Good weekend morning all! Still coming off the thrill of a lifetime: last night’s Nation Magazine 18-6 softball victory over The Scientific American, our first victory since before our world changed. But with a few minutes to spare today I wanted to pass on some links I’ve been hanging on to:

• Why is The Economist thriving while Time and Newsweek fade? This is publishing inside baseball, but Michael Hirschorn’s piece is an interesting look at journalism today and at our shifting culture – what kinds of media people want to consume, and why. 
• Obama, Gay Rights, and The Lebron Factor. Does linking this article allow me to tag this post “LeBron James gay?” and see what that does to our web traffic? Yes we can. But I linked this because it brought up a disturbing thought: maybe the Obama Administration knows academically they have to commit to gay rights, but personally they are still a straight boys club and pushing for gay rights feels … a little gay. That’s not the point of Carlos Watson’s piece at all, but I read this right after I read this ESPN.com article about how playing baskeball with the President equals real access in DC, and I wondered: is the holdup on gay rights partly because we’re being run by a bunch of dudes? 
• This is from last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine so it’s a little old, but I’m completely obsessed with these Grand Paris plans Nicholas Sarkozy has commissioned, and the possibilities for remaking Paris. 
• Okay fuck: I wanted to give everybody one really, really good piece that would explain health care reform, and I can’t find one. The New York Times this morning has a helpful chart; Ezra Klein at The Washington Post is following the twists and turns if you just want to bookmark him. This post from ThinkProgress has another helpful chart that explains the differences between the various proposals on the table. So if you want to keep up on health care: the Times chart tells you the shape of the current proposal in congress; the other chart shows some of the counter-proposals up for debate; Klein is keeping track of it all. 
• Michelle Obama as Claire Huxtable. I‘ll say this – my mom found this article outrageous and a co-worker found this article outrageous both for totally different reasons. Is this racist and regressive? Spot on? Evidence of media bias? You tell me. 

Also? A bonus! “The Good Soldier: Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.” It’s a good check-in on how Clinton is doing, and if you were following every twist and turn of the 2008 primaries I think it’s a fascinating read. 

Finally today, since you’ve been so patient, a video! DailyKos has a highly enjoyable slam-dunk about the latest Fox News hypocrisy, this time involving ABC News and their claim of “unprecedented White House access.” 

About The Author
Ben Wyskida is a writer, activist, conscientious hedonist and political communications strategist living in Brooklyn. - Visit Ben's site.