Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Turning All Citizens Into Informants

[via L&P]
Gene Healy reports on a proposal to require all parent to report to police any and all rumors or reports they hear about drugs or drug use in the vicinity of their children. Also known as the "Parent-Child Alienation Act," this would not only deeply harm American families but would undoubtedly be unevenly -- i.e. selectively and arbitrarily -- prosecuted, further deepening the social and economic damage done by Drug Prohibition.

The proposal comes from Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, who also proposed fines and jail time for those people who say or do things the FCC later judges -- and nobody's sure what counts anymore -- obscene, as an alternative to the current regime of penalizing broadcasters. In other words, a moralistic police state, where prosecutors and unelected administrators can penalize you for doing anything they don't like.

p.s. While I'm commenting on HNN (since I can't comment on HNN under a pseudonym), let me just note that Derek Catsam is entirely on target in his evaluation of Jeb Bush.

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