SPARE THE ROD
The Isle of Man, a British crown possession in the Irish Sea, differs from the mother country in several respects. Taxes are lower, cats have no tails, and youths judged guilty of violent crimes are occasionally whipped with a birch rod.
For that, Great Britain last week found itself haled before the European Court of Human Rights, voluntarily joined by Britain in 1950. Her Majesty's government was accused of tolerating "degrading punishment." Although birching was finally banned in Britain in 1968, Man's 1,000-year-old parliament, the Tynwald, has long been allowed to make its own internal laws. But after he was...
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