What right does the government have to restrict people?

[kornellred]

"Rights" are conferred by those in power. They are based on beliefs and suppositions, and those beliefs and suppositions are derived from survival instincts and quantifiable experience. The "inalienable" rights described in the Declaration of Independence, for example, are beliefs, pure and simple. There is no demonstrable evidence that rights accrue to human beings by dint of birth. Common sense may declare that freedom has a beneficial impact upon the survival of the species, but too much freedom is antithetical to structure, and structure is the very definition of life.

Maintaining structure is critical to survival. Therefore, restrictions are absolutely necessary, or else nothing works. You can't do whatever you want. With 7 billion egos on the planet all striving for supremacy, you are going to get in someone else's way. It's inevitable.

[mlsj2009]

Kornellred, I beg to differ with you in one respect, agreeing with you in others.
“Rights” in the United States are NOT conferred by those in power. They are guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States which those in power have sworn to uphold. There is no belief “pure and simple” about these written down concepts (The Bill of Rights) that have been written about and studied for over two hundred years. We are born in the United States as a citizen with those guaranteed rights conferred to us by the document, not by those in power. To change it takes a 2/3 majority vote of Congress with ¾ of the states ratifying the changes. That is hardly conferring by the elected officials perceived to be in power.
As to maintaining structure comments, I basically agree. Thank you for contributing.

"Rights" are conferred by those in power. They are based on beliefs and suppositions, and those beliefs and suppositions are derived from survival instincts and quantifiable experience. The "inalienable" rights described in the Declaration of Independence, for example, are beliefs, pure and simple. There is no demonstrable evidence that rights accrue to human beings by dint of birth. Common sense may declare that freedom has a beneficial impact upon the survival of the species, but too much freedom is antithetical to structure, and structure is the very definition of life.

Maintaining structure is critical to survival. Therefore, restrictions are absolutely necessary, or else nothing works. You can't do whatever you want. With 7 billion egos on the planet all striving for supremacy, you are going to get in someone else's way. It's inevitable.

[Pandora]

... I also think that the electoral college should be done away with. Whoever gets the popular vote is who should be President.

100% agree

[mlsj2009]

I respectfully disagree. The electoral college was designed by early Constitutionalists to protect unpopulated states and their right to protect their natural resources. What would happen to Wyoming or North Dakota if New York City and the like could elect a President who was all for raping those states environments, all in the name of those collectively living in the big cities of course. You can do a lot of vigilante stuff by popular vote, and it is all collective mentality. My group is bigger and better because it has more votes, etc.
No, the electoral college is a check and balance of a well thought out and devised way to stop collectivism in its tracks before it gets a hold of some tyrant who wants to be President. Leave well enough alone. It has a distinct and honored purpose of its existence. Popularity contests are not the way to rule a free and sovereign people in my opinion.

100% agree

[Pandora]

....You can do a lot of vigilante stuff by popular vote, and it is all collective mentality. My group is bigger and better because it has more votes, etc.

Popularity contests are not the way to rule a free and sovereign people in my opinion.

We will have to agree to disagree on this matter IMO the Electoral college is a vigilante...and the "popularity contests"... well, I still see the "good ol' boy" system in play no matter where, who, what, or how.

its a no-win situation. Look at this BS today with Obamacare being crammed down our throats. What was it the "Great I-AM" stated? "... it will not be a tax..."

uh huh.... let me put my hip waders on - its getting pretty damn deep.

They're all crooks - every one of them - and - we already have a tyrant in office at the moment, along with several hundred henchmen ready to take the helm.