Today on the Dish, Andrew criticized the possible use of a torture-lie plot-device in Zero Dark Thirty, responded to British conservatives’ backing of marriage equality, and joined readers to discuss the maddeningly-high tolerance for Republican quitters. Andrew and others also wondered if the GOP could improve its image by opposing weed prosecutions, and he additionally took on Kleiman over federal drug enforcement and pot dependancy.
In political coverage, Charlie Cook previewed Democrats’ poor prospects for 2014, Michael C. Moynihan tried to debunk the anarchist-straw-man argument against libertarianism, a reader identified DADT and DOMA as historical growing pains, and we featured more letters from millennial voters, this time defending the generation from naysayers, as well as making us aware of the slightly-older voters whose childhoods lacked an “overarching boogeyman” to oppose. Suderman and Ezra debated a return to Clinton-era spending limits, Beinart explained Obama’s “standing back” policy with regards to Israel, McKibben took on Hillary for her possibly unethical support of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and if Obama goes after legal weed, Pareene advised drug reformers to wield a new litmus test for political candidates. We also rounded up more reactions to Friday’s SCOTUS decision to take up marriage equality and DOMA, tried to figure out if Obama would raise the Medicare eligibility age, and discovered that not only is Dick Morris always wrong, he’s likely a con artist too. Looking overseas, we tracked the developments in Egypt’s political crisis, as well as reviewed the country’s democratic chances, while Eyal Weizman detailed Israel’s use of “teaser bombs” to clear targets of civilians before larger airstrikes, and Kay Hymowitz examined how Sweden may be suppressing women’s careers with the very policies they designed to enable them.
In assorted coverage, we collected the best new commentary on journalism meters and paywalls, Josh MacPhee and Nick Carr considered Kickstarter’s fee structure, Paul Gabrielsen explored the use medical maggots, Wesley Law photographed bales of donated clothing, and another reader shared their experience being a sudden hero, this time at the beach. Readers also responded to toy companies’ gender neutral marketing, while Scott Adams dreamt of a better to-do app and Devin Leonard looked at the rise of luxury home-healthcare. Slavoj Žižek hated Gangnam Style to earn himself a poseur alert, video game characters died dumbly in our MHB, there was ample snowfall through our Minnesota VFYW, and we met a few of India’s hidden drug users in our FOTD. The weekend wrap is here.
– C.D.
The Dish 