The South Carolina legislature wants to protect you from sex toys.  Yes, they’re trying to pass a law to make sex toys illegal, possession of said devices a felony, and empowering law enforcement to seize them in raids.  This is your Republican governments once again working to protect you.  Bah.

Despite claims by scientists, environmentalists, and even their own studies that the project is causing and will continue to cause severe problems for an endangered whale population and other wildlife, Shell intends to move forward with its oil drilling and pipeline on Sakhalin Island in Siberia.  Understand this one project could mean complete extinction of western grey whales — yes, the whole species.  The company is already responsible for emaciated whales, large bird kills, and many other environmental disasters in the area.  Yet another reason to hate big oil companies.

This is just too much fun: Woman Sues Over Spankings At Work; Company Claims They Spanked Both Sexes Equally.

Go read Jeff Whitty’s letter to Jay Leno.  Jeff is a playwright and the author of the musical “Avenue Q” currently showing on Broadway.  He got tired of Leno’s countless bad-humor jokes about gays, and this letter is the result.  It’s most excellent.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, praised the CIA’s firing of an employee who they claim leaked sensitive material.  In the meantime, we learn he’s accused of leaking sensitive information prior to the Iraq war that “impaired efforts to capture Saddam Hussein and potentially threatened the lives of Iraqis who were spying for the United States.”  There’s obviously a difference in how “leak” is defined when a Republican does it versus when an opponent of the Bush administration does it.

I don’t like the RIAA with their heavy-handed tactics defending bad music and bad business models with lawsuits.  This time they’re suing a family that doesn’t even own a computer for sharing copyrighted files via the internet.  Um, duh!

Spain is considering human rights for apes.  I don’t know how likely this is to happen, but I support such ideas for a myriad of reasons (not necessarily for the genetic ones they cite).