Simon Keller (BU): Patriotism as Bad Faith. From ResetDOC, can Islam accommodate democracy or democracy accommodate Islam? Benjamin Barber investigates. From ZNet, an excerpt from Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century by Chris Spannos. Despite doom-laden prophecies, texting has not been the disaster for language many feared; on the contrary, it improves children's writing and spelling. Transloosely Literated: A book's journey from one language into another can be perilous. Christopher Hitchens says farewell to Jesse Helms, a provincial redneck. From National Review, a symposium on Jesse Helms. Apocalypse now: In a devastating global climate of our own making, how will humans survive? The wisdom of art crowds: 3,344 people may not know art but know what they like. A review of Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion by Francis J. Beckwith. Deconstructing Barry: Literary critic Andrew Delbanco reads Obama, The works that have influenced Obama illustrate that he would be the most literary president in recent memory — and one likely to govern from the center. It isn't just that young voters like Obama—more importantly, over the last eight years, they've come to believe in liberalism. How disasters help: Natural disasters can give a boost to the countries where they occur - and sometimes, the more the better.
