by Jeremy Hopkins, Esquire
Waldo & Lyles Attorneys

It has been more than 100 years since the Virginia General Assembly took a hard look at property rights guarantees in the state constitution. As our lawmakers begin a historic debate about how and whether to safeguard those constitutional protections, it is apparent already that the arguments against property rights protections have a distinct deja vu quality.

In 1902, those who opposed efforts to give Virginians more security in their homes, farms and businesses against eminent domain abuses made the same kind of doom-and-gloom predictions that are heard by opponents today. Opponents argued that the amendment would doom Virginia as an economic backwater, discourage out-of-state investment, drown the courts in lawsuits and bind Virginians to their horses and wagons and to their steep hills and valleys because rights of way would become prohibitively expensive.

They claimed increased protection for property rights would cause progress to come to a screeching halt. Despite this parade of horrors, Virginians amended their constitution in 1902 to correct the rampant property rights abuses of that time.

 

by Tom McElvy
VNS Contributing Columnist

The problem with liberals today is that they have no morals.  Yep, I said that!  They are morally bankrupt.  They live in a fairytale land where everyone is entitled to whatever they need or want.  Hence the problem - the word "entitled."

The underlying principal with liberals is that they believe that a person's need entitles him to the wealth of other people.  They simply don't understand that people have a responsibility to themselves to take care of themselves.  Yes, unforeseen circumstances come along, and that is what insurance is for.  But, compounding the problem is that liberals feel that we have a duty to share the fruits of our hard work with others.

We do that every day.  With our children.  With our donations to charity.  With the forced-at-gunpoint donations we make every April 15th.  If you are self-sufficient, hard working, and plan for yourself and your family, then the left believes that you should do so for those either too stupid or too lazy to do it for themselves.  They believe that you have a legal obligation to allow yourself to be robbed by others.

Bullshit.