What the Founders Would Think of Occupy Wall Street

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We sat down with Stanford Professor Joshua Cohen to talk to him about what Rawls would think about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Cohen was a student of and friend to Rawls. You can hear the interview at http://occupytheairwaves.com/ep6.
The podcast is also available on iTunes.

Occupy the Airwaves of CA 9:19AM November 08, 2011

alex of AL
What are your "REAL RIGHTS" ??? Fell free to draw from the Constitution...

Bill Hedges of MO 1:42AM October 27, 2011

Please attn:
NEVER GIVE UP.
DON’T PAY TAX.
Lies after lies after lies from USA politicians . You can see it clearly in usa history. This is an old political game of power and wealth FROM oligarchy group of USA.
WAKE UP AMERICA , WAKE UP .
don’t listen to news from any media and …. most of them are organized with capitalism system of usa.
WAKE UP AND START MORE RIOTS.
THEY THINK YOU ARE SHEEPLE NOT PEOPLE. show to politicians what you really are.
ALL USA POLITICIANS ARE CORRUPTED CHARLATANS . they only speak and tell lots of promises. but only promises to bring you only and only hope . they can not bring you any thing except hope . we must live with hope and also eat hope wear hope . that s a funny joke.
BECAUSE IF A SOCIETY HAVE NOT HOPE THEY WILL ATTACK THE RICH GROUP OF THAT COUNTRY. THAT S A VERY SIMPLE RULE.
DON’T GIVE UP . FIGHT WITH WHATEVER YOU CAN WITH POLICE FORCES AND OTHER CORRUPTED ALLIES.
FIGHT TO GET YOUR REAL RIGHTS .

alex of AL 2:48AM October 26, 2011

OHBUMMER'S FLEABAGGERS AND THE FLEA PARTY
A couple of months ago I began referring to OhBummer as a pathological flea, inasmuch as the majority of Americans see him as a bloodsucking fraud and a dishonest propagandist.
About a week ago I bumped into a blog comment referring to the Occupy Wall Street gang as "the flea party" and I warned the author that I would STEAL his ingenius reference and use it wherever it could inflict the most damage on the enemies of the American taxpayers.
More recently still, my favorite columnist, Ann Coulter [she a Christian and myself an atheist], published a column entitled "WINGLESS, BLOODSUCKING AND PARASITIC: MEET THE FLEA PARTY!" at her anncoulterdotorg website.
Clearly, things have gotten out of hand. This prairie fire of flea-mongers are raging out of control, wherever you turn. ~:<)
The Fleabaggers in OhBummer's Flea Party [Occupy Wall Street and its metasticized little cancers in other cities] are the ideological blackshirts, brownshirts, redshirts and no-shirt thugs tasked and directed in their riots by OhBummer allies Michael Moore, David Astroturf Axelrod, and Van Jones, by MoveOn.org, the SEIU, the Huffington Post, and OhBummer's former employer, ACORN --- and, naturally --- by Barak Hussein Hushpuppy Hoover OhBummer, himself --- with a cameo appearance by dopehead rugmuncher Roseanne Barr-The-Beheader.
This so-called "spontaneous, leaderless civil unrest" is a White House operation, conceived in the bowels of Barak Hushpuppy OhBummer's fetid little mind --- while he sat ruminating in the bowels of the White House --- and enacted by OhBummer's chosen proxies, surrogates, cronies, and confederates.
OhBummer and the OhBummer Wrecking Crew have been promoting envy [mental illness] and trying to shift blame to "Greedy Wall Street" and away from themselves --- they who are what novelist Ayn Rand called "greedy for the unearned."
Yep. These are the lying, arrogant, GREEDY-FOR-THE-UNEARNED, bloodsxcking, tax-eating Democrat hoods, thugs, and gangsters. I advocate and I seek their destruction.
There are still approximately 120 million privately-employed nongovernment taxpayers in America today, and while this pathological flea, Barak Hushpuppy OhBummer, and his minions, are promoting street riots, I advocate that all 120 million of these privately-employed taxpayers stage a riot on the bridge of OhBummer's nose. That skunk wants race riots and class-warfare riots --- and he should get a riot that will make history.
Meanwhile, back at the hacienda.... In 2008, the top 1% of earners paid more than 38% of all Federal income taxes. Check this out at ntudotorg, "who pays income taxes."
And so to the President of the United States of America and to the so-called "99-percenters" in OhBummer's street-gang Fleabaggers who claim victimhood --- go blow smoke up your own axxes.

Osamas Pajamas of DC 9:43PM October 25, 2011

SAM ADAMS IS MORE THAN JUST A GREAT YANKEE BEER!
TAX HATER SAMUEL ADAMS, ON A ROLL AND ARMED TO THE TEETH, AUGUST, 1776……
"You darkeners of counsel, who would make the property, lives and religion of millions depend on the evasive interpretations of musty parchments; who would send us to antiquated charters of uncertain and contradictory meaning, to prove that the present generation are not bound to be victims to cruel and unforgiving despotism, tell us whether our pious and generous ancestors bequeathed to us the miserable privilege of having the rewards of our honesty, industry, the fruits of those fields which they purchased and bled for, wrested from us at the will of men over whom we have no check.
"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, What should be the reward of such sacrifices? Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, and supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom – go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.
“Courage, then, my countrymen, our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty. Dismissing, therefore, the justice of our cause, as incontestable, the only question is, What is best for us to pursue in our present circumstances?”
“It does not take a majority to prevail….but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first a right to life, secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can.”
“The Constitution shall never be construed… to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”

Sam Adams of MA 9:39PM October 25, 2011

Rawls is [was?] a statist and not a liberal and certainly not a libertarian.
SPARKS FROM WYATT'S TORCH
What this country needs is a truly LIBERAL president and congress and judiciary! And I forgive the reader for suspecting that this must be some kind of bad joke!
But the Democrats believe in "statism" --- not "liberalism."
Strip them naked of their “liberal” camouflage and behold their ugliness.
They benefit from the imprecise American political terminology ---- we say "the government" here in the USA ---- rather than "the state." And that's a dangerous problem.
Famous brands of statism in recent centuries have been Nazism, socialism, fascism, communism, and welfare statism ---- this last is a mixture of fascism and socialism.
Liberalism, on the other hand, is a political philosophy of small, cheap government ---- it is a constabulary ---- and the job of a liberal government is to enforce human rights within its own jurisdiction.
What "human rights?" I speak of the unalienable and perfectly-natural and universally-valid human rights of life, liberty, private property, and the pursuit of personal happiness.
A slave is owned by someone other than himself --- but a free man owns himself. The first article of private property is "the self" --- and all other rights are derivatives of and flow from these cardinal rights.
These rights ---- The Rights of Man ---- are the gift of nature or of nature's god ---- and they belong to all human beings, everywhere.
Show me a Democrat who subscribes to all of the above, without qualifications or weasel words.
The words "liberal" and "liberalism" were hijacked by the Democrats and socialists and fascists long ago ---- and it was the mistake of conservatives and libertarians to let them get away with it.
It is long past time that liberalism be reclaimed, defined, and explained by its rightful owners ---- by the champions of freedom, i.e.: not by Democrats.
Well, how about "progressivism?" Whuzzat?! “Cancer” is “progressive,” too.
Isn't “progressivism” just another statist cancer?
It chews you up, piece by piece, in the name of Da Peepul? Eat Da Rich? Moral cannibalism, anyone?
Friends of freedom! Friends of peace-through-strength! And friends of prosperity!
Declare yourselves to be "liberals," then ---- and kick over the bloody coffee tables --- and overthrow and trounce the Democrats in 2012!

Lysander Spooner of CA 9:38PM October 25, 2011

"Imitation is the sincerest flattery." Thus, the teaparty movement should be flattered to find the OWS malingering agitators attempting to imitate the Teaparty movement.
The difference and where the imitation fails is the Teaparty was, since its inception, been a grass-root movement. The OWS is a cheap knock-off, funded largely through Soros and his ilk.
The difference in genuine quality is as stark a difference as a pair of blue jeans sold GAP versus those sold at the local Wal-mart discount store.

david of ID 6:47PM October 25, 2011

ckubisz of NJ
Are you typical of those protesting in Wall Street ? What dumb clucks they are if you are !!!
Rich pay more taxes with reduced rates. We tax heavier (like cigarettes) to stop or slow down. You prove me wrong_ Go for it. When did raising taxes on rich gain more money in government revenue than decreasing tax rate ? Never had a_ lib mouth_ give straight answer to that yet !!!!!!!!!
Under Kennedy, Reagan, Newt, and Bush tax reduction for rich increased government revenues and created J O B S...
Part of the proof:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/lying_about_bushs_tax_cuts.html

Bill Hedges of MO 6:00PM October 25, 2011

i think the founding fathers AKA the rich old white guys ,slave owners,dont want to pay taxes...would stay away from wall st. ....they would be afraid of being tarred and feathered

ckubisz of NJ 1:56PM October 25, 2011