Today on the Dish, Rebeckah Brooks resigned, Massie jumped on Eliot Spitzer for calling for a US investigation and fondly recalled the days of yellow American journalism. The war over who won the War of 1812 raged on, and Massie reminded us that the war in Libya continues even if we aren't paying attention to it. Rauch praised Reason's full issue on criminal injustice, Chris dismantled what gaydar can and can't do, but some weren't impressed with making fun of Marcus Bachmann's lisp. Saletan doubted gaydar, Canada took a step back on gay equality, and gay sex could get you out of a blood drive.
Howard Gleckman ran some numbers on what parts of the debt we could pay, and neither party was going to come out of this crisis smelling like roses. Many French lovers took advantage of marriage-lite, Sean Guillory called Putin a liberal, Grover Norquist was unconservative, and no one wanted to make out during The Undefeated. Ancient Egyptians hired foreign mercenaries to fight their wars, forensics help counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Zack went another round with a reader on Islam and democracy. Syrian democracy could unravel Hezbollah, Iraqi's protest movement chugged along, and Zack tackled Iraq in 1991 versus 2003.
Science printed a wrench, male soccer players fake it more, and the internet put our muscle brains out of shape. We admired dads on vacation, praised privatized fire servies, and readers sold their soul in the service industry. The Sartorialist got remixed, we reminisced over Harry Potter (and his politics), kids love club music because it's communal, and one man profiled his Facebook friends.
Raver frog watch 
Thursday on the Dish, Rauch went another round with Massie on whether blogging has improved our media diet. Conrad Black joined the Murdoch pile-on, and Massie exhibited the "denial, panic, stalling and extraordinary arrogance" exhibited by the Murdochs. The War of 1812 wasn't so awesome for Native Americans, and Massie took the Royal Navy-centric view. Rauch explained why he's against polygamy but still thinks it should be decriminalized.
The White House was meep-meeping its way tot a deal to expand government, but Felix Salmon thought damage had already been done. Ezra Klein reminded us all that taxes will have to get higher no matter what, so it's good that people want it that way. Chris imagined if one of the Obama girls got pregnant at 17 like Bristol, Will Wilkinson rejected Gingrich's version of God-given rights, Bachmann butchered chutzpah, and the internet placed bets on the Perry vs Bachmann fight.
Zack critiqued Israel's boycott bill, dismantled Obama's anti-colonialism and questioned how a counter-insurgency mentality influences our wars. The French rolled back the imperial presidency, we took Egypt's temperature, and Shadi Hamid encouraged Obama to think outside the box on Syria. Bradley Manning's devotion to openness extended to his sexuality, gay men still can't give blood in the US, and an Amber-like alert for a boy in Brooklyn backfired. Readers did their math on infrastructure projects, and reminded us why it's nice to keep a bathroom clean. Drug tests exist for insurance reasons, lawyers debated the meaning of shit, and humans can only run so fast.
Map of the day here, Christianism watch here, creepy ad watch here, VFYW here, MHB here, FOTD here.
Wednesday on the Dish, David Cameron cuts Murdoch loose, and Massie relished the remarkable day's events. Rauch argued for keeping anti-anti-Semitism alive, championed Buddy Roemer's candidacy, and parsed McConnell's scheme. Rauch remembered America's coolest war ever, Massie rubbed the salt of the UK's healthcare spending into our respective wounds, and deconstructed Bachmann's not-so-controversial opinion on the antichrist.
Chris critiqued the Palins' gender dynamics, and Irvin's gangsta cred added another dimension to the marriage equality coup. Patrick assessed straight civil unions through matrimony-tinted glasses, and rounded up reactions to Netflix's price hikes. Bachmann's fans don't care about her non-record, Zack debated political philosophy and motivated reasoning, and fingered the GOP for endangering the military hegemony.
The Revolutionary Guard had beef with Ahmadinejad, China schooled San Francisco in bridge-building, and Stuxnet was toppled by amateurs. We slammed the door on the Iraqis who helped us, Fallows scolded the CIA for lying about vaccines, and Obama lost the Arab popularity contest.
Garrett Miller made kids' artwork cooler, tubes could have been the travel of the future, and medieval sex confounded us. Music singles replaced the album, the internet grew, and Walter Russell Mead dissed the Stoner lobby. LA prepared for Carmaggedon, readers regaled us with stories of life on the job, and how they stopped acting like entitled shits. Stupid ad watch here, quote of the day here, app of the day here, VFYW here, FOTD here, and MHB here.
Banff, Canada, 9.32 am
Tuesday 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.
By Bethany Clarke/Getty Images.
Monday on the Dish, Jonathan Rauch railed against blogging, Zack Beauchamp made his entrance, and Alex Massie deconstructed tabloid culture from across the pond. Rupert Murdoch's desire to own the media classified him as nuts, Massie defended the decency of British life and indecency of its press, and regulations would only seek to protect consumers from what they want. Amy Davidson defended the British press for breaking the NotW story, we gaged the crisis of reporting, and this ad fail represented most of what's wrong with American journalism.
Rauch longed for moderates to solve the budget crisis, Ezra Klein wondered if the GOP will come to regret passing up Boehner's deal, and Zack tackled democracy, China and growth. Bachmann's husband broke the ethics code of the American Psychological Association by championing ex-gay "therapy" and Rauch couldn't believe with the economy in the tank, all the GOP can talk about is gays. T-Paw went after Bachmann, and Massie compared Ed Milliband to Pawlenty for being boring. Chris defended testicles, Palin cried sexism over the Newsweek cover that she posed for, and Chris parsed her sordid past with the nanny state.
We debated how libertarians defend the powerless, Matt Zwolinski wanted progressives to become more libertarian, and the poor live without the basic luxury of a simple safety net. We examined how healthcare changed people's lives in Oregon, and medical rating sites would have to wrestle with the web's open nature. Julian Assange advertised like a douche, readers went another round on reasonable doubt, and public tragedies make for bad laws. Criminals worked the day shift, composting could help the deficit, and most of our chocolate bars originate in Ghana. We analyzed the birth of the nation of South Sudan, al Qaeda may be cooked, and bastard amber lighting isn't a bad thing. Sam Harris remembered a bad trip, Massie critiqued contemporary country music, and we did a philosophical tasting of wine.
Cool ad watch here, charts of the day here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.
–Z.P.
The Dish 