This is the first in a series of off-the-cuff discussions concerning the ideas behind our current form of government. Let's begin this by stating what we consider as "self-evident" truths:

- The right to life
- The right to liberty
- The right to pursue happiness (from Jefferson)
- The right to property (from Locke)

To paraphrase the U.S. Constitution, the grantee of these rights is Nature and, by extension, Nature's God. For the application of rights presupposes a right-giver, who by a rational act may grant or deny said rights; and who by necessity is sole owner, proprietor, and incipient designer of that object from which the claim of rights may be applied against. Is it not so that, though I may claim the right to my neighbor's house, that making such a claim is of no effect if that right has not been given to me either from my neighbor or from an authority higher than him?

So we stake this claim that rights flow from a giver to a recipient. In addition, we must hold that rights are transient, mutable, transferable, and undeclinable. We will consider each aspect in part, and then consider whether these rights are truly "self-evident" and, if so, whether others should be also or, if not, what the impact of such a conclusion is.