Henry Farrell sets up a new blog to publicize political science research.

Melinda Henneberger says that Democrats would win more women voters if they were more moderate on the abortion issue. I’m not sure if she’s right or not, but this article has been much discussed around here.

Robert Putnam is a big favorite of mine, though his latest study is very disturbing. His five-year study shows that immigration and ethnic diversity have a
devastating short- and medium-term influence on the social capital, fabric
of associations, trust, and neighborliness that create and sustain communities.
He fears that his work on the surprisingly negative effects of diversity
will become part of the immigration debate, even though he finds that in
the long run, people do forge new communities and new ties. (Thanks, Amy P.)