Herman Cain in all his glory might be interested in this story from the LA Times:

A 69-year-old Palm Springs woman was accused of attempting to cut off her husband’s penis with a pair of large scissors this weekend.
Her effort failed, although the husband was treated for a non-life-threatening wound in the genital area and released from a local hospital, police said.
…
Police recovered the scissors and will retain them as evidence.
Stjerne (Palm Springs Police Sgt. Kyle Stjerne) described the scissors as resembling poultry shears.
“They were more heavy duty than the standard office scissors,” he said.

(Illustration found here).

Or this from Barney Frank: “I look at the Republican debate — I’ve been casting ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” Frank told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour. “Obviously, Mitt Romney is the tin woodman without a heart, and Rick Perry is clearly the scarecrow.”

State of the state is clueless.

Even in our personal behavior — now science has proven that nice guys do indeed finish last.
From Wired on a new study that income depends upon the lack of “agreeableness” or being nice:

Once again, the results were unforunate: Those candidates with higher levels of agreeableness were much less likely to get fast-tracked, especially if they were male.
(Women were slightly less likely to get picked for promotion regardless of their personality.)
This suggests that nice guys finish last because people are subtly biased against them.
Although agreeable people are less likely to get fired, and are just as likely to supervise others, they appear far less effective at negotiating pay increases, thus suggesting that the main financial benefit of disagreeableness is a willingness to stubbornly fight for what’s wanted, even if it makes others uncomfortable.
In addition, the researchers argue that agreeableness is particularly costly for men because it violates our gender expectations.
Since we assume men will selfishly pursue their interests — please pardon the lazy generalizations — we tend to look down on those who do not, which leads to a “backlash” against unselfish and altruistic men.
In other words, we expect the worst and punish the best.
But the news isn’t all bad for nice guys.
A new study points out that kindness is the single most salient variable that women look for when choosing a significant other.
(Not surprisingly, those looking for a quick fling care most about looks.)
So being agreeable won’t make you rich.
But it just might help you fall in love, which will make you much happier than a marginal boost in income.

Cute — but what has that to do with the GOP and love-boat Herman Cain?
Clueless like Lisa Lockwood, Cain’s Iowa communications director — who like Kymer Rouge mass murderer Nuon Chea, on trial for war crimes, blamed Vietnam for the killing of two million Cambodians in the 1970s, saying the Kymer Rouge were not “bad people”  — as Lockwood claimed it was the lackluster media that snagged Herman’s zipper.
Lockwood is a total clueless believer:

“I think he’s an awesome man and I think he would have been an awesome president. I still hold out hope that one day he will,” Lockwood said.
But amidst the sadness and hope for the future were feelings of frustration toward members of the press over the coverage of sexual harassment allegations against Cain.
“I don’t recognize my industry anymore,” Lockwood said. “I was taught objectivity, accuracy, fairness, balance. I don’t see that happening.”
“Where’s the investigation behind who [these accusers] are?” she said.
Asked whether she believes any of the allegations are true, Lockwood said she “wouldn’t speculate” but that she “believes in him.”
“I’m not judge or jury.
It doesn’t matter to me whether it’s true or not.”

A good indication Lockwood also doesn’t have much sense.

Paul Krugman in his New York Times column this morning strikes at the GOP nit-twit showcase.
The money bits:

So what kind of politician can meet these basic G.O.P. requirements? There are only two ways to make the cut: to be totally cynical or to be totally clueless.
…
The Washington Post quotes an unnamed Republican adviser who compared what happened to Mr. Cain, when he suddenly found himself leading in the polls, to the proverbial tale of the dog who had better not catch that car he’s chasing.
“Something great and awful happened, the dog caught the car. And of course, dogs don’t know how to drive cars.
So he had no idea what to do with it.”
The same metaphor, it seems to me, might apply to the G.O.P. pursuit of the White House next year.
If the dog actually catches the car — the actual job of running the U.S. government — it will have no idea what to do, because the realities of government in the 21st century bear no resemblance to the mythology all ambitious Republican politicians must pretend to believe.
And what will happen then?

A clueless nightmare for US peoples.

Which leads way-unsuspectingly to the US boondoggle in Afghanistan and an interview at RT with Russian Col. Evgeny Khrushchev on the reality of that mashed-up conflict.
The key thought:

Ironically, in Soviet times Afghanistan used to be called DRA, Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
It was the only period in the country history when women’s rights were fully enforced against the acid-splashing “freedom-fighters,”
Nowadays, in American times, it’s IRA, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, where it’s just fine to stone, mutilate and nose-cut women while negotiating with the Butcher of Afghanistan, the same acid-splashing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
As time goes by, the only difference between Karzai regime and the Taliban will be the impunity, corruption and major stake in drug production.

Is it true that ignorance is bliss?