From: Mike Duvos <mpd@netcom.com> A doctor at Baylor University Medical Center was asked later why this didn't cause the removal of the children, and said that while such behavior would certainly be considered abuse in a medical sense, it did not meet the legal definition of abuse according to the laws of the State of Texas. Texas, of course, is the leader on the national corporal punishment bandwagon and dishes out over 250,000 state-sponsored beatings every year in its public school system. So far all efforts to ban the practice have been successfully opposed by the teachers union. Come off it, the benefits of a teacher giving your kid the strap at the time of an offence far outweigh the harm done. I find it really hard to believe there are places in the world where it's criminally illegal for teachers - in some places, even parents - to apply corporal punishment when necessary. Anyway, it's biggest benefit is that it teaches kids a healthy disrespect of authority and shows them the pretence behind politics, 'voluntary' taxation etc etc. The people with the physical force are in charge. I think that's a lesson all kids should be made to learn the hard way. G