No Spanking in California

From the Mercury News in Sacramento, 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?''

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.

Now I guess child psycologists and parent can have a reasonble deabte about spanking but there are some disturbing elements to this story, which I will ask in the form of rhetorical questions.

#1 Does the assembly woman also agree that partially delivering a baby and then sucking her brains out with a sharp vaccuum powered pike also constitute harm, and should not this greater (fatal in fact) harm be legislated against first? How about digging a baby out of the womb with a hook? Shop-vac, anyone?

#2 How about legislation that covers harm to children when they just happen to be riding inside their Mommy, say 3 days from being born for the sake of an argument. e.g. when that mother is assaulted or otherwise injured?

Let me set up the third question by quoting more of the story

But Lieber is optimistic that lawmakers will find her proposal hard to resist. 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.

#3 Are you, Ms. Lieber, so disassociated from humanity that you need to get advice from veterinarians and only then attempt to apply it to human beings? Is that the only way that this legislation occurred to you?

Once again we see pet owners who, in their attempt to relate to young children, cannot resort to any natural feelings of protectiveness. It's all about their cat or dog. The next time the subject of parenting comes up in a conversation and somebody mentions their filthy animal I'm going to get in their face real quick. It'll be a moment they'll never forget.

I kinda hope this legislation goes through in a way because it can be used as a battering ram to knock down the murder of children, which Roe vs. Wade has been enshrined as unassailable law ( to paraphrase alleged Catholic- Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.)

For the record, I think hitting cats is fine and if I find the dog that is crapping on my front lawn I'm going chainsaw it and mail it back to it's owner in small pieces.