Quote Originally Posted by mike
Yes, Rahul, that is exactly what I said. Thank you for not drawing some insane and stupid conclusion from what I wrote. How silly of me to expect such a thing.

I don't thank our government for freedom of speech, or religion, or press or assembly. I am not going to be grateful to some establishment for deciding to have the beneficent mercy to grant me what is already mine by right. Governments can only take away freedoms, they can never give you what you had to begin with. Maybe while you are down on your knees thanking your loving master for giving you permission to breathe you will take some time to read about one of the people I mentioned.

Here is another book to read. You may be able to identify with the title character quite a bit: http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext95/utomc10.txt
Rights are definitely a thing that we need to have and we shouldn't thank a government for it. But rights have to be restricted, otherwise you have anarchy. But when too many rights are restricted, as in Communism, you have your basic needs and rights being ignored.
The rights we have in the West, are definitely good. Although the system isn't perfect(don't say I didn't say that), it is the best thing we have so far. You cannot deny you don't have your rights in the US or Canada.