Putting aside the pros and cons of spanking. And putting aside the alleged 4-foot-long paddle and emergency room visit. Isn’t an an 18-year-old (or 17 for that matter) simply too old to spank?

Oh my! What will they say in Red State America?

The nation’s largest employer is expanding the definition of “immediate family” in its ethics policy to include an employee’s same-sex partner.
The Wal-Mart Stores Inc. policy change — disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday — accounts for the laws in some states that recognize domestic partnerships and civil unions, officials said.
Company spokesman Gus Whitcomb on Thursday declined to say if the change would affect employee benefits, or whether it meant Wal-Mart was taking a position on the issue of same-sex marriage or civil unions.

In practice I’m not sure how much difference this will make–how many Wal-Mart employees get benefits anyway? But I’m sure this will be good for some noisy protests and boycotts. Sad thing is that many would-be boycotters will have to drive a long way to shop somewhere else since all the other stores were driven out of business.

Via Steve Gilliard comes this:

Four workers in the United States have lost their jobs after refusing to take a test to see if they were smokers.
They were employees of Michigan-based healthcare firm Weyco, which introduced a policy banning its staff from smoking – even away from the workplace.
The firm says the ban is to keep health costs down and has helped 14 staff to stop smoking, but opponents say the move is a violation of workers’ rights.
. . .
Weyco gave its staff a stark ultimatum at the end of last year – either stop smoking completely on 1 January or leave their jobs.

I’m a non-smoker who thinks that everyone would be better off if they didn’t smoke. But I don’t think employers should be mandating this kind of lifestyle choice on employees outside the workplace.
If the employer wants to have a smoke-free workplace, that’s fine. I’m even okay with the employer charging employees extra to cover the higher health care costs. But at some point the employer’s control should end and employee’s rights should begin. And I think off-hours health choices which don’t affect work performance are in the latter.
As the article points out, if this is okay we don’t have to travel much farther down the slippery slope to the point where employers regulate employee’s diet, exercise, and sleep. Do we want to go there?

Another huge corporate merger.
I sometimes wonder how long it will be before every commercial interest in America is owned by Wal-MartExxonMobilGeneralElectricRoyalDutch/ShellGroupCitigroupMicrosoft
GeneralMotorsSiemensSonyAllianzIBMDellCocaColaMcDonaldsGlaxoSmithKline
HPBankofAmericaPfizerAlcoaWaltDisneyDuPontBoeing.

I learn something new every day:

The facts in America today are that homosexuals have been elevated to be America’s Super Citizens, above the law to the point where their psychological need for acceptance trounces even the most basic Constitutional rights of others.

This Super Citizenship sounds like a pretty good deal. I wonder if there are other ways of obtaining it besides homosexuality?
Via Sadly, No!