Perry E. Metzger <perry@imsi.com>
Why do you have such an unhealthy fascination for how others raise their children? I have enough trouble running MY own life without telling people what to do.
I merely wish to spare another generation of kids from 18 years of grief at the hands of self-righteous power-hungry adult authority figures. Not exactly an unreasonable goal.
I know of no one who is such a paragon of perfection that their views may be used as a benchmark by which all child rearing may be judged.
A generally true, but completely irrelevant statement.
I believe in open access to information for children and a far more liberal view of the rights of children than most people have.
Live and let live, I say. I don't want others judging my child rearing, and I have little or no desire to judge theirs. Leave them be unless their idea of discipline for hildren involves The Rack or The Firing Squad.
The first paragraph here, although it sounds nice, is completely obliterated by the second. It like saying "I'm all in favor of rights for Blacks, but of course I wouldn't presume to tell anyone else what they can do with their niggers." Or "I'm really against anti-Semitism, but I have no desire to judge anyone elses practices with regard to hiring, housing, club membership, or whether they would want their sister to marry one." Saying you are for childrens' rights on one hand, and then suggesting that those rights should be completely dependent on whomever the specific child happens to win in the parent lottery, is idiotic and useless.
I suspect that when I become a parent, any law that could be used to "cure" the children of fundamentalist christians, Amish, etc, would be applied to mine right off the bat -- after all, I'm a dangerous man.
We're talking about Net access here. How would a law which guaranteed that to all citizens, regardless of age, threaten you? -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ mpd@netcom.com $ via Finger. $