The Indy's special issue on Abe Lincoln came out today and I had a small piece in it trying to make sense of the recent explosion of "popular Lincolnology" read against the Obama and Bush presidencies.

There's a lot of good stuff in the issue, from twelve ways of looking at Abraham Lincoln to Lincoln in music to Lincoln in film to Lincoln on Facebook. Even Gore Vidal gets his shout-out...

Sorry there's been so many linkdumps and so little of everything else lately. I'll get back to business soon.

* Watchmen settlement reached!

* Top ten other science fiction films for the thinking man.

* Duke's "Hoof 'n' Horn" is running Superman: The Musical this week and next. Need I say more?

* It's a show I don't watch anymore, but nonetheless I'm greatly angered to discover that The Simpsons completely retconned the history of Homer and Marge's marriage. I'm aware it happened last year. WORST EPISODE EVER.

* 'The Turning Point: How the Susan Crawford interview changes everything we know about torture.' Via Matt Yglesias. More on torture at Glenn Greenwald. I still haven't decided whether prosecutions are better than a truth and reconciliation commission, but there has to be a reckoning.

* The headline reads, "History May See Lincoln-Like Greatness in George W. Bush." Suuuuuuure.

* The facts are in: college is expensive. Very expensive. How else could I make such mad bank?

Image of the day: a small crowd gathers around the Lincoln Memorial last Tuesday night to listen to Obama's acceptance speech on transistor radio. Via Kottke. Here's the description of the scene from the photographer.

Michael Lind's striking post at Salon argues that the historic election of Barack Obama this week represents the start of a fourth American Republic to match the First (1788-1860), the Second (1860-1932), and the Third (1932-2004ish), a 72-year structural pattern that will likely catapult Obama into the pantheon of truly great American presidents: Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, each in their own way founders of the nation.

Policy shifts, more than public opinion polls or election results, suggest that a truly transformative moment may be upon us. The first three American republics display a remarkably similar pattern. Their 72-year life span is divided into two 36-year periods (again, give or take a year -- this is not astrology). During the first 36-year period of a republic, ambitious nation-builders in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton strengthen the powers of the federal government and promote economic modernization. During the second 36-year phase of a republic, there is a Jeffersonian backlash, in favor of small government, small business and an older way of life. During the backlash era, Jeffersonians manage to modify, but never undo, the structure created by the Hamiltonians in the previous era.

In this calculus Obama is the new, progressive Hamiltonian, whose reinvigorating vision the nation will dominate American politics for decades. And Bush is likewise the last Republic's final Jeffersonian:

George W. Bush was not only the final president of the Jeffersonian backlash period of Roosevelt's Third Republic, but the last president of the 1932-2004 Third Republic itself. The final president of a republic tends to be a failed, despised figure. The First Republic, which began with George Washington, ended with James Buchanan, a hapless president who refused to act as the South seceded after Lincoln's election. The Second Republic, which began with Abraham Lincoln, ended with the well-meaning but reviled and ineffectual Herbert Hoover. The Third Republic, founded by Franklin Roosevelt, came to a miserable end under the pathetic George W. Bush.

Provocative stuff. Now Obama just has to live up to it.