Stating the Obvious: Gentlemen Do Not...

This morning on the bus I happened to glance over at the rider next to me. He held in his hand a copy of King magazine [Warning: probably NSFW], and he was reading an article entitled "50 Rules To Being a Gentleman."

King is what is known as a lad rag, along the lines of Maxim, Loaded or Zoo, featuring semi-naked women in the US or even topless ones in civilized nations like the UK and Australia. I believe I've even mentioned it before. Ah, here it is, October 19, 2004. Ignore its ethnic target (it's content is mostly aimed at black men), the essentials of King, Maxim, etc. is that they are about men at their most atrocious: concerned only with getting laid, getting rich, and being seen.

I hesitate to point this out because it should seem rather obvious: Rule #1: Gentlemen do not read King.

At least, not in public.

Brain: Monday, With Little To Think

Terroist attack on American Soil: Chemical Weapons used against children at religious center.

( If it had been a church, FOX would spin it that way! )

The People Have Spoken. The Bastards.

( If our economy tanks, the Wall Street Journal blames you. )

Shorter Megan McArdle: "We fucked our country because Nancy Pelosi hurt our self esteem."

( Grief, whatta buncha whiners! )

The Wall Street Journal: Republicans Are Stupid

( WSJ Op-Ed eats its own )

Matt Yglesias: How Grown-Ups Govern

( Henry Paulson's massive fail )

For the record, all of my senators and representatives voted "Yes."

Now we get to see if the Republican mantra has always been right: left to itself, without government intervention, industry always finds a way to survive. It innovates its way out of disaster. We're about to see just how true that is. And I suspect that it might indeed be true.

Although I suspect Brad DeLong might be right: "Raze the Republican Party to the ground. Plough it under. Scatter salt in the furrows so it can never grow back. We need another, very different opposition party to face the Democrats. We need it now."

And I don't know what's more surprising: that John Stewart last night made a Two Girls One Cup joke (warning: that link is probably safe for work, but if you don't know what 2G1C is about and you're squeamish at all, don't follow it. I don't enjoy reading it, let's just leave it at that), or that some in the audience got it and started saying "ewwww!" as John mimed being ill. He mocked CNN and Wolf Blitzer's "We have something for the debate you won't find on any other network" with the line, "We call it Two Candidates, One Cup."

Ewww.

WWMVKD?

I've been thinking about the recent essays, especially David Broder's and Joe Klein's, about the way McCain, famously a high-stakes dice gambler, has risked everything on this run for the White House, and if he loses, he loses everything: his reputation as a maverick and as an honorable man.

I was reminded this morning of Mile Vorkosigan's observation that for those for whom the only maxim of life is "Death before Dishonor," eventually every man falls into one of two categories: the dead, and the foresworn.

John McCain isn't dead.

The other, and equally important observation, is Aral Vorkosigan's distinction between honor and reputation. The question we must ask ourselves is simple: is John McCain's reputation now dropping to match his honor, or is it being unfairly maligned? Aral acts as if the men and women with whom he works are rational and desire honor (and they frequently are: Gregor, Alys, Miles, Cordelia, even Ivan). But what if a man believes himself honorable even when he is not? Very few of Lois' characters are ever of two minds about anything; John McCain seems to be very much of two minds about himself.

"Polyisoprene condoms": Is Lifestyles deceiving its customers?

The other day, I went shopping for condoms. The store where I usually buy my Avantis was sold out, but the woman behind the counter pointed me to Lifestyles Skyn, which claimed to be made of "polyisoprene," approved by the FDA, and "superior to polypropelyne".

I don't know about the superior argument; I've never had a problem with polypropelyne condoms; I rather like them more than latex. But I decided to give them a try. And my first reaction when using one was that it felt a lot like latex.

That's because latex is polyisoprene. As the Department of Polymer Science at the University of Southern Mississipi puts it, "One of the most well known natural polymers is polyisoprene, or natural rubber."

Several companies have developed purely synthetic forms of polyisoprene, which means that the material made from it lacks many of the allergenic proteins found in latex made from natural rubber sources. It's also possible to make polyisoprene without some of the curatives used in processing natural rubber, so materials made with polyisoprene may be free of other non-latex allergens usually only encountered when using latex products. Some of these companies tout their products as "synthetic latex polyisoprene", whereas others claim it is "non-latex polyisoprene."

None of this is clear on the Lifestyles packaging and branding. Until Lifestyles clarifies what it means by "non-latex polyisoprene," I consider the packaging deceptive, defective by design, and will not be buying any more. This is no different than juice companies removing "sugar" from the list of ingredients and replacing it with "cane juice concentrate."

P.J. O'Rourke has cancer, handles it with his usual aplomb.

One of my favorite writers, P.J. O'Rourke, announced that he has cancer. It is, fortunately, a highly treatable form of cancer and he's expected to come through without much difficulty. But still, it's cancer. He handles it well:

I have, of all the inglorious things, a malignant hemorrhoid. What color bracelet does one wear for that? And where does one wear it? And what slogan is apropos? Perhaps that slogan can be sewn in needlepoint around the ruffle on a cover for my embarrassing little doughnut buttocks pillow.

Furthermore, I am a logical, sensible, pragmatic Republican, and my diagnosis came just weeks after Teddy Kennedy's. That he should have cancer of the brain, and I should have cancer of the ass ... well, I'll say a rosary for him and hope he has a laugh at me.

As the saying goes, read it all.