One of the interesting things about the child porn crusades is the terminology manipulation employed to officially describe more and more innocuous things as officially being "child porn," and by inference, describing those who object the slightest bit to the government's violation of the First Ammendment as "child porn supporters." Now the wonders of government terminology have been applied to a new problem, the "scourge" of child labor. While an historical review will clearly demonstrate that laws preventing minors from working and earning a living had their origins in times when adult unemployment was high, and were heavily pushed by the public school teachers labor unions and immigrant parents outraged that their children had an opportunity for financial independence, the myth that such laws exist to "protect children" instead of to economically and politically disempower them persist. Enter the current crusade, being heavily trumpeted by the media, to rescue children from "sweatshops." What is a sweatshop, you may ask? According to the official definition, a "sweatshop" is a workplace that engages in repeated labor violations involving wages, hours worked, or the age of its employees. So by the magic of government definitions, all unlawfully employed minors automatically work in "sweatshops," by virtue of their being illegally employed. All people arguing for the right of minors to work of course "support sweatshops," and all consumers and stores who buy goods produced by these illegally employed minors are purchasing "goods produced by children working in sweatshops." 290,200 children are alleged to have been employed illegally last year, (in sweatshops of course). And woe to anyone who doesn't support the call to liberate these children from their paychecks. (er, sweatshops) The US is now attempting to export its crusade against so-called "child labor" to third world nations, citing of course only the most egregious examples in the case histories it presents. The US still refuses to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child because it prohibits the execution of minors, which many US states permit, and guarantees minors access to reproductive health information. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"