Today at Mises.org:

The assertion of human rights is not properly a simple emotive one, writes Murray Rothbard. Individuals possess rights not because we “feel” that they should, but because of a rational inquiry into the nature of man and the universe. In short, man has rights because they are natural rights. They are grounded in the nature of man: the individual man’s capacity for conscious choice, the necessity for him to use his mind and energy to adopt goals and values, to find out about the world, to pursue his ends in order to survive and prosper, his capacity and need to communicate and interact with other human beings and to participate in the division of labor. … Natural law is necessarily species-bound. FULL ARTICLE

Today on “The Writer’s Almanac”:

It’s the birthday of one of the most influential and controversial philosophers of the 20th century, Peter Singer, born in Melbourne, Australia (1946). His book Animal Liberation (1975), which is generally credited with starting the animal rights movement, has sold more than a million copies and is estimated to have converted more people to vegetarianism than any other book ever written.

But Singer has said he is disappointed by the book’s impact. He said, “When I wrote it, I really thought the book would change the world. I know it sounds a little grand now, but at the time the ’60s still existed for us. It looked as if real changes were possible, and I let myself believe that this would be one of them. All you have to do is walk around the corner to McDonald’s to see how successful I have been.”