Good news for you women out there. Over the years, I’ve heard countless times that you ladies have a huge problem holding on to pens (which were, of course, chauvinistically designed for man hands). I believe this has a lot to do with the shockingly low numbers of females in engineering and other “pen” heavy professions. Well you gals are in luck, as Bic has finally come out with the new line of “BIC for Her” pens that are “designed to fit comfortably in a woman’s hand.” Not to mention being stylish – available in pink and purple (you should go read the customer reviews). This is a big solution to a big problem (almost as big a problem as in-person voter fraud).
In other, slightly less important news, today the Republican National Convention opens in earnest, paving the way for RomRyan’s Express to steamroll to the White House. It promises to be a thrilling ride, and the accidental look at the Republican Platform that we (briefly) got shows just how wonderful a life (think, Jimmy Stewart jumps off the bridge and drowns, so Mr. Potter winds up running Bedford Falls) it’ll be after the Republicans take over.
The most notable move is the Republican platform committee’s decision to include a ban on abortion that doesn’t outline exceptions for rape, incest or a threat to the life of the mother.
[…]
But abortion isn’t the only culture war touchstone where the platform could create problems. It also includes combative language regarding gay rights…. A leaked draft not only reiterates opposition to gay marriage, which was expected, but takes a strong position against the administration’s bipartisan and highly popular decision to allow gays to serve openly in the military.“We reject the use of the military as a platform for social experimentation and will not accept attempts to undermine military priorities and mission readiness,†a line in the national security section reads.
The platform has also been amended since 2008 to call for a renewed crackdown on pornography.
…the section on Medicare could be problematic as well. Romney has deliberately released few details about his own plan and is deliberately trying to muddy the debate over Ryan’s plan to privatize Medicare by misleadingly accusing Obama of cutting the program’s benefits instead. The platform bluntly calls for transforming Medicare into a voucher system, explaining in detail how proposals Romney and Ryan have championed would replace the popular entitlement with an entirely different program.
And don’t forget about the part where rich people don’t have to pay taxes.
Meanwhile, we all get to sit around and see if the levees (not to mention the pumps) will hold out for Isaac. I certainly hope so.
The local newspaper announced today that, as of January, it’s only going to publish a print edition three days a week – Tue, Thu, and Sun. Kinda sucks.
This has been a terrible year for Palemale and his family. In the spring his mate of the year before died of rat poison. He and his new mate, Zena, raised 3 chicks. 2 of them were sickened by rat poison and taken to the Horvath’s rehab. They have recovered but cannot be released because the rat poison remains in the park, placed there by, among others, The Museum of Natural History. Zena went missing and is presumed dead and the third chick, nicknamed Operasinger, is missing and there are reports of a dead young hawk.
It also turns out the Jeff Johnson, the Empire State shooter, was a Hawk watcher. You can find his pix and writing at
http://palemaleirregulars.blogspot.com/
and Lincolns observations of him at Lincoln’s blog.
Nearly 24 hours after an ugly incident in which two attendees at the Republican National Convention in Tampa were ejected after throwing nuts at a black CNN camerawoman and saying, “This is how we feed animals,†remarkably few details about the particulars of the incident have emerged.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/cnn-rnc-convention-camerawoman.php
More from the Rethug convention:
A visibly upset Zoraida Fonalledas, Chairwomen of the Committee on Permanent Organization, was greeted by chants of “USA, USA, USA” when RNC Chairman Reince Priebus introduced her to the convention crowd. The chants kept coming until Priebus stepped back up to the podium and told the delegates to let Fonalledas take care of her business.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/29/1125286/-0-1-er-Latina-suffers-USA-USA-jeers-from-GOP-crowd?detail=hide
Fox News (believe it or not) calls bullshit on Lyin’ Ryan’s speech.
I assume Sally Kohn will soon be fired or, at the very least, have peanuts thrown at her by a true believing misogynist.