A few more links

I love the International Heroes comic-strip reference site. And I’m tickled I was able to give such a good site fresh information.
•A Virginia Republican wants to ban oral sex because it will protect children from sex predators (so he says). And in Utah, a Repub proposes making school for kids optional (same link).
•Count Commissioners ask a candidate for county sheriff for his views on gay marriage and abortion. A lawsuit is now in the works. Because some Republicans love spending tax dollars to promote religion, as long as it’s theirs.
•Scott Lemieux rips into Ross Douthat’s latest forced-birth column. A key point is that while forced-birthers may talk a lot about late-term abortion, the policies they’re pushing (like Texas, which is considering a bill to make abortion legal as soon as there’s a fetal heartbeat) would affect much earlier pregnancies (just as talk about how irresponsible women use abortion to get rid of unwanted babies after having slutty sex ignores that they also oppose abortions for married women too).
•Digby looks at the coming budget battle.
•Violence continues in Iraq.
•Echidne looks at how teenage girls who get raped also get slandered and humiliated.
•Generally, pedestrians are obligated to give cars the right of way on public streets. It wasn’t always that way.
•Defending the Dragons looks at how dating games—men must pursue, women must hold back-strangle and ensnare us.