The Worst of Its Kind

by Liberty and Power

I'm always reading horror stories like this one, but this particular state atrocity is the worst of its kind that I've come across in recent months. Hat tip to Mike Tennant over at the LewRockwell blog.

"But there was really nothing any of them could do, they all said. They were just adhering to protocol, following orders." Now where have I heard that before?

In the UK it was, and I think still is, legal to supply an alcoholic drink to your seven-year-old. I seem to remember my father, a secondary school principal, would allow me a glass of (alcoholic) cider some weekends when I was a kid. I understand the tradition continues today throughout Old Europe.

UPDATE: Lew Rockwell has an excellent article here on the state versus the family.

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Keith Halderman - 4/30/2008

This story reminds me of the Ludwig Von Mises book Bureaucracy where he details the difference between private sector and government bureaucracies. In the former it is about the product or service in this the welfare of the child. In the latter it is all about the rules no matter how much harm they cause.

Steven Horwitz - 4/30/2008

Agreed Mark. And this is why, whatever bad things happened at the FLDS compound in Texas, we should be very very skeptical about handing over to the state the power to rescue kids from the supposed evils of their parents. Yes, there are cases where that power can be used for good, but like all else the state does, once it has the power there's no assurance at all it will only be used for good. It's far more likely it will be used in the way it was here.