Article: PARENTING: Anti-spanking zealots do disservice to children

California assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-San Francisco) has proposed a law that would prohibit parental spanking of children younger than 4. The law, not yet drafted, would make spanking a child 3 and younger a crime punishable by a fine and/or jail time.

"I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child 3 years old or younger," said Lieber.

I agree with that. In fact, I'll expand that to include any age child. But of course Lieber is using "beat" to mean any swat to a child's rear parts, and in so doing she is revealing a predilection for emotional hyperactivity, the province of the demagogue.

Every state in the Union prohibits the beating of children. To make the claim that a ...

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