Author: Andrew Sullivan

Dan Ariely wants to know why so much of his produce goes bad. One obvious reason:

I suspect that one of the main culprits is the produce drawer in the refrigerator.  Most refrigerators have a special drawer designed to hold produce, usually located at the bottom of the fridge.  The drawer is often just barely opaque and for some reason difficult to open. Because of these “features,” when you open the fridge door, you look straight ahead, to the leftover lasagna or apple pie (and their convenient position) come to mind, leaving the carrots and nectarines hidden and forgotten in the vegetable drawer.

Scott Adams imagines one:

When you eliminate cash, you also eliminate a lot of crime. Criminals need cash to stay off the radar. In a cashless world, drug dealers and crime syndicates could try to set up fake businesses to launder their revenues, but it wouldn't work. Imagine setting up a fake dry cleaner, for example. The government could easily determine whether that business is buying the type and quantity of dry cleaning supplies typically needed, and whether the profit margins are at industry norms. All of that information would be available through the tax records. A drug dealer could pretend to be a consultant, but even then you expect a digital trail for buying printer ink, business travel, and the like. Perhaps the drug dealer's address and educational level would be tip-offs too.

After reviewing congressman Aaron Schock's selected playlist, David Schmader concludes (sadly):

This is not the playlist of a man who wants to have sex with other men.

Jordan Carr calls Jerry Springer's dating show Baggage the "greatest TV show ever."

Governor Lingle twists the knife:

For those people who want to makes this into a civil rights issue, and of course those in favor of the bill, they see it as a civil rights issue. And I understand them drawing that conclusion. But people on the other side would point out, well, we don’t allow other people to marry even — it’s not a civil right for them. First cousins couldn’t marry, or a brother and a sister and that sort of thing. 

Not so fast:

Later in the segment, “Joe from Silver Spring, Maryland” called in and pointed out that in Hawaii, first cousins actually can get married. Lingle said that she had no idea whether or not that was true in the state she governs.

Today on the Dish, a longtime CNN journalist, Octavia Nasr, was canned for a controversial tweet. Juan Cole pointed his finger at the Israel Lobby, Stephen Walt also sided with Nasr, Greenwald asked if any reporters have been fired for anti-Arab/Muslim sentiment, and David Carr was on edge. A federal judge ruled against the Defense of Marriage Act. More great news on HIV treatment and some bad news out of Iraq.

In Palin news, she launched her first campaign ad, GOP insiders loved it, and readers observed a lack of ethnic appearances. Doug Mataconis explained how potentially new primary rules could hurt her chances with the nomination, Andrew highlighted her intransigence on defense spending, a reader tore into her special needs record, and Gail Collins noted the creepiness of Levi and Bristol's latest statements.

Andrew went after WaPo for its use of "torture" and showed the consequences of newspapers not calling it like it is. He also sided with Coulter over Steele's comments. Andy Bacevich leveled a serious charge at Obama, James Gibney made the case for ending aid to Egypt and Israel, Yglesias preferred to cut Medicare over Social Security, Reihan tackled sugar taxes, and readers broached sugar subsidies. 

Dan Savage joined the monogamy debate, Stephanie Mencimer checked in on NOM, Lindy West told us WTF is up with Gallagher, Dana McCourt commented on why Americans don't watch the World Cup, and a reader had a deep thought about AC. Hathos here. MHB here, VFYW here, and FOTD here.

— C.B.

It seems the British ambassador to Lebanon – as well as US allies King Abdullah of Jordan and prime minister Maliki of Iraq – are terror-supporters as well. I have absolutely no brief for Fadlillah – but to make a complicated point about a man who supported terrorism and who stood up for some modicum of dignity for women in Islam does not seem a firing offense to me. As Stephen Walt puts it:

This incident is also distressing because CNN was essentially caving into a black/white, us vs. them, good vs. absolute evil view of the world. Because the United States had labeled Fadlallah a "terrorist," expressing any sort of positive comment about him was a firing offense. But the real world is more complicated than that: people who support some good things sometimes embrace bad things too, and we ought to be able to acknowledge and "respect" them for their positive actions while recognizing and condemning their errors or flaws. Nasr is correct to have expressed regret for having tweeted on a subject that requires more nuance, but her firing will only reinforce the simplistic stereotypes that already prevail in mainstream political commentary.

She really should be given back her job. The precedent this sets is chilling in the extreme.

Yes, he was very, very excited to see two rainbows. But then he seems very excited to see wild turkeys too. I conclude that the Discovery Channel has a new host – if they're going for the Burning Man demographic.

It took a federal judge to put two and two together. The Defense of Marriage Act was an assault on the core right of the states to define civil marriage as each sees fit; it was … drum-roll please … an assault on the Tenth Amendment! Money quote from the AP story:

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro on Thursday ruled in favor of gay couples' rights in two separate challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA.

The state had argued the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.

Tauro agreed, and said the act forces Massachusetts to discriminate against its own citizens.

"The federal government, by enacting and enforcing DOMA, plainly encroaches upon the firmly entrenched province of the state, and in doing so, offends the Tenth Amendment. For that reason, the statute is invalid," Tauro wrote in a ruling in a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley.

And so one of the principles held most dearly by some of the tea-partiers must logically hold DOMA unconstitutional. Much more on this tomorrow. But let me note right now the political ironies of this. The right is hoist on their own federalist petard and will now have to choose whether states' rights or marriage inequality is more important to them. The Obama administration, meanwhile, now has to decide whether it will further defend DOMA in the courts, fighting against the principles of the tenth amendment so dear to conservatives or the fifth amendment so dear to liberals. The incoherence of the Republicans and the cowardice of the Democrats are now exposed more than ever.

Or they could both listen to Ted Olson. This issue is neither right nor left; it is about human dignity, civil equality and civil rights. And it is way past time the American polity grappled with this, instead of exploiting it for mutual partisan purposes.

(Photo: David McNew/Getty.)

Lindy West tracks down the watermelon-smasher:

Gallagher is—how best to put this?—a paranoid, delusional, right-wing religious maniac. I HAD NO IDEA.

"Hey, President Obama," he spits out the name like a mouthful of burning hair. "You ain't black. I don't care what you say—you're a latte. You're half whole-milk. It could be goat milk—you could be a terrorist!" I am too busy losing my mind to catch the next joke, which is about Ted Kennedy's brain cancer. Aaaaand we're off.