SACRAMENTO - The state Legislature is about to weigh in on a question that stirs impassioned debate among moms and dads: Should parents spank their children?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.
As go the crazies, so goes the entire asylum, eh?
Making a swat on the behind a misdemeanor might seem a bit much for some ...
I'd guess to everyone but Ms. Lieber
... 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 six-month-old or a newborn?''
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 likely only would have to attend parenting classes.
Listen, I'm all for going after parents who REALLY abuse their kids. But, this is ridiculous. We already have to hand them over to be indoctrinated in Public School. Now we can't even discipline them? No wonder kids are such spoiled rotten brats these days.
But Lieber is optimistic that lawmakers will find her proposal hard to resist.
Yeah, if'n you can't resist it, you MUST legislate it!
For the record, she does not have children and says she was not slapped as a child. But she does have a cat named Snoop, which her veterinarian told her never to hit.
So, that makes her an "expert" in child discipline, eh? Only in Cali!
``And if you never hit a cat,'' Lieber said, ``you should never hit a kid.''
The mind boggles at that quote and why it's even in this article. Jeebus, Cali's worse off than even I thought.