Today on the Dish, Massie defended blogging from Rauch's attack, and then proceeded to argue neither the newspapers nor the politicians deserve to win the fight. Rauch parsed the constitutionality of the 14th Amendment on paying our debts, and Patrick kept an eye on Italy's effect on the European crisis and advice to the GOP to make a deal. Massie took stock of the world's upward trends, and took David Cameron's temperature as the Murdoch crisis got to him.
Zack deconstructed the tradeoff argument about the President's attention, and questioned why the right thinks Israel can do no wrong. Chris explored the consequences of colorism, Pawlenty pulled a Jack Bauer, and Palin lied about how much that jerky stuff costs. Football hotshot Michael Irvin challenged the African American community to stand up for marriage equality, Bachmann showed her real anti-gay colors, and polygamists went down the slippery slope. Joseph Nye calmed us down about China's economic power, Karzai's brother was assassinated, and wiretaps in America were on the rise.
Harry Potter helped science, life imitated fiction in Sweden, and British fiction predicted the HuffPo model. We still had trouble predicting natural disasters and complex systems, China upped the stakes with the longest sea bridge, and Japan embraced divorce parties. Readers enlightened us about their garbage and recycling routines, the government can't budget its own projects, and the end of department stores made me nostalgic for first jobs. Some writers blamed technology for a "backlash against sex," we checked in with participants of the Stanford Prison Experiment forty years later, and crickets can tell us the temperature. Michelle Obama ate a burger, Mila Kunis had a date for the Marine Corps Ball, and once upon a time, goats breastfed humans.
Chart of the day here, FOTD here, MHB here, VFYW here, and VFYW contest winner #58 here.
–Z.P.
(Photo: Spectators watch the main ring during the Great Yorkshire Show on July 12, 2011 in Harrogate, England. The annual show has attracted a record number of 12,700 livestock entries over the three-day event. The show, now in its 153rd year, is Britain's leading agricultural gathering, where over 125,000 visitors come to celebrate the farming community and their way of life. By Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.)
The Dish 