Introduction

	"I have a right!"  "Who gave you the right?"  "My rights have been violated!"  "I demand equal rights!"  
	The word 'right' is tossed around so much whenever anybody talks about the law or about politics... and yet, so very few people are able to say just what a right is.  Is it something granted by God, or by government?  Is it inherent in man, or is it created by law?  Which rights really are rights, and which aren't?
	Every book published that tries to address these questions bogs down almost at once in a mire of academic jargon and references to long-dead philosophers and polticial figures.  This is all well and good for college professors to read in their spare time, but it doesn't help you, the average Joe, who is already confused enough about rights and doesn't need any more obstacles to get in the way.
If you're like most Americans, you have not read a word written by Adam Smith, John Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, Keynes, Marx, Burke, Mill, etc. and you don't want to.  You might have read something by Jefferson or Adams or Lincoln or Theodore Roosevelt in school, but only then because you couldn't avoid it.  Books which refer back to these writings leave you confused, because you need to have read all those other books before you can understand what the author is saying.
	This book is not that kind of book.  
	Every word in this book is my own.  References to prior philosophers or politicians, whether or not I agree or disagree with their wisdom, are kept to a minimum.  The ideas I present here either stand or fall on their own merit.  No amount of educated references can strengthen an idea which is inherently weak, and an idea which is strong needs no support.  You don't need to read a library's worth of dead men's words to understand this book.
	This book tries to stay away from the stilted, long-winded style of scholarly works.  I mean this book to be read by average, everyday people, people who don't use five-dollar words to convey nickel ideas. Books that only a few people can read usually don't spread their message very far, or else the message is passed on secondhand from those who have read to those who haven't, with the result that the message ends up garbled by the time it reaches you, the ordinary person.
	Finally, this book is about YOU.  Everything in politics affects you in one way or another; there is no political issue which does not affect you, personally and individually.  Whenever a freedom is discussed, a right dissected, or an issue explained, remember that every word applies to you and your freedom, your rights.  Please read very carefully, because your freedom and security are at stake... and no matter which side of the discussion you find yourself on, you cannot afford to ignore the facts.
	Read on, and learn... because, after all, they are YOUR rights.