Today on the Dish, Andrew discussed meditation, he considered the many ways to God, and "that thing out there" is conscious. Conservatives went berserk over the Gingrich surge (more unconcealed panic here), and the former speaker proposed an average tax cut of $1.9 million for everyone in the top 0.1 percent. Romney defined his views as "progressive" in 2002, he had a hard time connecting with a gay vet, and his lead in New Hampshire may not be forever. The "less weird" candidate will win, Newt mastered the counter-punch, and he waged a lonely campaign. We collected reax to the Gingrich-Huntsman "debate," a conservative Christian brought Perry back to earth, and Ron Paul could "change the math" in Iowa (more on Paul as protest vote here).
The foreign minister of Israel defended Putin's corruption, Assad has murdered more than 5,000 Syrians, and drones hovered in the US. We explored Palestinian identity, and the EU faces a problem of scale.
We debated the merits of political fact-checking, met YouTube's oppo researcher, and covered the controversy surrounding Lowe's and All-American Muslim (Jonah Goldberg's thoughts here). DOMA complicates the tax code, cable bundling enables Fox News, and the blogosphere's most talented political reporter ditched blogging. We have a primordial need to hoard food, sugar makes us tired and sad, and e-cigs are an effective replacement for cigs. City rankings are useless, and the pit bull is the American muscle dog.
Poseur alert here, FOTD here, MHB here, VFYW here, VFYW contest winner #80 here, the 2011 economy in 10 graphs here, and the Christmas gift idea for the man who has everything here.
— M.A.
The Dish 