It’s said that every state is a laboratory of democracy — but Jon Stewart says a proposed new Kansas law shows why they’re more like meth labs of democracy.
A proposed law by state Rep. Gail Finney, a Wichita Democrat, would allow “up to 10 forceful applications in succession of a bare, open-hand palm against the clothed buttocks of a child,” according to the Wichita Eagle. Her bill would allow “reasonable physical force” to restrain a child being spanked, and allows that “redness or bruising may occur on the tender skin of a child as a result.”
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Stewart said the bill describes the spankings “as a serial killer might.”
The bill would also allow people like babysitters and teachers to hit other peoples’ kids with their parents’ permission. Stewart wonders where it would end.
“Birthday party clowns? Other children? Local drifters? Bogeymen — or women,” he said. “Whoever it is in your life that you believe hits the hardest.”
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Stewart then cited boring ol’ research from the Academy of Pediatrics that found that time outs are more effective than beatings, and that using violence on children teaches them to be violent.
Looking for more evidence, he played a clip of MSNBC host Joe Scarborough saying his father used to beat him with a belt, and “it was effective.”
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“No deep emotional scars there,” Stewart said.
Stewart’s guest Thursday was Scarborough’s MSNBC colleague, Ronan Farrow. They didn’t talk at all about the parenting techniques of his purported father, Woody Allen. Stewart and Farrow, who looked more than ever like Frank Sinatra, also didn’t address his sister Dylan Farrow’s claims that Allen molested her.
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