Important Legislation Update

Apparently there is a movement in California to legislate appropriate parenting. According to this article, if legislation is passed, it would be a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine or one year in jail to spank your child who is under the age of 4. The article quotes experts who seem to be of the opinion that only parents who allow things to get out of control ever resort to spanking, and suggests alternatives to spanking. It also indicates that spanking can have no long term ill effects on a child, but some children do suffer long term effects from the experience. Interesting to me is the poll that was attached, which, at the time I read the article indicated that 89% of nearly 10,000 people who have responded think that "There's nothing wrong with an occasional spank on the butt." One can only assume that most of those respondents were not this particular legislator's constituents.

UPDATE: This article talks about new legislation that is pending in New York that will make it a crime to listen to an Ipod or talk on the cell phone while crossing a street in NYC. The impetus for this legislation apparently was the death of two individuals in Brooklyn who stepped in front of moving vehicles while listening to their tunes. I think that is essentially a case of natural selection. If you don't have the ability to listen to music and walk and look out for cars or buses, (in the street, which is where you expect to find them), then chances are if you didn't get hit by the car you were destined to succumb to something else fairly quickly.