No Rights for You...

I was linked one of the most bewildering posts I have ever seen today. A very strange quote: The problem with liberals is that they tend to think and have thought that human beings are autonomous creatures with 'rights'; they tend to think that all people are inherently free and rational and are only being prevented from enjoying an enlightened existence – as defined by them – because of the burdens and constraints of tradition, history and religion... Uh, what? Does this imply that the author does NOT thing that "human beings are autonomous creatures with 'rights'"? I assume the quotation marks around the word 'rights' means that the author sees this as a silly concept. This blog has a pretty good take on it: I would like to know, as we stand in the ruins of Bush/Cheney America and look across the world to the smoldering wastes of Iraq, how Sullivan could possibly accuse liberals of inhibiting human freedom and creating statist nightmares. What is my problem, implying that all human beings have rights? Don't be silly...