Pink Flamingo goes after Mitt Romney, once for a good reason (wrongly attributing "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to the Constitution), but once for a bad reason (treating life as more important than liberty).
Do not get me wrong, freedom and liberty are important. But, at the same time, I need to point out one thing: One cannot use liberty if one is dead. To paraphrase what one friend told me when explaining his position on another issue, recovery of liberty is very difficult, but it can be done; recovery from death is impossible.
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4 comments:
My big beef was the fact that Romney did not know the difference between the Dec of Indep. and the Constitution!
I think liberty is worth dying for. Without liberty, what good is life? Of course this could be genetics speaking and all those DAR ancestors of mine are rolling in their graves.
Freedom is the life-breath of this nation. We are giving more and more of it up each and every day. Enuf is enuf.
It just dawned on me I was mixing patroitic metaphors! It was Patrick Henry who uttered, "Give me liberty of give me death" - a phrase actually written by the brother of my great,great,great-grandfather.
Nathan Hale said the I regret...etc.
Gotta go change that.
Still, it is "Give me liberty or give me death" - like I said, could be genetic.
Laughing
The Pink Flamingo!
I think the Pink Flamingo needs to take several deep breaths.
Does Romney, a Harvard Law graduate, really not know the difference between the Consitution and the Declaration? Or did he suffer a simple slip of the tongue.? Both documents are, after all, referred to as the "Charters of Liberty."
Now, about liberty being more important than life: Is there any room for degrees of liberty? right now, if you get on an airplane you must undergo a warrantless search of your person and your personal effects. (That's essentially what going through a metal detector is.) Seems like we have all pretty much consented to giving up that much liberty, and I don't see anyone willing to die rather than do so. So it does seem that in some cases, some liberties are not worth dying for.
But I still love the Flamingo's blog anyway.
Hedgehog,
I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that the 4th Amendment only prohibits "unreasonable" search and seizure.
When terrorists are trying to use explosives in liquid and gel form, then the steps being taken do not strike me as being unreasonable on their face.
Right, Harold. In the context of Romney's quote, he was simply saying that we may need to put up with similar losses of liberty (e.g., searches that, in light of the increased terrorist threat, may now be reasonable) in order to stay alive. I think the Flamingo's concern is over-wrought.
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