I got into a debate about politics with people I didn’t know that well … which is so the kind of thing I’d do. Obviously, the topic of gun control came up. My biggest beef with the topic? Everyone says “It’s a constitutional right! End of Story.” This pisses me off for various reasons. Firstly, the Supreme Court has consistently upheld for the last 80 or so years that the right of an individual to own a gun is NOT constitutionally protected. Now that doesn’t mean we can’t have a debate about it; what is means is that there are really two debates: The first is whether you believe the Supreme Court wrongly interpreted the sentence “A...

Green on Gore …

By on Oct 18, 2007 in Politics

Harsh words from the Green Party directed at leftist Gore supporters … It was under the Clinton/Gore administration that Depleted Uranium weaponry was first authorized. It was under was the Clinton/Gore administration that 1,000,000 innocent Iraqi children died from the sanctions, which is still a greater death toll than the Bush administration, although the Bushies are catching up quickly. The Clinton/Gore administration first authorized “extraordinary rendition” and signed the 1996 Telecommunications Act which has further consolidated the corporate media, which is, in my opinion the biggest risk to democracy we face today. Let us also not forget “Welfare Reform” and the “War On Drugs”, both an attack on poor people. Clinton/Gore again. Then let us not forget that Gore actually won the 2000 election and instead of standing up for those who...

it’s worse than i thought …

By on Oct 4, 2007 in Politics

read this. and let me just say, honestly without any giddy glee (in fact, it’s more like horror) … i told you so.