Even in what Rush likes to call an utterly chickified political culture, you'd be hard put to improve on the Republican Party's leading presidential candidate being taken out by an intercontinental ballistic tampon.

But not so fast... Here's the first post-debate poll from NBC News:

Trump 23%

Cruz 13%

Carson 11%

Fiorina 8%

Rubio 8%

Bush 7%

Walker 7%

So the top four are three non-politicians and my fellow Canadian. Great work, Republican establishment! Looks like we're gonna need a bigger tampon.

The sheer stupidity of the last 48 hours ought to be embarrassing to any self-governing people. Once the fake-o vapors of the Age of Outrage go bipartisan you might as well forget about America's future. Even if you think Trump did intend it as a time-of-the-month innuendo, so what? Who cares? I don't want Erick Erickson's old-time menstrual show trying to outbid the left in shriveling and narrowing the bounds of what's "acceptable". Because in the early 21st century the shrill little twerps shrieking "You can't say that!" are a far bigger problem than the stuff they object to. Let's suppose Erick Erickson got his way - and that for the first time in the history of the republic or indeed any other free society the leading candidate of a major party was destroyed by one highly ambiguous supposed menstrual crack. Is that likely to improve the quality of either public life in this country or those attracted to it? Or would it lead it to American politics becoming even more weird and detached from reality and just a con-game for freaks, hangers-on and the consultant-industrial complex?

So far, though, the menstrual show doesn't seem to be working. Judging from that hit parade above, you might even get the impression that it's all those people piously insisting "this has no place in our party" who have no place in our party.

By the way, those guys in sixth and seventh place. I seem to recall somebody saying something about that last week. Oh, yeah, it was me:

The disappointment, I think, was with the number two and number three because I think Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, in a sense, were both sitting on their non-leads. They both of them, I think, took a sort of conscious decision to kind of do a low-key don't-frighten-the-horses thing and hope that when Trump implodes, that they're still in the number two or number three slot and they're the ones who take over. And I don't think that'll work.

It didn't. Both Bush's and Walker's support has fallen by half.

Last word on this to Carly Fiorina:

JAKE TAPPER: But are you offended by him personally attacking Megyn Kelly or are you offended by how many are interpretation -- interpreting his remarks about blood? CARLY FIORINA: They were completely inappropriate and offensive comments, period.

I hope that wasn't a titter I heard at the back.

Okay, one more last word:

Kiran Gandhi, who has played drums for singer M.I.A. and Thievery Corporation, decided to run the London Marathon without a tampon. Gandhi let her blood flow freely to raise awareness about women who have no access to feminine products.

Can we nominate her? Or at least get her to run around the room during Erick Erickson's next conference?

~I didn't know the SAS was operating in the Syrian desert, and I'm not even sure why, but one boy and his dad have reason to be very grateful:

The brave British marksman saved the terrified eight-year-old and his father after taking out the crazed jihadi with a head shot from 1,000 metres away. The special forces crack shot then killed two other members of the hated terror group, who were also taking part in the sick planned execution. ISIS militants had decreed that the little boy and his father must die after branding them "infidels" because they refused to denounce their faith. They were just seconds from death when the hero sniper intervened to stop the barbaric killing in the Syrian desert.

Given our lack of civilizational will and cultural confidence, stories like the above will never be enough. But I am grateful our society can still produce men like the guy above.

~Re our weekend movie, Death Wish, and the return to a pre-Giuliani New York, Ed Driscoll writes that Brian Garfield, author of the original novel, wanted Jack Lemmon for the role. I try to keep an open mind on these things. The director John Schlesinger once told me that, instead of Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy, the studio wanted Sammy Davis Jr - expecting me to scoff and hoot and jeer at the crass stupidity of Hollywood execs. Instead I went, "Hmm. That would have been interesting." And we got into a big ol' ding-dong over it.

~Reader Jason Boch writes:

Hi Mark, I just received my brand new copy of your new book "A Disgrace to the Profession". Well done. By the way, in the politically correct country we live in, I'm offended when the press writes of "the dentist that killed Cecil the Lion". They seem to imply that being a dentist had something to do with Cecil's demise or that his killer is defined more by what he does for a living than say, he is from Minnesota or attends a Methodist Church. As a fellow dentist I find this an example of how the liberal media is biased. Everyone hates dentists so by association this is another reason to condemn Cecil's killer. After all, don't most dentists love to inflict pain on people and then go out murdering lions? Jason Boch

Oh, so dentiphobia's the real issue here, huh? Yeah, sure. Skip the laughing gas, I'm corpsing already. The thought of you sicko dentists marching across the savannah and giving every unsuspecting lion a filling right between the eyes and then stringing him up with your dental floss ...and the American Association of Big Game Dentists wants to file a hate-speech complaint? Sorry, pal. Cry me a river. Better yet, cry me a root canal.