So I just saw part of this on ABC, and just had to comment...
...the Massachusetts State House will debate legislation that would outlaw corporal punishment. If it becomes law, parents who strike any child under 18 years old will be charged with abuse or neglect, unless the action was intended to protect them from danger.
Call me crazy, but I'd say that if kids were spanked more when they were young and impressionable, as part of a sustained effort to teach them right and wrong, maybe there wouldn't be such a problem with the violence in the inner cities that the Northeastern nanny-statists are always raising hell about. First they blame the guns, and now they practically want to make against the law one of the most effective methods to tackle the problem at the root! But that's just what I think. I got my hide tanned here and there when I was little but was not forever traumatized by it, nor do I first resort to violence to solve a problem, as I suppose the people might think who want to outlaw corporal punishment.
And, of course, the authorities in Massachusetts obviously haven't stopped to ponder the unintended consequences of such a law -- namely, the thugs-in-training who wants to get their parents in trouble with the authorities, this law gives them a sure-fire mechanism for doing so. It'd be quite interesting to see how many parents were punished for violating that law when they hadn't actually done so. It'd be the kid's word against the parent's, and just who do you think the Mass. authorities would believe? My money's on the thugs-in-training. Call the mentality that leads to laws such as this even being proposed just one more reason I am quite glad I don't live anywhere near the land of the Kennedys.
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