From Public Reason, Stefan Bird-Pollan (Harvard): Rawls: Construction and Justification. From Lapham's Quarterly, a special issue on Arts & Letters. From The National Interest, so long as Washington continues to nationalize uncompetitive companies, and handpick winners and losers, our innovative preeminence will be in jeopardy. Why we need ACORN: The group, once a top anti-poverty organization, fought to empower those whose interests and needs get short shrift. Karin L. Kross reviews Cecil and Jordan in New York by Gabrielle Bell. From RAND Review, an article on Esther Duflo and how science can help fight the War on Poverty. The philosopher kings of UK politics: Are Clegg, Brown and Cameron just modern-day versions of Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau? From Education Next, Paul Peterson on the legacy of James Coleman. Rashid Khalidi on Bad Faith in the Holy City: How Israel’s Jerusalem policy imperils the peace process. Glee is one of a handful of television shows offering unabashedly smart, awkward, nerdy, female characters — will Hollywood take to the trend? The Great West Coast Newspaper War: An article on the crazy alt-weekly war in San Francisco. Alternative cartoonists nearing the punch line? As alt weeklies go, so go alt comics. The Edge, too has its edge: Fridolin Schley on reading Uwe Johnson in New York. Collateral damage denialism: Why do we keep on acting like a kinder, gentler form of warfare is even possible? Hypatia, ancient Alexandria’s great female scholar: An avowed paganist in a time of religious strife, Hypatia was also one of the first women to study math, astronomy and philosophy. Haiti and the Dominican Republic may share a tiny Caribbean isle, but they have always despised each other; the earthquake may have changed that.
