The iMini: I hope it has a new fresh scent. And doesn't leave unsightly lines in my jeans.

I cannot wait for the new iPad. The iMini, maybe with wings. My current pad is too bulky, except for heavy flow days. The iPod is simply too small for typical days. And it has to more absorb ant than the iPod. Too much content and I have to wring the damn thing out and reuse it. Very bad for the lazy.
And why do feminine hygiene products come with varied perfumes? Is there a sniff test to them I was unaware of? Before or after?

Story A1: Hurricane Ivan, or what I heard on the way to the convention.

I was listening to the radio, headed south to Florida, second biggest population of NewYorkers in the world. The radio announcer said "Hurricane Isaac set to crash Republican National Convention."
Sara, sitting next to me, changes the channel. Apolitical, she doesn't like the news during election season. Which is okay, nor do I. I just can't help listening and getting pissy.
She doesn't like me when I am pissy.
It's difficult to deal with someone who can't help taking the opposite view in any discussion, so she doesn't.
"So," said slowly, "don't take this as an opening, but is it ironic that the party that said hurricane Katrina was the punishment of sinners in New Orleans, is about to get hit by a hurricane?"
I smiled keeping my opinion firmly behind my teeth.
"Or, is this storm going to be a left wing communist plot?"
Communist? I thought. "Communist?". I asked.
"Hurricane Ivan," she said, looking at me through lashes with slightly too much mascara. "The republicans will leave before they have to take the blame."
I started to laugh. She hit me, rising out of her seat to put some force behind it.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Isaac." I said rubbing my shoulder. "Hurricane Isaac."
"Oh," she said propping her bare feet up on the corner of the dash, "I am sure something anti-Semitic will be said about it."

Alex Wagner, MSNBC, and the conversations on women's health/reproductive issue. Or, men like breasts as much as women (do).

The problem with the conversation on women's health issues is topic of sex. Of birth control. The arguments from the "right" are about fucking. The left talks about it as if that was no part in it, or if they do allow for it the couch it in the term "reproductive" health.
These are the wrong terms.
Few people have ever had condoms purchased by their insurance. The right sees no reason that the pill, the sponge, IUD's or fellow travelers should be paid for by insurance. (Yes condoms are often handed out for free, but thats not the same as government mandated corporate purchases for individuals). And there is no similarity between paying for Viagra and the pill. Viagra fixes a problem, a disfunction in the system. A treatment for vaginismus would be a better comparison.
The left sees this as a women's health issue, as if any restriction involving a vagina is unthinkable, even if the restriction only makes restricts provided services, not health. The left likes to think that access to provided services prevents pregnancy. The right feels that sex is optional and people should be held responsible for their actions. The left agrees, at least as it comes to men.
And when the left discusses reproductive health, they discuss birth control that prevents other things than pregnancy. Ovarian cysts, for instance. I think Sandra Fluke raised this one. But this is not birth control. No one argues about preventing ovarian cysts.
So stop couching the argument in feminist terms. Make it about general health. Fix the disfunction and raise the stakes. We need better preventative services in general, so of the pill prevents ovarian cysts, argue for any medication that prevents cysts. That way all cysts get equal prevention. Take sex out, both the act and the gender.
If the pill prevented cervical cancer then the argument would be over cancer prevention for everyone. Of course, the left doesn't get as much feminine support for cancer prevention. Women don't get as tuned in for cancer.
Unless it's also about breasts.
How much money do men and corporations donate to breast cancer every year?
If that does not show a decent response to women's health issues then nothing will.
Men like breasts.

Humans will rise to the level expected of them, or sink to the level they are allowed.

It says something about the Olympics that the medals are now the size of the clocks worn by rappers is the 80s. That the gold is thinner than the aluminum in which they wrap chocolate coins. That we talk of revenge and vindication rather than a well played rematch.
A punch thrown at our soccer players is a horror. A body tackle by an American player a couple of games later is "aggressive" play.
Cheating accepted normal.
When did we become Soviets? Our national pride tied to winning, and any athlete that doesn't run as expected pilloried for the entertainment of people who have managed to capture the world's record in obesity?

Excremeat, the reason for it all. Or Birbiglia's Hello Kitty Notpad.

Social phobia and general anger. This is better than arguing with my friends. Sort of like Mike's recommendation to put it on paper. Well...his therapist's idea if you believe the stand up.
Originally, I was thinking of ranting on the politics of the day, but every body does that. So I will agree with Stanhope, that whatever I don't understand, or can't do is stupid, then I am going to work out why I think so here.
I agree with Sorkin's judgement that "anonymity is cowardice". Social phobia being what it is, however, I am going to role with it for the moment. Spelling intentional.
Baby steps.

Excremeat: a definition.

Excremeat: the apocryphal or legendary food stuff created by Japanese scientists from human excrement, as reported on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.   Or a delicacy for rich foodies who spread Cuitlacoche (that mold stuff mid westerners scrape off corn) on toast or bagels. Or the logical basic food stuff for the future dystopia where only robots have jobs and the only food choices are soylent green and soylent brown.

Thick as a Brick: I promise to be more entertaining next time.

     Let's clear the air about something:  China.  This point last century, China was in a similar position economically. Around the 2nd biggest economy in world, rising military power, and about 5% of it's population pulled out of poverty.  The problem is, when 5% of 900 million gets money and the rest are poverty stricken individuals working in sweatshop conditions, what you get is social disorder.  You can feel that leaking through the fringes of the news we get here in the U.S.. The problem for China is the same one for France during it's revolution and for Russia for that matter.  Not the overall poverty level, but the fact that the revolution will start at the bottom.
     The American Revolution was, by and large, rich men organizing people along known social lines.  A conservative revolution.  With an ocean between the targets of the revolution and the revolutionaries.  The other's mentioned are more traditional:  lower classes vs. high, rich vs poor, haves vs nots.  The blood flow was awesome in the Great Leap Forward.  With wealth centralized in the hands of the few, shrinking world resources and no plan we can expect another in the future.

Sorry. July was a bad month in a bad year in a bad decade.  Prices are rising.  Temperatures are rising.  Tempers are fraying.