I have made an update. Suffice it to say that the nature of the particular bug in question leaves little doubt that this is some kind of sabotage, since the issue was apparently located inside the EAxian SPYWARE. BE WARNED! LOCK YOUR FIREWALLS.
Would this be an update to the September 1, 2012, EA update, and if so, where could I find it? Because I just got the Sims 3 w/ Pets (I know, I know, I'm waaaay behind) and all the other awesome mods I've found do not work with the current patch (won't even open the game), which I had no choice in adding since it wouldn't let me install without the darned thing. Having tried the vanilla, non-cheat version of Sims3 (hated it, takes way too long to do anything), I need awesome.