Your Spousal — and Co-habitating! — Squabbles Had Better Become Positively U.S. Senatorial, My Friends . . . without Al Franken

Does Mike Bloomberg get the Daily Mail? It is reporting that:

France will become the first country in the world to ban ‘psychological violence’ within marriage later this year.

The new law, which would also apply to co-habiting couples, would see people getting criminal records for insulting their loved ones during domestic arguments.

Electronic tagging would be used on repeat offenders, according to the country’s prime minister, Francois Fillon, who announced the law. . . .

Mr Fillon said: ‘It’s an important step forward as the creation of this offence will allow us to deal with the most insidious situations – situations that leave no visible scars, but which leave victims torn up inside.’

He added that his government would also be experimenting with electronic surveillance measures to ‘monitor the effectiveness of restraining orders against a violent spouse’.

The piece reads like it’s from the Onion. It claims the law is “aimed at protecting women who currently suffer the worst attacks of this kind, ranging from off-hand comments about their appearance to threats of physical violence.” 

(Apparently, French legislators have never seen a marriage as portrayed on American TV, where it’s just the reverse.)

A sociologist suggests to the paper that the next obvious step would to be to ban “rudeness,” but adds that that might just be too hard to monitor. Have the audacity to hope! Where there’s a bureaucratic paternalistic will, there’s a legislative way.