George Brandis, Australia’s Federal Attorney-General:
“Human rights are not something given to us by governments, let alone by international organisations or by judges. And while the modern jurisprudence of human rights may owe its origin to the 1948 declaration, the declaration is not the source of those rights. Almost two centuries earlier, the founders of the American republic understood better than a whole faculty of human rights lawyers when they wrote the greatest sentence written in English to capture the spirit of the Enlightenment: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
CrusaderRabbit
FOR LIBERTY
And for the benefit of the idiot currently enjoying the spam bin:
In those days, “men” meant both men and women when used in that context.
Can he be cloned and sent to the US, i think they need him more than we do. George Brandis i mean, not the idiot in the spam bin, sorry idiot.
(the idiot in the bin thinks the Founders didn’t include women in the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”)
Indeed we do, by the way would you be able to do a post on this article i saw today – http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/29/california-counties-in-push-to-withdraw-from-state/
I would like to hear from our American friends, what they think of this and if it’s something that can be done on a bigger scale.
Probably not since greater minds than mine would have thought of it by now if it were remotely possible i suppose.
I could do it, Mathew but probably not very well. If you’d care to put something together I’ll be very happy to post it under your name.
In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do about putting something up from your link.
Brandis is *outstanding*. I have this quote by him in my collection of great quotes –
“You cannot have a situation in a liberal democracy in which the expression of an opinion is rendered unlawful because somebody else finds it offensive or insulting.”
– George Brandis, Attorney-General of Australia.
Thanks KG, much appreciated, i have mailed it to your email address.
Thanks, Mathew.
Yes he does get it,a good man with a sharp mind!