My new Bloomberg Opinion column is about a new human-rights report from the State Department, and the hyperventilating reaction to it from progressives:
The commission observed that for the founders, “foremost among the inalienable rights that government is established to secure” are religious liberty and the right to property, with the latter understood to include “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The New York Times reported that “experts” — all of them, apparently — rejected the idea that some rights are more important than others. “Human rights are not a choose-your-own-adventure,” it quoted an official from Amnesty International. . . .
In fact, everyone, inescapably, chooses among rights. Amnesty International believes pregnant women have a right to abortion and unborn children don’t have a right to life. It believes that gun control is needed to secure the right to physical safety.