It's like a split personality. "Herman Cain does not harass women." "Herman Cain is a businessman."

Well, it could be a neat trick for denialbility. I'm sure in 7 billion people around there world there is at least one Herman Cain who does not in fact harrass women. It just doesn't happen to be this one.

I just wish people would stop saying Cain can't possibly be the nominee. It gives me the same shudder as when someone says, "Nothing else can go wrong."

Good god. I got one thing to do before I can check out, and I'm getting pushback. How will the developers extract the needed data from the spreadsheets? I dunno. I think they'll develop. Can we just give them the fucking spreadsheets already? With instructions?

I had a lousy night of not-quite-sleep, so I'm going in late. Hadn't heard all that much about Paterno and the rest of it, but it went onto my "avoid sports news at all costs" filter until now.

Too right about the Cain reaction -- every time someone tries to make a point about the "anonymous women accusing him" I want to ask what part of "non-disclosure agreement" do they not understand? Given the nastiness that Sharon Bialek is already receiving, I believe I would count myself lucky to be out of it if I were one of those women.

People I know really like him. People who will be harmed by the 9 9 9 thing, as far as I can tell. They say he seems like he doesn't take any shit.

So, what is the overlap between people who like Cain and those who liked Sarah Palin 3 years ago?

Hil - I hope that there are some "dump Joe" protesters too.

There have been. There was one alum yesterday who burned his diploma, saying he didn't want to be associated with a university that protects child molesters, and there have been some students calling for Joe to resign. There are far more supporting him, though -- at least, supporting him publicly like that. Most of the conversations I've overheard among students have been along the lines of "Yeah, it's sad to end it this way, but he screwed up and ought to resign," but they haven't been too vocal publicly.

Everyone around here kind of seems in shock. The integrity of the football program has been a point of pride -- one of the highest graduation rates, no scandals with players taking bribes, pretty few cases of players getting in trouble with the law -- and it's always been said that Joe Paterno is the one to thank for that, because he keeps the program in line and makes sure he recruits players who are decent people and not just good players. I don't know how true that is, but it's what I've heard from practically everyone around here, repeated as if it's common knowledge. Everyone's kind of shocked that a guy who has a reputation for not tolerating drinking or fighting or too much partying from his players would allow something like this to go on with one of his coaches.

This is so interesting -- a flyer for the first birth control clinic in the US, in 1916 in Brooklyn. [link] The text is in English, Hebrew, and Italian.

Hil - that's what the media are saying in general. That's the Penn State reputation. I haven't spoken to my relatives who are Penn State grads to get their reaction. (Most of them are not too football inclined.)

Article on the disappearance of the former district attorney. Very odd.

He's been a radio talk show host here for the last few years and before that had a unsuccessful run to be the Republican nominee for the Senate. He has an astonishingly simplistic view of the world and no idea how government works. He called the Obama health care plan "treason" repeatedly.