A legislative rumble is shaping up in the sunshine state. The cause? An anatomically correct dog statue. No, it’s not ‘real’ issues like immigration, Iraq or the environment, but canine gonads that get people going in Sacramento.

The furor concerns a service dog tribute statue in a public park. The statue is an accurate representation of a living dog, including a faithful representation of the standard netherbits. And for some Californians, this will simply not stand. Apparently, the doggy groin sends the wrong message about the need to spay or neuter your pet. Said local moonbat Dan Nender:

“This is the will of the people… and don’t ask me which people, and we’re going to carry it out.  If this guy doesn’t want to do the work himself, we’ll sneak in there at night and use a Saws-All on it. We cannot have intact testicles on government property.  As California government officials, at least the ones on our side, will attest to, Sacramento is a testicle-free zone.”

Jesus. A tecticle-free zone? This may comes as news to, oh, I don’t know, every male that lives in Sacramento. On the upside, a no-testicle policy may help prevent Nender from passing his genes.

I am constantly amazed at the human capacity for ignoring actual problems and fixate on totally inane issues. Memo to Mr. Nender: read a newspaper. Take a look around. Your country is well down the road to economic, social and environmental collapse. The removal of testicles from a statue will not solve these problems. You are a waste of time and human potential. 

Oh, those wily ad execs. When a national media regulator closes a door, they force open a digital window.

Several junk peddlers, including McDonald’s, Starburst, Haribo and Skittles have turned to the Internet to reach their pint-sized consumers after the UK’s media regulator, Ofcom, made it difficult to advertise on television. Starting this year, ads for high fat, salt or sugar brands have been banned from children’s TV. Right now, the ban is for programming aimed at 4-9 year-olds, although it will be extended to teenagers in January 2008. The new regulations were implemented after UK citizens realized their national enthusiasm for deep-frying may have some drawbacks.

Skittles reportedly paid a six-figure sum to social networking site Bebo for it’s very own page. The site has received over 50,000 visits, and sports 3,500 friends. This strikes me as odd: I have never been friends, or even particularly friendly, with candy. Kind of makes me want to set up a Bebo of Myspace page for something really abstract, like ‘time’ or maybe ’stupidity’, and see how many friends they get.

No surprises here- kids are aggressively hunted by advertisers, eager to exploit new technology to boost the bottom line. But when those advertisers are hocking products with serious health implications, it’s time to get worried. Too bad the social networking sites are also in thrall to the almighty profit motive, making it all but certain Kidvertising on line will only get worse. I’m not one to advocate for blanket regulation of the Internet, but some targeted policy interventions are needed to protect its most vulnerable users.