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For real this time, The Pollis is going up soon. So these shorter fragments of ideas will probably be the most I can muster on the blog. You know what to expect, here's what I think I think.

Men should stop trying to lead the discussion on rape.

Specifically white men who might be running for Congress in midwestern states. There's no need to show you Todd Akin's comments again. You've already been blasted by them from every commentator falling over each other to crush this hanging curveball. Mitt Romney even took a definitive position on this by calling for Akin to drop out of the race. I expected his magic underwear to actually work before I expected him to take a definitive stand on anything. 

Men have to talk about rape delicately. We cannot act as authority figures on the subject matter. Men lecturing women on the virtues of rape has as much credibility as the LIBOR rate at this point. So to Todd Akin, Steve King (who unprovoked, decided to dive head first into batshitville with Akin, sometimes I feel like these far right whackjobs are just lemmings), and any other man who is currently pandering for votes, here's some free political advice. 

1. Don't use adjectives to describe rape. It has enough power on its own. 
2. Stop talking casually about rape.

If you want any more advice you'll have to donate to my Super PAC (yes, The Pollis is totally going to have a Super PAC, we'll just buy 30 second spots across America and show cat videos, we'll control 35% of the electorate).

Facebook's IPO drama is Wall Street's current state in a nut shell.

Oh this is new! How many people? 1 BILLION? HOLY SHIT!! BUY BUY BUY!!! Wait, how do you make money? Whatever, we'll figure it out later. The IPO will make sure you never have to worry about that anyway. **massive amounts of fraud and incompetence** What the hell? Why is it going down? We pumped this thing up, LinkedIn doubled it's first day...**infighting** How the hell did we invest so much money in something that had such an uncertain return? Shit. That's the right price for it. Our hype inflated its value and we lost a ton of money for our customers and our brokers further down on the food chain. Oh well, we still win and that's what matters. 

If the Nationals think that Steven Strasburg surpassing his innings limit will drastically increase his risk of long term injury, they should shut him down.

Gio Gonzalez, Drew Storen, Steven Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond, Danny Espinosa, and Bryce Harper are all 26 or younger. The Nationals will have many more opportunities to win a World Series in the future and this season will not be their best chance to win one. If their medical staff determines that if Strasburg were to pitch deep into October, he would risk serious injury, then they should shut him down. This is a historic opportunity. Baseball hasn't been relevant in D.C. since the New Deal was in effect. Washington has an opportunity to craft a dynasty for a franchise that has yet to establish an identity. 

Even if they bench Strasburg, it does not mean that they have eliminated themselves from title contention. They have to play a maximum of 19 games to win the World Series. A lot of teams can get hot in that short of a time span and as good as Strasburg is, he's not the entire team. Ryan Zimmerman is in the MVP discussion, Bryce Harper locked down rookie of the year sometime around May, and Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmerman are no slouches either (15th and 25th in xFIP, respectively). I know that I'm in the minority here but I think that the Nats need to take the long view on this dilemma. He's 24 and he already might be the best pitcher in baseball. Anyone remember a guy named Mark Prior? The Nats would be wise to learn from Dusty Baker's mistakes.