What’s a Right? Scary Trends in “Human Rights.”

Published June 25, 2010

IT SEEMS a distant memory, those debates with my most left-leaning friends about health care. When they would advocate for health care as a “civil right,” on cue one of us would toss out the snarky retort: “Not everything beneficial to us can be considered a right. Are we going to mandate that everyone have Internet access?”

Gone are the days when an egregious overreach in the executive branch could be used as hyperbole. Rebecca Tuhus- Dubrow (“One nation, online,” June 20, Ideas) makes the case that citizenship means having a space on the Internet.

I want nothing more than to make another snarky comment: “What’s next — iPhones are a civil right? I mean, if you read between the lines a bit, that app where you can shake the phone to pick a restaurant is practically written into the Constitution.”

But I’m afraid just saying it might give the Obama administration an idea.

MARC OESTREICH
Chicago
The writer is a legislative specialist with The Heartland Institute.

This letter originally appeared in the Boston Globe.