Today on the Dish, a Marine shared a tender moment with Obama on the end of DADT, and Dan Savage had to coin a new phrase for anti-gay Republicans caught with their pants down. Alex Nowrasteh wanted to charge an immigration tariff for visas, Walter Russell Mead assessed Clarence Thomas' role on the Supreme Court, and Michael Gerson earned an Yglesias award for defending family planning. Irene may not have been over-hyped, and we debated flood insurance provided by FEMA. In international news, John F. Copper thanked Taiwan with saving us from China, and we picked apart our attempts to negotiate with the Taliban. Daniel Serwer brainstormed how to hasten the fall of Bashar in Syria, Ed Carr didn't believe weather causes violence, and we imagined whether the Iraq war would have existed under a President Gore.
On the campaign trail, we brainstormed titles for Michele Bachmann's memoir, Perry's views on Medicare could be a gift to Democrats, and Maisie envisioned the future of imperial conservatism. Yural Levin tried to defend the right's approach to science, Huntsman may not be as moderate as we thought, and bloggers measured Perry's intelligence. Obama's approval rating leveled off at a low point, but calling someone a tea-partier is now an insult for candidates, and American politics devolved into the vacuous.
Friedersdorf listed people whose main crime was trying to sell simple things without a permit, and we debated legal protections for ugly people and the logistics of selling pot in a down economy. A new service matched students to colleges, New York City banned dogs from bars, and John Lennon and McCartney used pronouns differently when collaborating. We glimpsed the future of people voluntarily becoming cyborgs, and analyzed the lasting impact of Steve Jobs on how we look at our own jobs. Perspective is everything when photographing Gambian rats, screwing animals could be just as bad as stewing them, and face recognition software could change the future of photobombing.
Von Hoffman award here, MHB here, FOTD here, VFYW here, and VFYW contest winner #65 here.
–Z.P.
(Photo: By Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images.)
The Dish 