Synova

I just got home from Bubonicon. Bubonicon is the Science Fiction convention held in Albuquerque this weekend. I just get one day of it this year and for the most part had a great time. Hopefully next year I'll make the whole weekend. What I want to talk about now that I'm not at the Con is... politics. And you know, I did this same post last year. I really did. The same exact post. I have simply had it with Connie Willis. I have had it. If anyone has been to a science fiction convention anywhere they know that diversity is the norm. Lots of people seem to really love going to conventions because it's one place where they can really feel comfortable when they normally feel that they don't fit in. But somehow some people seem to think that in the area of religion and politics, the two really big social pit falls, that there is no diversity at a Con and no tolerance required. Sure, there are a lot of people who are politically liberal at a Con. ...

Actually, what happened was that someone in an Althouse thread said something about Hitler not having anything to do with health care. I pointed out that we often don't hear about what was happening in hospitals in Germany at the time, the euthanasia and sterilizations of those entirely Aryan persons with mental disabilities or genetic illnesses and what not. Apparently Glenn Beck made a similar point very recently because I got accused of repeating what he had said nearly verbatim. Go figure. "Glenn Beck!" ;-)

HE: We need to cross this river. We must build a bridge. SHE: We don't need a bridge to get across the river. Boats or a ferry, perhaps. HE: Of course we need a bridge! Only rich people have boats and it hasn't gotten everyone over there. We have to cross this river. SHE: A bridge is too expensive and will probably wash out during the spring floods. A bridge is a bad idea. HE: The only reason you don't think we need to cross this river is because you hate the people on the other side, you hater! SHE: I'm not a hater. I love those people as much as you do, but we do not need a bridge to cross the river. There are other ways to cross the river! HE: Oh, and what about people who can't swim, you hateful moron, just let those people drown, huh? And you claim you aren't a hater. SHE: I never said swim! HE: Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck!

The “right” to free health care is the right to own the labor of other people without their consent. Any time you’ve got a right TO something like that you take the rights of other people to their own selves and their own freedom away. The libertarian idea, as I understand it, is that your rights end where they intersect another person. I have a right to “pursue happiness” to make my way in the world, to worship my own God, to feed myself, to supply my physical and other needs, rights to my own body and self-determination, rights to my own property, rights to employ violence to defend my rights (which is pretty much a good way to define what is a right and what is *not*)… just up *until* I intersect another human being. I may not take someone else’s food nor compel their labor nor sacrifice them to my God nor otherwise violate *their* rights in the pursuit of my own. Read the rest at A Second Hand Conjecture.