Today on the Dish, Andrew seconded Timothy Kincaid on the symbolic power of allowing gays in the military and we covered the Pope's prostitute gaffe. Andrew rebutted Chait on pundit priorities for the deficit, explained his use of "ni**er," and reconsidered Hillary. Andrew analyzed the latest round of Israeli excuses, and Ben Smith set a record for Likudnik quoting. TSA scanners could decrease air travel, if only because unlike other injustices, this one is very visible. This disgruntled TSA worker didn't like to cop a feel on the obese, and some cooked the books on murder in Detroit.
Nate Silver reminded us that Palin loves to hog the spotlight, and Frum and Pareene picked apart Palin's new book. We parsed Palin's allergy to expertise, Frum hoped Huck could best her, and we sorted through the aftermath of Labash's anti-Palin story. Mercede Johnston, Tripp Palin's aunt and sister of Levi, kept pondering the provenance of Trig, and Telly Davidson contemplated the reality show and its implications for 2012. Chait and Bernstein considered a government shutdown, and John McWhorter advocated for the simple Direct Instruction method of teaching.
New Zealand activists pushed a shopping cart full of marijuana, Mark Twain might have eventually changed his mind about Iraq, and foreign aid had a dark side. Bradford Plumer showed us the light on incandescent light bulbs, and China and America couldn't seem to build a network of highspeed trains. Creepy ad watch here, VFYW here, quote for the day here, Hathos alert / Shut Up And Sing contest here, unsecured trash satire here, MHB here, cool ad watch here, email of the day here, FOTD here.
--Z.P.