A Stitch in Haste

I've been sitting on this story for over a week, trying to figure out how best to approach it. But given how utterly incomprehensible it is, I've decided that there is no "best way" to approach it:
The letter from Hampshire Social Services was as brief as it was bewildering. "Please ring me on the above [...]

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Apparently the threat of gay men coming after their sons (or husbands, for that matter) isn't enough to keep some redneck Evangelical mothers lying awake at night:
The homosexual agenda wants people to think that homosexual men are safe for women to hang around and even be alone with. Nothing could be further from the truth. [...]

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It's a long-standing principle in the law that "predatory" crimes should not be applied to those whom the law is meant to protect. So, for example, minors usually (though not always) cannot be prosecuted for statutory rape. Due process demands (or ought demand) that someone cannot simultaneously be the perpetrator and the victim of the [...]

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A follow-up to my recent post on the proper role of child welfare authorities under libertarian theory.
Gruesome Example Number 1:
A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia in April was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say "amen" after meals, [...]

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To review: A strange alliance of libertarians and theocrats emerged upon news that an intermediate California court had concluded that California law in fact barred homeschooling unless the parents employed or were themselves properly credentialed educators.
The theocrats were aghast because they are increasingly turning to (uncredentialed) homeschooling to ensure that their children are in fact [...]

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To review: While I certainly concur with the overwhelming majority of my fellow libertarians that there is a presumptive right to raise one's children as one sees fit, I sometimes get into trouble for insisting that this presumption is rebuttable. Whatever the "right to raise one's children" may be, it simply cannot include a "right [...]

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As often heretofore pointed out, rights guaranteed by the Constitution may not be abridged by legislation which has no reasonable relation to some purpose within the competency of the state. The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the state to standardize its children by [...]

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As someone who has been warning my fellow libertarians for some time now about not being too absolutist in insisting that there is an unlimited right of parents to homeschool their children, I felt an especial sense of Whoa! upon hearing that an intermediate appeals court in California held that there is no right whatsoever [...]

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Cato@Liberty on homeschooling:
A home schooler, 13-year-old Evan O'Dorney, is once again the winner of the Scripps National … Spelling Bee. In fact, home schoolers took fully one third of the top 15 spots in the Bee, utterly out of proportion with their share (about 1/40th) of the U.S. student population.
…
Imagine what heights America could achieve [...]

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