The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish, Andrew reflected on the meaning of the word ‘terrorism’ after Boston, shamed the New York Post for its unhinged, libelous coverage of the bombing, and chided both Obama and the right for unanimous silence on the most recent report of America’s torture regime. Elsewhere, he defended masturbation, answered readers on the perks of living in New York, and awarded both Glen Reynolds and Kevin Williamson Malkin Award nominations for their ill-advised swipes at Gabby Giffords.

We gathered coverage of the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas and Dreher focused on the sacrifices of volunteer firefighters at the scene. On the Boston bombing beat, security cameras caught the actual suspects in the Faces of the Day while Tim Murphy connected skills learned Iraq to those used by EMS in the aftermath of the explosion.

In political coverage, Douthat speculated why the US experiences so few bombings, we probed the connections between location, gun ownership and suicide, and we rounded up reax to the death of the gun-control bill and the President’s remarks. Rubio took heat from right-wingers for his much-hailed immigration bill, Laura Murphy highlighted the lack of due process in deportation, and we tried to parse the legal significance of keeping one’s mouth shut under interrogation lights. Reinhart and Rogoff struck back, we took a subway ride through New York’s inequality gap, and George Packer gave voice to friends of the US trapped in Afghanistan after we leave. Finally, Noam Scheibler followed former Obama aides into the lobbying business and Dreher clarified why he doesn’t belong to the GOP as readers flooded the inbox in response to yesterday’s email from a would-be gay Republican.

In miscellanea, Adam Kirsch dove into the journal of Holocaust survivor Helga Weiss, we found out what’s keeping US soldiers awake at night, and Dishheads weighed in on one reader’s story of hydrocephalus. Melissa Holbrook Pierson described the hobby of ‘found photography,’ and we considered the message of Jackie Robinson’s new Hollywood treatment while George Soros received the Tom Sawyer treatment in the Headline of the Day. Patton Oswalt delivered a tour de force in fan-fic filibustering while six literary titans workshopped Moby Dick. We took in a strong commercial for gun legislation in the Cool Ad Watch, joined Iron and Wine for a light show in the wilderness in the MHB, and enjoyed a floral view in Washington, DC for the VFYW.

–B.J.