Farrakhan Speaks Firmly on Obama and Gay Marriage

Spain’s Lost Generation: What Do You Do When Half Your Country’s Youth is Unemployed?

“They say we’re a lost generation. But it’s more like we’re a paralyzed generation,” Mario tells me over a beer on a sweltering Monday afternoon in Toledo. He is a twenty-five year-old Spaniard, and already his future prospects look unsalvageable. He holds a degree in visual communications, but irregular work and a negligible income have forced him to move back in with his parents. At the moment, he scrapes by working as a temp at regional post-offices, hoping each day that some employee might call in sick.

“I’m basically tied to my cell phone,” he starts to say. And for a fleeting second, as the words hang there in the sun-drenched Plaza Horno de Magdalena, he might be in New York, London or Berlin, lamenting some high-intensity job with around-the-clock demands. But when he motions to his phone, it’s not a blackberry. “I need to take anything I can get,” he continues, “and so when they call me the morning of or the night before, I go; wherever it is.”

Think you can spell? Take our Spelling Bee quiz!

To commemorate the 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee, held this week in Oxon Hill, Md., we present a quiz of all the winning words since 1925. Click on the link to listen to the word. Most pronunciations of the come from Merriam Webster's dictionary website. A new window will open and you will hear the word. Then close the window and select what you think is the correct spelling.

Employment solutions: Can a town’s good deeds lower unemployment?

The dollars and cents of good deeds: Communities with high social capital tend to have lower unemployment. Some seeking employment solutions see this altruistic glue as something to study.

Farrakhan Speaks Firmly on Obama and Gay Marriage

The other day, I was intrigued by the words of Min. Louis Farrakhan, as he gave a public address regarding President Obama’s announced support for gay marriage.  I love hearing what Minister Farrakhan has to say, and although I don’t agree with every word, I’m sure he doesn’t expect me to agree with everything he says either.  Instead, Farrakhan speaks the truth from his perspective, and he delivers it in a way that no one else can.



I was happy that Farrakhan threw his hat in the ring on the gay marriage conversation.  Here are the reasons why:
1) Farrakhan says the things that other are afraid to say:  For hundreds of years, black people have become well-conditioned to say things in a way as to keep our oppressors most comfortable.  Louis Farrakhan wasn’t trying to maintain a good relationship with the White House, for he doesn’t need approval from the White House in order to speak his mind.  He wasn’t trying to lobby for a job at MSNBC, since he knows how to make his own money.
Farrakhan wasn’t speaking to expand his platform to a liberal audience or trying to make sure that Chris Matthews, Bill Maher, Melissa Harris-Perry or some other liberal commentator is pleased with him.  Instead, Farrakhan laid his own gauntlet of truth in the middle of a very serious conversation, staking an independent claim to another point of view that can be added to the black national dialogue.  That is difficult to do when someone is threatening to yank you off the stage for being an impolite negro.
2) Farrakhan has a point of view that is respected by millions of black Americans:  Personally, gay marriage doesn’t bother me all that much, since a gay person has never asked for my hand in marriage.  But for millions of African Americans, the issue is problematic, and unfortunately, we live in a nation where religious differences are not always respected.  By speaking on the matter in a bold and forthright way, Minister Farrakhan is repeating millions of kitchen table conversations happening all across black America.
Far too often, the interests of black folks are hijacked by a liberal agenda, as our Democratic brothers and sisters end up treating us like Neanderthals who need to be taught how to think.  As a case-in-point, notice how Democratic pressure pushed the NAACP to defy the wishes of a large percentage of its membership in order to openly back the president.  The question I’d like to ask is whether or not the Democrats would be equally willing to defy millions of its members to support an African American issue.  I think we know the answer to that question.

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First black mayor elected in Germany

MAUER, Germany, June 4 (UPI) -- A 40-year-old man who had been employed by Germany's national investigative police agency has been elected the country's first black mayor.
Der Spiegel reported John Ehret, whose father was an African-American soldier and mother a native German, took the post Friday in Mauer near Heidelberg in southern Germany, The Local.de said.
Ehret, who did little campaigning, captured just over 58 percent of the vote to defeat a civil servant in the village, which has about 4,000 residents.

First black mayor elected in Germany

Family Mourns Man Shot Dead at Harlem Basketball Court

Three other people were wounded but are expected to be OK

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

To Watch Venus Journey Across the Sun, a City Filled With Vantage Points

Shortly after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, a small black dot will begin moving across the face of the Sun, an event that is turning New York City — not usually an epicenter of astronomy — into an interplanetary kind of town, with astronomy buffs and telescope jockeys in parks, on street corners and along piers. The rare astronomical event, known as the transit of Venus, comes in pairs about once every century, with the previous one occurring in 2004. The next one will not take place until 2117, making the event on Tuesday truly a last-chance opportunity.

Unless, of course, it rains.