Althouse: "The European Union has declared travelling a human right..."

April 20, 2010

"The European Union has declared travelling a human right..."

"... and is launching a scheme to subsidize vacations with taxpayers' dollars for those too poor to afford their own trips."

65 comments:

michaele said...: I wonder if you can also get subsidized for staycations if you don't really enjoy travelling.Honestly, this almost too idiotic for words.; 4/20/10, 7:27 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: This guy has a bright future as a writer for The Onion.; 4/20/10, 7:33 PM
mesquito said...: Well, great. More smelly twenty-something Norwegian backpackers.; 4/20/10, 7:34 PM
David said...: One way or round trip? Perhaps they see possibilities.; 4/20/10, 7:37 PM
rhhardin said...: It's a moral discovery.

A hitherto unknown right.; 4/20/10, 7:38 PM
Big Mike said...: Can we get some of those German nudist hikers on the Appalachian Trail?; 4/20/10, 7:39 PM
mesquito said...: Yes, I know Norway is not a member of the EU.; 4/20/10, 7:42 PM
Irene said...: AJ Lynch said, "This guy has a bright future as a writer for The Onion."

I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't The Onion!; 4/20/10, 7:43 PM
SteveR said...: They already take the whole damn month of August off, now they want someone else to pay for it. That makes sense.; 4/20/10, 7:44 PM
SteveR said...: They already take the whole damn month of August off, now they want someone else to pay for it. That makes sense.; 4/20/10, 7:44 PM
Paddy O said...: Europe has a fetish for utopias.

It rises to the heights of new human potentials, before crashing back down in lakes of blood and fire, drawing all the world into its chaos.

The State is seen as the idealized human source of freedom, but the states cannot bear this weight. The arguments are always raised how this is finally what humanity was meant for, advancing forward in new realities. The masses are given their amusements, all while ignoring the furies throughout the rest of the world.

They are lulled by the promise of their own supposed superiority before the masks come off, yet again, and the monsters are, once more, revealed in yet greater cruelty.; 4/20/10, 7:48 PM
Expat(ish) said...: Well, wait, the right to cross a political border is an important human right in one sense. (In the "voting with your feet" way, not the coming in illegally way.)

Who knew the political border was Streisand's private beach?

_XC; 4/20/10, 7:49 PM
chickelit said...: Ferien macht frei; 4/20/10, 7:50 PM
mesquito said...: Now if I had to live somewhere dull like Denmark or Austria, I suppose I'd value travel much more. But I live in Texas.; 4/20/10, 7:59 PM
Jimmy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/20/10, 7:59 PM
Jimmy said...: Maybe California can add this as a pension benefit!; 4/20/10, 8:01 PM
Anonymous said...: Accompanying photo from the cayman Islands, where more and more Europeans' savings will be going on vacation.; 4/20/10, 8:06 PM
The Drill SGT said...: You folks are missing the point.

It is on one hand pure wealth redistributionist, taking from tax payers to spend on the underclass as well as,

a trade barrier subsidy for EU travel industry. All the funded trips will be inside Eurospace.

at a billion or so dollars a year....; 4/20/10, 8:20 PM
ricpic said...: Somehow I can't see this right extended to the untermenschen scurrying around the underbelly of every major European city making deliveries by bicycle, street cleaning with hand-brooms, peeling potatoes in alleys, busing sidewalk cafe tables, at the end begging in complete abnegation by cathedral walls. The socialist paradise is somehow not ever for them.; 4/20/10, 8:21 PM
prairie wind said...: The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life...

A formidable indicator? Maybe so, until we all know that you're traveling on someone else's dime. Then it stops being an indicator of your quality of life; it begins indicating what a selfish bastard you are.

Put me in the it-must-be-The-Onion group.; 4/20/10, 8:23 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: The problem is not with them declaring traveling ( or healthcare, or food, or housing ) to be a human right.

The problem is that they think that human rights are the things that government must supply, instead of understanding that human rights are the things that the government must not take away.; 4/20/10, 8:24 PM
Anonymous said...: As you can see,with the left,It never ends.; 4/20/10, 8:27 PM
bagoh20 said...: If everyone gets the same things in life regardless of effort or success...

Don't they know the barbarians are at the gate? I would use my vacation to escape.; 4/20/10, 8:31 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Yea! Let's keep poor people at home and ignorant, just the way the GOP likes them!; 4/20/10, 8:31 PM
veni vidi vici said...: Funny how over there, the lefties want travel as a human right, while over here they're busy as bees trying to incrementally outlaw private vehicle ownership.

The travel ideal of the left-elitist: the hamster's wheel.

wv: "gostl" -- slang for a particularly dense coastal fog.; 4/20/10, 8:33 PM
Skyler said...: Life is imitating parody.; 4/20/10, 8:34 PM
bagoh20 said...: This will work great when the poor Islamists take their state sponsored vacations to Afghanistan for training.; 4/20/10, 8:35 PM
bagoh20 said...: Ritmo, you have every right to pick up any homeless guy you want and take him for a week vacationing. How often do you do that?; 4/20/10, 8:38 PM
Anonymous said...: If you think this is funny, you should take a look at the European Constitution that even the people of France had the good sense to vote down.

It's pages and pages of these human rights found in the wisps of the air, with no explanation of how these rights will be paid for.; 4/20/10, 8:42 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Why should he require me to accompany him as a tour guide? And why does he have to be homeless?

Oh yeah, that's right. In Europe the poor aren't necessarily homeless.; 4/20/10, 8:43 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: It's pages and pages of these human rights found in the wisps of the air, with no explanation of how these rights will be paid for.

With bullets through bystanders, like we do in America!; 4/20/10, 8:44 PM
Unknown said...: Reminds me of George McGovern's vision of (are you ready?) Clothing Stamps, as a companion to Food Stamps, "so poor people could dress up and feel good".

Ritmo Brasileiro said...

Yea! Let's keep poor people at home and ignorant, just the way the GOP likes them!

Given the McGovern blowout in '72, you'd think this kind of idiocy would have died then and there, but...

Ignorance is Bliss said...

The problem is not with them declaring traveling ( or healthcare, or food, or housing ) to be a human right.

The problem is that they think that human rights are the things that government must supply, instead of understanding that human rights are the things that the government must not take away.

This is why the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence have it right.

WV "essesse" The name of the ship in "Hot Shots!", as USS Essesse.; 4/20/10, 8:44 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: With elections that are sold to the highest bidder, like we do in America!; 4/20/10, 8:45 PM
Anonymous said...: In Europe the poor aren't necessarily homeless.

Because Europe has no homeless people. No fraud. No crime. No badness of any kind. The streets are lined with gold and licorice.; 4/20/10, 8:46 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Given the McGovern blowout in '72, you'd think this kind of idiocy would have died then and there, but...

Given the Missouri Compromise, you'd think all the abolitionist nonsense would have died then and there, but...; 4/20/10, 8:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Ritmourbanlegend is high again. And lonley. And is unable to handle either issue.

If only he lived in Europe, where the trains run on time and there is no graffiti or death.; 4/20/10, 8:47 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Because Europe has no homeless people. No fraud. No crime. No badness of any kind. The streets are lined with gold and licorice.

And with urine! Don't forget urine!

And whores!; 4/20/10, 8:48 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Refute a single thing I said, Skimaskfuckface!; 4/20/10, 8:49 PM
Anonymous said...: What have you said that is meaningful in any way, Ritmourbanlegend?

Eat six hamburgers. That's my advice if you want to become more coherent.; 4/20/10, 8:53 PM
rcocean said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/20/10, 8:53 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Your confusion is not proof that I'm incoherent.; 4/20/10, 8:54 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Neither is your inability to find meaning in something.; 4/20/10, 8:55 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: But I guess that's what seeing life through a ski mask will do to a guy. Pity.; 4/20/10, 8:56 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: "skimaskfuckface"

Now that showed a sign of cleverness.

wv = taxide = death by taxes?; 4/20/10, 9:35 PM
Alex said...: With bullets through bystanders, like we do in America!

Ritmo - you're deranged. Let me know the last time police fired on protesters you shithead.; 4/20/10, 9:36 PM
Anonymous said...: One other thing. And I think it's important, as much as I like to avoid Ritmourbanlegend except when he vilely attacks me.

Nobody is stopping anyone from vacationing in the United States. The difference here is we aren't also paying for vacations. Wanna take a trip? Great. Pay your way.

I guess Democratic power brokers will gladly support subsidized vacations for our own poor as long as they don't happen in Martha's, or Napa, or Sundance, or Montauk, or Maui, or...; 4/20/10, 9:37 PM
Alex said...: This is just pure redistribution ism. A scheme like this means higher taxes, which means I get to save less money for my retirement. Which probably makes me dependent on government in the end. I guess that's the goal. Make everyone a ward of the state.; 4/20/10, 9:39 PM
Unknown said...: Ritmo Brasileiro said...

Given the McGovern blowout in '72, you'd think this kind of idiocy would have died then and there, but...

Given the Missouri Compromise, you'd think all the abolitionist nonsense would have died then and there, but...

Take your Favorite Non Sequitur to the Blogosphere Night.; 4/20/10, 9:52 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: With elections that are sold to the highest bidder, like we do in America!

President Obama. Bought and paid for.
Joe Biden. Bought and paid for.
Chris Dodd. Bought and paid for.
Barney Frank. Bought and paid for.
Harry Reid. Bought and paid for.
Nancy Pelosi. Bought and paid for.

They stay bought and paid for too.; 4/20/10, 9:53 PM
William said...: I think we should all have a right to return from vacation. It breaks your heart to see these stranded vacationeers huddled in stink and squalor in distant airports. Where is the conscience of the world? If the governments of the world refuse to act, perhaps the rock stars can mobilize and organize a Travellers Aid Concert in order to buy toiletries for these wretched souls.; 4/20/10, 9:55 PM
Anonymous said...: But, come on, Peter. Hardworking small businesspeople gave to Obama. It's not like he got a million dollars from the filthy rich, fattest of the fat cats.

Oh wait.; 4/20/10, 9:59 PM
Mian said...: Am I too late for the Ritmo-fest? Darn!; 4/20/10, 10:12 PM
bagoh20 said...: You know, some people do not even have to work. They can vacation every day. Some are rich and some are poor, but they both have all day off, every day.

That seems entirely unfair to everyone else.

The rich and poor should both have to work and pay for the rest to take off.

BTW, how the hell is a vacation a right and getting laid is a personal responsibility. Some sense of priorities is in order.; 4/20/10, 10:36 PM
JAL said...: Vacations paid for by someone else should be a right. Yeah right. Like everyone gets the vacation card on Wheel of Fortune?

For all the Euro lovers out there ... you want to be servant of the state? Emigrate.

Our German friends live in a village outide of Ulm. They do travel on vacation many places in Europe in their own really nice Mercedes camper (small one ... like pimped up VW camper -- not the new big ones we see here).

Great machine. Problem is it is 1997 machine.

They can not drive their very nicely maintained 1997 Mercedes van into Ulm, the nearby smallish city (120,000).

You see, their 1997 Mercedes does not have the right emissions equipment on it, and cannot be retrofitted.

So they will have to wait until 2017 before they can go to Ulm in their car.

So travelling is a human right. Whoo hooo!

But not to Ulm.; 4/21/10, 12:11 AM
Skyler said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/21/10, 12:12 AM
Revenant said...: Let's keep poor people at home and ignorant, just the way the GOP likes them!

It takes a special kind of moron to stay poor in America. :); 4/21/10, 2:24 AM
MadisonMan said...: I love that this came out when thousands of people can't get home from vacation because of a volcano.; 4/21/10, 7:39 AM
Lincolntf said...: Gotta love Governments that can barely manage the responsibilities they have coming up with a new universal human right for themselves whenever they need a few billion dollars to pass around.
And why is it that every "Right" the Left comes up with is actually a compulsion for someone else? These people are nuts.; 4/21/10, 8:32 AM
Larry J said...: File this in the "Europe is 20 years behind American and working hard 3 days a week to catch up" category.

Except that the Obamamorons are trying to turn America into a workers' paradise like they envision Europe.; 4/21/10, 8:36 AM
Original Mike said...: Waiting for Former Law Student to show up and comment that "despite the rich strain of Compassionate Conservatism in the GOP, most people who want to see their brother TRAVEL are Democrats."; 4/21/10, 9:20 AM
jamboree said...: Now we're talking.; 4/21/10, 11:13 AM
PunditJoe said...: Rights used to protect people from coercion by the government -

Freedom of religion – religion cannot be imposed upon you by the government.

Freedom of speech – government cannot control what you say.

Right to bear arms – government cannot take your firearms away.

Now the idea of new “rights” has become specifically about coercion by the government. You must pay for the health, housing, and now vacations of those with the most votes. They believe they have the “right” to the lives and labor of others.; 4/21/10, 11:46 AM
former law student said...: This nonsense is not new. Reading Paul Theroux's The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain, we learn of the network of Butlin's Holiday Camps, priced to make vacations affordable for people on the dole.

Some of Theroux's fellow vacationers had never worked, and never expected to hold a job. Yet they were able to go on vacation, in the Great Britain of that day.; 4/21/10, 1:51 PM
X said...: how does all this unnecessary travel help Gaia?; 4/21/10, 5:31 PM
Unknown said...: I like this, thanks for great idea

Budaya Aceh; 6/4/13, 6:24 AM