rights

Standing against discrimination for some while supporting discrimination against others hurts us all.

It speaks volumes when people who are discriminated against go on to discriminate against others.

Reducing a group to a slur or stereotype reduces us all.

There is no democracy in physics. We can't say that some second-rate guy has as much right to opinion as Fermi.

Democracy is a fine thing. But that doesn't mean citizens have a right to run riot whenever they disagree with something.#Page: 120

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

Another tendency, which is extremely natural to democratic nations and extremely dangerous, is that which leads them to despise and undervalue the rights of private persons. The attachment which men feel to a right, and the respect which they display for it, is generally proportioned to its importance, or to the length of time during which they have enjoyed it. The rights of private persons amongst democratic nations are commonly of small importance, of recent growth, and extremely precarious; the consequence is that they are often sacrificed without regret, and almost always violated without remorse.

Dead or alive, you will retain all your rights.

The Fourth Amendment wasn't written for people with nothing to hide any more than the First Amendment was written for people with nothing to say.

It is unreasonable to expect a known corrupt law enforcement department to uphold your legal rights.

In the law, rights are islands of empowerment. . . . Rights contain images of power, and manipulating those images, either visually or linguistically, is central in the making and maintenance of rights. In principle, therefore, the more dizzyingly diverse the images that are propagated, the more empowered we will be as a society.

By increasing the amount of Torah (obligatory religious laws) in the world, they were extending His presence in the world and making it more effective.

I care about a lot of issues. I care about libraries, I care about healthcare, I care about homelessness and unemployment. I care about net neutrality and the steady erosion of our liberties both online and off. I care about the rich/poor divide and the rise of corporate business.

People have a greater tolerance for evil than for violence. If crooked gamboling, thieving and robing are covered over folks will tolerate it longer than out right violence, even when the violence may be cleansing.

violence is an evil thing, but when the guns are all in the hands of the men without respect for human rights, then men are really in trouble.

If you're honest, you sooner or later have to confront your values. Then you're forced to separate what is right from what is merely legal. This puts you metaphysically on the run. America is full of metaphysical outlaws._ Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker

Those who have committed no faults want no pardon. We are only defending what we deem our indisputable rights.

I've been asked a lot for my view on American health care. Well, 'it would be a good idea,' to quote Gandhi.