Spank this! It’s a free country.
I cannot believe the legislators meeting in Sacramento have nothing better to do than write bills outlawing spanking. Don’t we have child abuse laws? That should cover spanking if it is excessive and more than a “scare tactic” for a small child. Sometimes the mere threat of a spanking is enough to stop a child from misbehaving, but will that be legislated too? Where will it end? I’m not against good parenting–but I’m certainly against being told that if I choose to discipline my child with a spanking (and who would determine the levels of severity–”love tap” vs. beating) I will be guilty of a misdemeanor. That’s why we have Child Protective Services–to remove children from parents who are extreme in abuse or neglect. And they don’t always succeed. With an anti-spanking law, who would enforce this? Would you get a ticket? Would the ticket “rank” the spanking? I mean, once you sit down and think about actual implementation of a ridiculous law like this one, you find so many ludicrous examples and puzzling questions–does law enforcement have time for this? Or could I make a citizen’s arrest? HA! Since as Californians we’re devoted to keeping lawyers employed, here are just a few more ideas for ludicrous legislation. Read carefully, Sacramento:
- If you cough in public is should be a misdemeanor because you are polluting the air with your germs.
- If you use improper English in conversation, you should be fined. Fines should go to support the crumbling education system.
- If you speak loudly in your cell phone in a public place, you will be forced to spend a week in monastery taking a vow of silence.
- If you eat cake and you’re overweight, the food police will arrest you and you will be forced to grow broccoli on a commune in Salinas.
- If you blog, you should be spanked. Isn’t that going to be illegal? Oh wait, that’s perfectly fine, because I’m over the age of 3.
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If it wasn’t a stupid law, it wouldn’t be on the news. That’s probably a double negative. Please don’t fine me!
Great post!!!
Ha, now THAT was one funny blog! very true too :)
mmm…fallacies.
You have raised a good question, though: where will it end? If one is ok hitting his or her 2-year-old, then where does he or she stop?
Sure, violence is a solution, but is it the best solution? And if the intimidation factor of violence is sometimes enough, then what happens when it isn’t?
As for any enforcement mechanism, if you spend enough time reading legislation that comes out of the Capitol, you will learn that a lot of laws passed are not that enforceable. But, a lot of those laws send a message, and are used as a deterrent.
It’s still a waste of resources. Divert the money wasted on this useless “message-sending” to actual enforcement of current child protection laws. The only message being sent is a national one that California is still the “land of fruits and nuts”, accent on the nuts.
I don’t have kids but I find this bill a bit ridiculous. It’s bad enough they’re telling who you can’t marry but they’re adding this too? I have to say that I’ve known many people who were never spanked or disciplined by their parents and they grew up more messed up than those who were disciplined accordingly.
I think they underestimate people. I think most parents know the different between abuse and discipline.
A lot of proposed legislation could potentially waste resources, but I don’t think that that is any reason to dismiss it without debating it in the legislature. I really don’t think this has a good chance of passing both houses, and then being signed by the governor, so what resources does it actually waste? Legislators’ time? I’d argue that legislators do a lot more that I think is unnecessary while collecting their per diem than debating legislation, which is really, what they should be doing. Well, it would be unnecessary without term limits, or at least term limits as they are structured now. But that is an entirely separate topic…