Potpourri: High Smarts and Low Laughs

I'll begin with the low laughs:

Slate answers the always relevant question: can you test positive for a drug that you never ingested but that your oral sex partner did?
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Mental Floss presents some of the funniest videos I've ever seen. (Parental discretion advised.)

WOW.

If you like laughing, watch at least the first 2 minutes of the first video. At least.
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Like the idea of paternity leave? So does this guy.
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Insightful stuff from HuffPo on Obama's handling of the North Koren missile "crisis" and the pirate hijacking off Somalia.
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Analysis of women, layoffs, and the recession.
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Joe Posnanski on Bill James's brilliance.

New definition of brilliance? Looking at old problems through new eyes.
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XX Factor's guest poster, Vanessa Gezari, tells us we're morons for thinking the recent hullabaloo about the so-called "Afghan rape law" demonstrates the West's naivete when it comes to imagining the ongoing plight of women in most of the world, especially Afghanistan.
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This article, linked from TV Worth Watching, is not actually as good as Bianculli seems to think it is. It is more superficial listing than deep analysis, and doesn't grab me as it should (or maybe I didn't get a lot of sleep last night ...). Either way, a worthwhile read (as opposed to watch, pun ex post facto accepted) for the next time someone tries to eviscerate Stewart for taking his place in the pantheon of the great American patriots - it doesn't get bigger, on that front, than Franklin and Twain.
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Clarence Thomas, reactionary of reactionaries, and the conservative vision for America.

N.B.: You may need to shower after reading this. But it's worth it.
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XX Factor reports on Amazon's sketchy-as-hell move to deem books depicting homosexuality as "adult" and, therefore, to de-rank them on the site. Sketchy Amazon, very, very sketchy. Booo Amazon.