Haiti Abstains (The Nation)
The Nation — Despite a massive UN mobilization, Haitians stayed away from controversial presidential elections in large numbers on March 20, raising serious questions about the legitimacy of the government poised to take power. “The majority of the Haitian people did not vote in this election because the majority of people stand behind Lavalas,” said Wilnor Moise, a 29-year-old former bus conductor from Cit
Can Republican Scott Brown save Planned Parenthood? (The Week)
New York – The Massachusetts senator joins two GOP colleagues in opposing a House bid to strip federal funding from the family-planning group House Republicans’ hopes of stripping all federal funding from Planned Parenthood hit a big obstacle Tuesday, and his name is Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass). The junior senator from Massachusetts (and one-time Tea Party favorite) said the measure simply “goes too far.” Two other GOP senators, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), had already voiced their opposition to the House plan
The real March Madness: Duke, Uncle Tom, and success as a ‘white’ value (The Christian Science Monitor)
New York – A few summers ago, I took my daughter and a few of her friends to see the rapper Lil Wayne in concert. He bounded onto the stage in a blaze of blinking lights, then served up the usual menu of songs about gangsters, hustlers, and pimps. And the mostly white audience cheered
Libya intervention: US cannot afford to ‘go in search of monsters to destroy’ (The Christian Science Monitor)
New York – From Iran to Algeria and across the Middle East, a generation of young people has demanded that its voice be heard, calling for new or reformed governments.
Did God have a wife? (The Week)
New York – Yes, says a leading theologian. And she may have been edited out of the Bible All the great religions of the world share the belief that there is but one solitary creator of the universe
Newt Gingrich’s Libya ‘flip-flop’: What was he thinking? (The Week)
New York – Gingrich hammered President Obama earlier this month for not intervening in Libya. Now he’s griping, “I would not have intervened.” Huh? Former House speaker and current GOP presidential aspirant Newt Gingrich has done a “complete flip-flop” on his Libya position, says George Zornick at ThinkProgress
Have scientists cracked the speed at which the universe is expanding? (The Week)
New York – Yes — and you’ll be pleased to know the magic figure is 73.8 km/sec/megaparsec. So…
Google Books: Shelved for good? (The Week)
New York – A judge rejects Google’s settlement with authors and publishers.
Apple’s software guru departs: Is the tech giant going all mobile? (The Week)
New York – Bertrand Serlet, who helped rebuild Apple in the late ’90s, is leaving, and the tech world buzzes over what it means for Steve Jobs and Co. Apple announced on Wednesday that Bertrand Serlet, the software engineer instrumental in the development of Mac OS X, is leaving the company. Serlet, who said in his departure statement that he wants to “focus less on products and more on science,” has worked with Steve Jobs for 22 years, and was the driving force behind the software that helped launch the company back into prominence in 1997
Could Detroit disappear? (The Week)
New York – The population of the Motor City declined by an astonishing 25 percent in the last decade. Could it vanish altogether

