[Travis McGee]

Great essay, worth going to the link to read it all.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"Real 'rights' are restraints upon the state: 'negative' rights, as constitutionalists have it; they delineate the limits of the sovereign’s power. But in the modern era 'rights' are baubles in the state’s gift, and the sovereign confers them at the expense of individual liberty."

I've never seen it put more accurtely or more succincttly.