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Hello and welcome to the Slate political gab fest for February 1st, 2013, the huddled masses,

and David Plotz's birthday edition. I am David Plotz,

the editor of Slate. Do you know that January 31st is my birthday? Oh, I didn't know that. Happy

birthday. I forgot. Happy birthday, David. Thank you. That was really fishing there. That was

embarrassing. That's okay. So I was thinking about you today, John Dickerson. Because according to

the book of Genesis,

at the very beginning of the earth, there was a period when angels mated with humans and their offspring were called the Nephilim.

I was thinking, John Dickerson, half angel, half human, all man.

Well, no, I guess if you're half angel, half human, you're not all man.

But you are Slate's chief political correspondent. Hello, John. Well, no, I guess if you're half angel, half human, you're not all man. But you are Slate's

chief political correspondent. Hello, John. Hello, David. I don't understand why John would be

half an angel. I mean, I love him dearly, but that's a little strange. Also, I couldn't be

feeling less angelic at the moment. First of all, when I did my Reddit AMA this week, all the questions were like, oh, is John that great or is he just even more great than that?

Is John so nice in real life as he is on the show?

And I was like, so I'm in the John Dickerson propaganda.

Also, Emily, aren't you, we are the fellow brunettes.

...