A new issue of Open Letters Monthly is out. From FDR to Barack Obama, James Morone’s revelatory history of presidents and healthcare policy lays out some basic rules. No Exit: Michelle Cottle on the never-ending lunacy of Betsy McCaughey. From Baghdad — frightening reports of gay pogroms, where homosexual men are targeted, tortured, slayed; from New York — a scurry to find those same men before they are killed, and shepherd them to safety. Jack Shafer on how Conde Nast is like General Motors. The Polanski case and a Gallic shrug: In France, which worships a privileged class of aesthetes and philosophers, moral tension has arisen — and moral luck shouldn't exist, but it does, and Roman Polanski's may have run out. Private Tudors: Wendy Lesser reviews Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (which won the 2009 Booker prize for her fictionalised life of Thomas Cromwell; and more and more). The Nobel prize system needs an overhaul — that's the conclusion of a group of scientists brought together to debate the future of the prizes (and more). Here are the winners of the Ig Nobels, or Igs, which celebrate research that "cannot, or should not, be repeated". Science confirms the obvious: It takes real proof to back up even the simplest theories; these 10 studies show that the obvious can have not-so-obvious implications. The Fear Factor: Michael Specter on dangerous rumors about the flu vaccine. An interview with Sam Tanenhaus on conservatism and editing The New York Times Book Review. Here's an article on how to fake your way through the 2009 baseball playoffs.
