Anything Wrong With This?

Am I the only one to find any fault with this legislation going through in the state of California?

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, wants to outlaw spanking children up to 3 years old. If she succeeds, California would become the first state in the nation to explicitly ban parents from smacking their kids.

Making a swat on the behind a misdemeanor might seem a bit much for some -- and the chances of the idea becoming law appear slim, at best -- but Lieber begs to differ.

``I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child 3 years old or younger,'' Lieber said. ``Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?''

Looking past the point that she does have a point (and let me be the first to say I don't have any children...Medman care to weigh in on this?) do we really need the government to tell us what we can do in our homes? Not like they don't any way.

The bill, which is still being drafted, will be written broadly, she added, prohibiting ``any striking of a child, any corporal punishment, smacking, hitting, punching, any of that.'' Lieber said it would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail or a fine up to $1,000, although a legal expert advising her on the proposal said first-time offenders would probably only have to attend parenting classes.

We can be thankful there is a slight voice of reason in this whole process

``Where do you stop?'' asked Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, who said he personally agrees children under 3 shouldn't be spanked but has no desire to make it the law. ``At what point are we going to say we should pass a bill that every parent has to read a minimum of 30 minutes every night to their child? This is right along those same lines.''

Outstanding point there. I am just curious if there is more to this then what we are seeing, oh here it is

Lieber conceived the idea while chatting with a family friend and legal expert in children's issues worldwide. The friend, Thomas Nazario, said that while banning spanking might seem like a radical step for the United States, more than 10 European countries already do so. Sweden was the first, in 1979.

So Europe (Socialist) does something and we have to follow? Anyone else ever seen the courts use European rulings for their decision? Justice Scalia had a little to say about this here. I for one remember being spanked in school for misbehaving, and then when I got home, I got another spanking for, you guessed it, misbehaving in school. Despite all that I think I turned out pretty well, other than my predilection towards killing kittens, but other than that, who can find fault with spanking. No matter where you stand on the issue of spanking your child, the bottom line here is that we don't need government telling us one way or another how to raise our children.