re: #7 Hal_10000

Sorry to disagree with you guys, but Gingrich is right. Which word in “endowed by their creator” is confusing you? Granted, that’s life liberty and pursuit, but the concept is the same.

The part where the creator can be the mindless universe.

Leaving God out of it for the moment, the FF clearly thought that our rights were intrinsic and the verbiage of the Constitution reflects this.

Everyone understands this.

This is a critical point when you’re talking about habeas and other rights for terror suspects: that the right are intrinsic, not given to us by government.

They’re not given by government. They’re guaranteed by government. That is one of the main roles of government.

So it entirely depends what you mean by ‘given’. The right to redress your government for grievances is intrinsic, but the only practical way it exists is for the government to provide it.