The Dish

The joys of camera shuttering and light sabers. More cool art from Eric Staller here. And here.

Yes – my ashes will be able to be scattered off the tip of the Cape and I can still have a Catholic funeral. Thanks, Benedict.

Altogether now – awww:

A pet dog missed the family’s dead cat so much that he dug up his grave and brought the body back into the house… "Then he pulled him into the basket and went to sleep next to him. Arthur’s coat was gleaming white. Oscar had obviously licked him clean. It must have taken him nearly all night."

My take on the South Carolina debate is here.

Grist’s David Roberts thinks not:

It seems pretty obvious to me that he’d endorse Obama. But he has reached something of a detente with Hillary, and will need to be able to work with her should she win.

Then there’s the trauma of Dean.

At Reagan’s funeral?

The Economist digs into the question of Ron Paul’s allies.

Maybe that’s the real divide over Clinton:

It strikes me that the split between women moved by Hillary’s NH plight and those unconvinced by it mirrors the split in their basic political viewpoints. The women who were drawn to Hillary seem to be the same ones who support the old, big government, liberal ethos. The women who rejected HRC’s vulnerability moment seem to have a much more libertarian streak.

The Paglias of the country want to take responsibility for their own actions and face their own consequences on their own terms, while the Steinems want Big Brother to make everyone play nice.  It’s the old big vs. limited government argument, writ in terms of gender.  The Obama side stands for the development of a grassroots movement in which Americans take an active part in their governance and are complicit in its actions, while the Clinton aesthetic demands a government that does everything for everyone and thereby enforces some kind of equality.

That’s a helpful distinction. Of course, I’ve long sided with Camille Paglia on this question. I belong to a minority, but I’ve always insisted on playing by the same rules as straights. I want no special privilege and no government discrimination either. My libertarian-conservative approach to gay politics was laid out in Virtually Normal. It’s one reason I don’t fit in with the Human Rights Campaign people either. I’m happy to live my life, and let others live theirs’. I don’t want or need the government to love me, make me feel better or tell me how to live. My deep difference with Hillary Clinton is precisely this. In my view, it takes an individual. And that’s not a function of misogyny. It’s a function of believing in liberty.

Rod Dreher links to a very honest, almost painfully honest, account of his friend, Doug LeBlanc’s, attempts to figure out whom to support in this election. LeBlanc is a conservative evangelical. But the thought of a Romney or a Giuliani appals him. He cannot get past his feelings about Clinton. He longs for an Obama-McCain race, which right now is my dream as well. Read the whole thing. He asks:

Can anyone else relate to my struggles?

Relate? I’m living them. And so are many Dish readers, judging from my in-tray.