What Century Is This? Volume II (Volume I was yesterday, with the guy who prescribes Bible passages for headaches and eating disorders.) I know it's a cheap shot to make fun of ancient, obsolete, and rarely-enforced laws, but I just can't help myself: the ACLU has asked Georgia's Supreme Court to toss the state's fornication law. It's technically a crime in Georgia to have sex out of wedlock. "The challenge is being brought by a teenager described in court papers as J.M. A year ago, he was prosecuted as a 16-year-old juvenile after being found having sex with his girlfriend...J.M., now 17, was ordered to pay a fine and write an essay on why he shouldn't have engaged in sex...16-year-olds are allowed to marry and buy contraceptives in Georgia...the law applies to anyone, even if they are 75 years old." I guess striking down the state sodomy law didn't do too much good for gays if you still have to be married to have sex.

Speaking of gay marriage, the Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts, Shannon O'Brien, is doing some serious scrambling for liberal votes. She said yesterday she'd sign gay marriage legislation if it ever got to her desk, which is sort of like saying she'd grant world peace if someone would just make it into a bill -- it's not gonna happen, so this is all hypothetical. In the past, she's taken the wussy, separate-but-equal "gays have rights too, but don't call it 'marriage'" position. ("I don't support gay marriage. I support civil unions.'') It's better than the Republican candidate, who opposes both and apparently once said gays are "perverse and reprehensible." Yum. What neither Boston daily mentioned is that O'Brien's sudden embrace of a real, live, left-wing policy means she's scared sh*tless of losing votes to actual liberal Jill Stein from the Green party. And why doesn't the US have instant runoff voting yet?