While drinking some beer and reading some of our favorite blogs, we stumbled across this Reuters item linked to from The Wit and Wisdom of Martin Van Buren, who generally has the ability to make us spit brew all over our computer monitor. Today was no different, although instead of laughing, we were shocked and dismayed.

Until last Friday it was completely legal to have sex with a corpse in California.

That's right, until the Governator signed the bill presented to him by the legislature on Friday you could get buckwild with any dead body you could get your hands on. This bill comes in response to the case of Mahdi Allah, a 48 year old homeless man who was found passed out drunk at a funeral home on 9th Avenue on top of a deceased elderly woman with his draws around his ankles. Prosecutors could only get him convicted of misdemeanor trespass so Allah got off with time served, psychological and substance abuse counseling and three years of probation.

A similar effort to criminalize cadaver-shagging stalled in committee last year. How on earth did this not fly through with a unanimous vote? Is there a well-funded necrophilia lobby we know nothing about? Is there a constituency of voters firmly in favor of sexual freedom for corpses that needs not be offended in an election year? Does some politician in Sacramento have a particularly embarrassing secret to hide? Who votes against this bill and why?