A new issue of Open Letters Monthly is out. From TNR, Sean Wilentz reviews books on Abraham Lincoln. From Jewcy, what flavor of New Jew are you? Why all deaths are not equal: The discrepancy in the media coverage of two plane crashes is a reflection of our need to value some lives more than others. My country, boom or bust: Why economic nationalism is unpatriotic. From Slate, Joel Simon on why ignoring the media is a serious threat to press freedom; keeping the fizz in the journalism biz: Thanks to technology, we may be entering a golden age; and Jack Shafer on The Washington Post's boneheaded plan to lobby for lobbyists. That democracy is in trouble — in some versions terminal trouble — is now the commonest of ideas among political scientists, coupled with a regret that their warnings have not been attended to. Afraid of the public option? This is what America will look like without it. Caitlin Roper reviews 117 Days by Ruth First. A review of My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them. Who decides how much White House staffers get paid? Resignations, frustrations, and 180 degree changes of opinion at The Politico, DC's most controversial publication. No Rest for the Wealthy: Forget Thorstein Veblen’s leisure class — in today’s money culture, to be idle is to be irrelevant.
