With events continuing to unfold in the “Near East” (see footnote) and the near West of Wisconsin memes on freedom and rights are running through people’s minds and a topic at the dinner table. One thought that I’ve seen in the discussion of communication rights. The idea is that when Mubarak’s people cut off internet access violated it Egyptian people's “human rights” (see http://vereloqui.blogspot.com/2011/02/is-internet-access-human-right.html. The conservative view on this issues was expressed by Martin Cothran this way:
“What does it mean to say that Internet access a right? What is a right? And what is a human right?
It can only mean one of two things to say that something is a right. A right is either legal or metaphysical. If it is legal, then there ought to be some kind basis for it in a written statute or in some kind of case law. If it is a metaphysical right, then it ought to have some kind of rational or revelatory basis.”
