TAR AND FEATHERS, AT LEAST: Parents of seven told: Your children are too fat, so you will never see them again.

Though if it were my kids, I’d at least consider necklacing. But that’s probably only appropriate for a second offense. But tarring and feathering? Frankly, that’s a mild punishment for this degree of overreach. The state does not own your children, and taking them for such absurdities is piracy.

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark emails: “I’m will to bet that the majority of those who think that obesity justifies the removal of children from their parents would also agree with the usual pieties expressed concerning all the detrimental effects of poverty: Should parenthood be means tested? To be consistent, they should argue so. I’ll wait….”