Today on the Dish, the internet weighed whether Obama's bill could pass, and David Brooks joined Andrew in supporting Obama's second stimulus. Andrew lingered on whether Palin's populism stems from opportunism or principle, Dan Savage bemoaned the fact that in America you can die by tooth infection, and Perry acted the hypocrite on health-related mandates. Maggie Gallagher earned an Yglesias award for telling Perry he needs to act like he wants to save Social Security, and Andrew agreed that his extremism could hurt him. Mitt dissed Congress for failing on Social Security, we assessed the psychology of small businesses, and Toobin pointed Perry to the fact that the death penalty is withering even in Texas. Greg Marx defended the influence of horse-race politics, we poured over an early electoral map, and behind the 21-year-old neocon phenom was a 32-year-old man.

Andrew explained his support of the Palestinian Hail Mary at the UN, and readers regaled us with stories of their favorite 9/11 art including Short Bus and Wilco's "Jesus, Etc." Stanley McChrystal modeled our military after al-Qaeda's, and Mubarak might go free. Sophisticated missiles went missing in Libya, and Matt Steinglass nailed how we missed the mark on terrorism versus how Israel deals with it. Thomas P.M. Barnett congratulated the US on finding a good model for multilateral intervention, an IED costs less than a new iPhone, and a former Guantanamo interrogator admitted torture doesn't work. China scaled back its oil interest in Iran, and Karim Sadjadpour compared Iran's lecture to Syria on using force to Berlusconi lecturing Charlie Sheen about womanizing.

Wilkinson proposed scaling back the postal service to a couple days a week, Bodenner shot down the "women are weaker" argument about the military, while a reader made a legitimate case based on birth defects from uranium. The hetero version of Grindr drifted farther from the original, and Google bought Zagat to the chagrin of Yelp. Narcissists are proud of their arrogance, goths danced to Madonna, and a drunk Swedish moose got stuck in a tree.

Cool ad watch here, interview of the day with Mel Gibson here, storytelling advice from Matt and Trey here, chart of the day here, MHB here, VFYW here, and FOTD here.

Thursday on the Dish, Andrew rallied Obama to step up to his moment of truth on jobs, and he brought it, hard. Readers had the same reaction as Andrew: meep meep motherfuckers, and the blogosphere agreed.

On last night's GOP debate, Dish readers offered their own reax on our Facebook page, and Sally Kohn couldn't see the resemblance of any of the candidates to Reagan. Andrew assessed the Catholic response to the GOP cheers for the death penalty, Huntsman showed his true conservative colors, and Bernstein backed Andrew's (and the GOP's) fear of a Palin candidacy. Bloggers debated the source of Perry's achilles heel, which could very well be foreign policy, but he didn't lose any Tea Party votes on global warming. Edward Glaeser didn't want to credit Huntsman or Romeny with creating or losing jobs, and we wondered if Americans were hungry for the red meat Perry offered on Social Security and Medicare. Weigel wasn't sure Americans know what a Ponzi scheme really is, we were kidding about the corndog photo ops, and male candidates can get fat.

Susan Jacoby warned against sacrilizing 9/11, the internet debated whether al-Qaeda has been defeated, and your 9/11 emotional time-suck here. Egyptian activists might boycott the election, and Jeremy Scahill recounted how we helped create the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabaab.

Andrew credited gay marriage with helping the rise in monogamy, and we examined Mike Lofgren's lessons about obstructing justice in Congress. Casey Mulligan mulled over the hours worked by different age groups, deregulating food trucks makes sense, and infectious disease appears to be a primary cause of the global variation in human intelligence. We assessed the politics of Che and Hitler for hipsters, analyzed Amazon's requirement to pay taxes, and updated our blog etiquette. Megan H. MacKenzie made the case for letting women serve in combat, and a First Class passenger gave his seat up to a serviceman.

App of the day here, MHB here, VFYW here, and FOTD here.

Norangsdalen Valley, Norway, 5 pm

Wednesday on the Dish, Andrew live-blogged the GOP debate where all eyes were on Perry, who proved to be an "extreme, inarticulate, incurious W clone." We rounded up the full reax here, Andrew parsed the semantic implications of where and how Rick Perry and Marcus Bachmann consume corndogs, Silver assessed Bachmann's odds, and the left and right disagreed about what we're polarized about (wealth versus politics). Taibbi gave up on Obama's campaign promises, Andy McCarthy delivered a whopper on Obama's economy, and Erick Erickson was sick of Palin's games. Kevin Williamson continued to see nothing wrong with the death penalty even for the innocent, and Romney's new economic plan sounded quiet on the major problem of US unemployment. We tracked the conservative movement for criminal justice reform, and Joe Romm countered that green jobs aren't a scam.

Andrew recalled how Darwin lends the story of Adam and Eve even more importance and revisited his initial support for the war in Iraq in answer to the dissent of the day. Israel continued to be held up by Christianists Americans, and Andrew encouraged you to ask the next freshman you see in a CCCP t-shirt why he isn't wearing a swastika, ironically. Lawrence Korb tracked how 9/11 decimated our military, and readers shared their picks for the best 9/11 art, music and films, revisiting the 25th Hour rant. Captured Af-Pak militants may be exacting their revenge with the help of US drone attacks, Israeli girls were indoctrinated with the settler mentality, and the 9/11 memorial is organized by meaningful adjacencies. Iraq still can't run itself, and economic mobility could be an economic boon for the world.

We analyzed why land values beat home prices, readers pushed back against Andrew on why iPhones can't be made in the USA, and Andrew considered moral hazard and the bond markets, on the advice of Martin Wolf. Andrew welcomed Eli Lake to the Beast team along with other media news, Rod Dreher remembered that most Americans don't live in the NYC/ DC bubble, and James Murdoch was as screwed as ever. Tina Brown explained why insecure men act out with sexual antics, Alexis imagined charging your iPhone in a sunny part of the park, and Drudge sank to new lows with his image choice for a $300 billion stimulus.

Dan Savage and Joss Whedon enlightened us on how they got through high-school, readers debated dogs vs children in restaurants, and a dad saw the appeal of violent videogames for kids. Erick Schonfeld bowed down before TV on the internet, KJ Dell Antonia disapproved of a sperm donor allowed to have 150 kids, and heteros got their own version of Grindr.

Chart of the day here, VFYW here, FOTD here, MHB here, and WTF video of the day here.

By Mario Tama/Getty Images.

Tuesday on the Dish, Andrew assessed what how the economic and international front after his breather, but glimpsed the silver lining for Obama. He pressed Douthat on the radical theological politics that dominates the GOP, exemplified by Francis Schaeffer's Christianist advice to Bachmann. Andrew refused to decode Palin's rambling nonsense, Perry exemplified the GOP's over-reach into a platform far removed from reality, and we remembered that Romney remains the default, as he's easy on suburban eyes and ears. Ron Paul attacked Perry by comparing himself to Reagan, and Andrew compared Texas' population without health insurance at 27.2% with Massachusetts' 5.2 percent. The iPhone can't save the US economy, we analyzed the US government's green investments, and if driving is subsidized, then we're all socialists now. Bruce Bartlett warned Democrats not to cave in too much to the GOP, and Andrew was grateful to have left certain life-consuming hyperboles behind for a couple of weeks. Andrew's 9/11 take here and his hope for HRC's future here.

Around the world, we examined where doctors are needed, China was addicted to smoking, and James Traub put the brakes on overspending to prevent a war with China. Zadie Smith contemplated how 9/11 changed the perception of Muslims in the UK, Maximilian Popp feared Germany's Islamic parallel justice system, and many Muslims don't believe Arabs were behind the 9/11 attacks.

Pareene let Matthew Vadun have it over ACORN, and Balko compared Perry on capital punishment to the last two administrations on issues like torture and rendition. Our education system has its roots in securing a docile workforce, Lewis McCrary defended Civil War reenactments, and even transgendered people mix up their pronouns. Rob Horning disagreed with Jaron Lanier on similarities between the Tea Party and internet users, a college student prepared to be humbled by the job market, and Willy Staley defended Detroit's ruin porn. Happyplace collected hilarious captions for nonsensical signs, Sam Biddle didn't want to rent his bathroom to strangers, and we updated our approach to predicting the future.

Cool ad watch here, chart of the day here, FOTD here, MHB here, VFYW here and VFYW contest #66 here.

–Z.P.