Can't Stop the Outrage

Where to even begin?!

I resent the idea that failing to spank my child will inevitably mean that she will grow up with no conscience. She is beautiful and smart, and the idea of anyone, ever, hitting her makes me physically ill. When I look back on my own experiences involving spanking, which I only recall happening a couple of times at the hands of my stepfather (oh, a whole 'nother blog entry could be devoted to that topic) as my mother did not spank us, I do not think to myself, "Yes, that physical assault by someone much larger than me certainly made me a better person." What I think is, "It was unfair and made me angry and frightened and didn't teach me anything except to fear and hate my stepfather." Certainly there should be consequences for bad behavior. I just don't think they need to involve violence.

And! The unmitigated arrogance! Gah! Urgh! Fuh! Meh! I'm so upset, I'm molting!

From what I can tell based on the commonalities to these forwards, there is a rabid group of email-forwarders who believe in the following:

Prayer in schools whether you are Christian or not
Physical violence as motivator to recalcitrant children
Blow the shit out of the Iraqi people for no good reason
Gay people are bad and should die, or at least go back to the closet
Sexual perversion is only if it's between two men or two women
Teenagers won't have sex, get pregnant and have abortions if we don't give them birth control
Being concerned for the environment means you are some kind of pagan hippie
God makes bad storms happen because He hates us
You're some kind of coward if you don't forward this to all your friends.

Um, yeah.