Anti-Spanking Law Gets Smackdown

By | January 31st, 2007 at 1:23 pm

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In fantastic news for baby beaters everywhere, a proposal to outlaw spanking in California is off to a rocky start, if this poll and the pro vs. con correspondence flooding state Assemblywoman Sally Lieber’s office is any indication.

As you may recall, Lieber proposed a ban on spanking kids — with punishment for parents of up to a year in jail and $1,000 in fines. (Of course they’d call the ACLU if you spanked them.) In the past week, her office has received a deluge of pro-spanking responses — a veritable smackdown, if you will, against the proposed law. At first, 95 percent of people rejected the idea (gee, wonder if spankers are prone to anger management issues knee-jerk reactions). Since then, the pro-spanking lobby has “mellowed” to about 85 percent. Try getting this one out of committee.

So spankers will likely live on to spank another day, and the same arguments that were foisted upon the child-bearing populace will be repeated ad naseum for who-knows-how-long: I was spanked, and I turned out fine. Paddling is fine if it’s done in a “reasonable” manner. Tradition. Yada yada yada. There’s a reason domestic violence laws spread across the nation like wildfire — because striking other people, for whatever reason, is illegal. Or should be. Unless you’re a UFC figher — then have at it.

As far as I can remember, I was only spanked once when I was a kid. Of course, I don’t even remember the crime, but I can recall everything about the punishment. I’m not sure that’s a lesson I want to pass along to my daughter.

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