Such a lather people are in, because Rick Perry was cheered at the Republican debate last week for executing 234 death row prisoners in Texas. Actually, Perry didn't even have a chance to repond to the question, posed by Brian Williams, before the audience started applauding. The transcript goes like this:

Williams: Governor Perry, a question about Texas. Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. Have you…

(APPLAUSE) [also one person whistling]

Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?

Well, of course not, Brian. What a question. Rick [...]

Thoughts on a recent interview: "Just imagine if a show on Fox News had a live studio audience. If every time Sean Hannity mentioned death panels or Obamacare, he got a raucous ovation. It would make something that’s already oversimplified and dumbed down even more so, encouraging pandering and self-congratulation and lowering the level of discourse even further."

If your commitment to making fun of Glenn Beck is just as strong as your commitment to helping Jon Stewart sell his new book, then you are totally in luck!

Last night TV person Jon Stewart asked Newsweek editor John Meacham, "Who is making money in the magazine business who does what you do? Who is a successful model?" And you can guess what Meacham said: "The Economist." Okay so, this is something we have heard for years now, from everyone, and it became a huge joke, and guess what? Maybe there's only room for one The Economist! Maybe your weirdly redesigned, money-losing magazine ($500,000 a week!) isn't The Economist! Which, by the way, despite its charms, isn't the only kind of magazine in the world! And which, you know, other magazines are not really being, either [...]

Janet Malcolm comes down Team Carr in the matter of the Rally for Sanity and its odd "blame the media" Palinism: "No doubt it was an accident of organization that required most of the people at the rally to defer their enjoyment of the stage show until they could watch it at home on a screen. But it couldn’t have been a more fitting accident. The world of TV is the world that Stewart and Colbert inhabit."

"It’s fantastic for the brand." —MSNBC's Lawrence O’Donnell offers perhaps the most succinct and appropriate analysis of the Jon Stewart Rally For The Jon Stewart Show I have seen thus far.

Perhaps you've heard that there's been some… disagreements between certain feminist blogs and The Daily Show recently. If not, let me recap! A couple of weeks ago, Jezebel's Irin Carmon (a hand-to-God Real Journalist, with non-blog bylines!) wrote a piece examining what she termed The Daily Show's "Woman Problem." She largely defined the show as being a hostile environment for women as evidenced by the perennially low number of female correspondents and the testimony of some named and unnamed sources. The piece didn't really go too far, other than apparently being widely linked on Facebook. Olivia Munn, the Daily Show's but-one-month-old lady correspondent may or may not [...]

At least half the mysterious but immense number of people who attended Saturday’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear didn’t see or hear one iota of the stage show, because there were way too many people crowding round a woefully insufficient number of speakers and Jumbotrons. But nobody seemed to mind too much about missing the show, because they were having so much fun comparing costumes and signs, and giggling together over how weird “this whole thing” was. The atmosphere as I roamed about the massive crowd was uniformly giddy all day long.

Some thoughts on Jon Stewart's rally for whatever: "This upcoming event in Washington just takes the formerly disruptive Daily Show model and marks its final transition to another element within the system of political media. Rather than critiquing the system from the outside, it's now a participant fully enmeshed, and if employing two former Clinton aides isn't a mark of political professionalization, I don't know what is."

Dear Jon Stewart,

I was totally psyched to learn yesterday that you have bought a house in Red Bank, New Jersey, which is the town next to the town where I grew up-Little Silver, New Jersey. In fact, I went to Red Bank Regional High School, which, confusingly, is located in Little Silver. I don't get back there so often since my mom moved away and I know the place has changed a lot. (So faaaaaancy, as Tony Soprano's mom would say.) But as a way of welcoming you to this part of the world, I thought I might offer you some recommendations, sort of an area guide, [...]