1. Rep. Paul Ryan and his athletic exploits
As this article at The Atlantic explains,Paul Ryan's decision to exaggerate his marathon running record is bizarre on at least one level:

We've all exaggerated to make ourselves look better. You've probably done it. I know I have. (Let's not think about the whole category of "what happens on first dates.") But out of prudent self-protection, most people have a sense of "situational awareness" when it comes to self-burnishment. Somebody you're talking to in a bar, and you're never likely to see again, is in one category. Somebody interviewing you for national broadcast is in another. That is what I'm having a hard time fully understanding.
You're on a nationwide show. You're one of the handful of people most prominently in the national eye. You know that everything you say is going to be recorded, parsed, and examined. And still -- last week, not at a freshman mixer or in a Jaycees speech somewhere -- you happily reel off a claim that is impressive enough to get people's interest and admiration, and specific enough to be easily testable.

The killer is "specific enough to be easily testable". Unlike, say, discussions about policy, where there is some level of subjectivity and opinion at work, athletic performances are measured by one of those objective measures known as time. As the comments from recreational runners show in this article by Paul Krugman, lying about your marathon times is beyond inconceivable. All marathon runners know exactly what times they turned in on ALL of their races. The committment and effort involved in preparing for a marathon is so high that you remember that stuff for the rest of your life.
So where does it leave us? Frankly, after a number of his utterances in his RNC speech were exposed as a long way from the truth, for me, this is further confirmation that Paul Ryan, far from being a "breath of fresh air", is merely another politician for whom the truth is sometimes so inconvenient that it needs to be avoided.

2. The Full list of Presidential Election candidates
Just a reminder of the overall process for the election, and also that there are a number of other candidates besides the two rather obvious ones.

3. Lawmaker's remorse on making prostitution illegal in Texas
After 11 years, the truth has begun to dawn that perhaps trying to vanish the World's Oldest Profession is doomed to failure..better late than never I guess, but the big question is whether electorates will agree that this sort of legislation is futile.

4. The difference between a cynic and a skeptic
As a skeptic, I have often had to fend off accusations in the past that I am actually a cynic. This article does a good job of explaining the difference between a skeptic and a cynic.

5. Watching America
This site looks interesting...one of the challenges I face when discussing the image of America with Americans is that many of them have never left the USA, and they do not watch any television programming that might provide them with insight on how the USA is viewed outside its borders.