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In 1994, during the first democratic elections in South Africa, I joined other international observers as we witnessed the historic victory of the ANC. I’ll never forget how a woman from Soweto emphatically professed that she was going to the suburbs to claim her mansion now that apartheid was over and the ANC was in power. This poor woman seemed perplexed as everyone around her began laughing at her unrealistic expectations. Today, in the United States as African Americans continue to bear the brunt of socio-economic hardship, there are some who similarly have unviable expectations of our first Black

No matter if Maker’s Mark, Woodford Reserve or Wild Turkey is your favorite bourbon, you need to visit Kentucky and see where the spirit is produced. It’s a trip that all whiskey drinkers should make at least once in their lifetimes.
The summer is a great time to go, but the distilleries are open year-round and are all located in north-central Kentucky (within a 90-minute drive of both Louisville and Lexington). Most of the tours are free (or cost a nominal fee) and of course include healthy samples.
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Think fast! 12 savory and sweet quick breads, muffins, scones and biscuits that offer (almost) instant gratification. No yeast-proofing or rising time required.
Brought to you by the spirited cooking community at food52.com.
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Almond Cake with Orange-Flower Water Syrup
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First Slide
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Amanda and Merrill’s notes:
Get the recipe.
Photo: Sarah Shatz
Find.
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Earlier this week we posted the first in a series of short documentaries from around the country. Along with our weekly videos, we will be posting some extra footage, blog entries and recipes on The Huffington Post. Monday’s video followed our journey from Minnesota through Iowa and to the dairy farm of Francis Thicke.
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Multicultural marketing blogs were buzzing this week about a slickly produced promotional video created by Univision for the New York television “up fronts,” the springtime ritual where networks lift their programming skirts to entice advertisers to buy spots for the upcoming season. “Without me, playgrounds in Texas, New York, Florida, and California would be half empty,” the video proclaims over snazzy graphics and a soundtrack of strings and vaguely Latin guitars. “You see me every day, but do you know who I am?”
Good question. While the latest numbers on Hispanics in the

TGIF everyone, here’s my Top 5 for May 20, 2011 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com
1. Quick Hits
* In the NBA playoffs, Oklahoma City beat Dallas 106-100 to even their series at one.
* In the NHL playoffs, Boston shutout Tampa Bay 2-0. The Bruins lead two games to one.
* Interleague play starts tonight in baseball. The Cubs visit Fenway for the first time since the 1918 World Series.
* 40-year-old Jason Giambi becomes the second oldest player to hit three homers in one game as Colorado beat Philadelphia

Public declarations of statesman can convey belief and intention. Often, one must strain to discern them as they are hedged by qualifications and contingent references. At other times, the overriding purpose is obfuscation. That becomes the goal when a leader temporizes, is indecisive and disinclined to make decisions on matters that entail risks and costs — be they diplomatic or

Sidney BechetJazz marvel Sidney Bechet was born in 1897 in New Orleans, the son of a shoemaker. Sidney discovered music at age 8, and his genius paved his trajectory to clarinet and saxophone. By Bechet’s late teens, he set off to Chicago with Clarence Williams, then London with Will Marion Cook’s Southern Syncopated Orchestra. While overseas, Bechet garnered the attention of Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet, ultimately landing much of his work in Paris and

A man in the US state of California faces a possible life sentence for allegedly killing his wife's Chihuahua.

Bud Wally Ruiz, 53, gave the puppy to his wife as a Mother's Day gift, but now he is charged with animal cruelty.

Ruiz has a criminal history stretching back 30 years, with four convictions for assault with a deadly weapon.

Under California's "three strikes" law, the courts are bound to consider a 25-year sentence for criminals convicted of multiple violent felonies.

However, they do have discretion to impose a lesser sentence if they decide the new offence is less

Fortune Brands has sold its golf business, including the Titleist equipment brand, to Korean investors led by Fila Korea, for $1.2bn (£740m).

The deal is part of Fortune's strategy to focus purely on its drinks business, led by its Jim Beam whisky brand.

The price for its Acushnet golf unit, which made $80m operating income last year, is higher than had been expected.

Fila Korea, which bought the eponymous Italian sportswear brand in 2007, plans rapid growth for the golf line in

A powerful group of US politicians has called for sanctions against Russians allegedly involved in a campaign against financier Bill Browder.

Once one of Russia's largest investors, he claims officials were complicit in a fraud against his firm and the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

Now Congressmen, including heavyweights Joe Lieberman and John McCain, propose banning the officials from the US.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has promised a full inquiry into the death.

The US politicians are backing new legislation put before Congress on Friday, The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2011.

In 2005, Mr Browder, who runs fund manager Hermitage Capital, was banned from Russia as a threat to national security after allegations that his firm evaded tax.

But Mr Browder says his company was targeted in a $230m (£140m) fraud, and has mounted a strong campaign to uncover what happened to the money and Mr Magnitsky, Hermitage's lawyer.

The Russian claimed to have unearthed evidence that implicated the police, officials, and bankers in the fraud.

But he was arrested and imprisoned without trial in November 2008 after being accused of colluding with the

The death of Osama bin Laden is an opportunity to reflect upon the deterioration of the United States since the attacks on September 11, 2001. We’ve entered into an endless state of war and our economy teeters on the brink of collapse. And, as a people, we’ve developed a distinctive derangement.
America’s craziness developed in four stages over an eleven-month period: First, on November 7, 2000, there was a controversial presidential election. On December 9th the US Supreme Court intervened, and, as a result, George

President Obama is mulling an executive order to force big government contractors to disclose details of their political spending. Big businesses are already telling their political patrons in Congress to oppose it — and the pressure is building.
The president should issue the executive order immediately. And he should go even further by banning all political activity by companies receiving more than half their revenues from the U.S. government.
Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest contractor, has already got more than $19 billion in federal contracts so far this

The president set out yesterday to valiantly reset U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East by embracing the Arab Spring, establishing a new blueprint for America’s goals in the region. As a highly anticipated and long-overdue addendum to his 2009 address in Cairo, the speech was intended to regain lost support among younger Arabs deeply disappointed with America’s continued hesitation between dictators and democracy.
But judging by much of the region’s reaction, the address needlessly stepped on its own core message by opening yet another inopportune rift with the Israeli government on the eve of Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with the

Will Ferrell shows that he could have a career beyond stupid comedy with Everything Must Go, a film by first-timer Dan Rush based on a Raymond Carver short story.
And really, Will Ferrell — you’re a smart guy who’s gotten huge paydays for films like The Wrong Guys, Land of the Lost and Step-Brothers — hopefully you’ve managed it to the point that you’ve already got your “F*** you” money. I just read an interview where you said that, because the studio balked at Anchorman 2, you’ve got time to do artier films like Everything Must Go. Seize the moment and run with it, dude.
In Rush’s film, Ferrell plays Nick Halsey, a long-time salesman at a company who is called in one day and told that he’s being let go. The company is downsizing — and his drinking has become too

US President Barack Obama quoted a Palestinian and an Israeli, in his speech on the Middle East on Thursday, both of whom have lost children in the violence but remain committed to reconciliation. Who are they?

When a jet-lagged doctor woke up and checked his e-mail after a long flight to Australia, he was astonished to find his in-box flooded with messages of congratulations.

Friends and admirers had written to tell him that – without his knowledge – he had been quoted by President Obama.

The president referred to Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish, without mentioning him by name.

"I'm convinced that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians would rather look to the future than be trapped in the past," the president said.

"We see that spirit… in the actions of a Palestinian who lost three daughters to Israeli shells in Gaza. 'I have the right to feel angry,' he said. 'So many people were expecting me to hate. My answer to them is I shall not

Dr. Alex Pattakos co-wrote this piece with his partner, Dr. Elaine Dundon.
Last week, we referenced one of Aesop’s fables, “The Fox and the Grapes,” as a way to call attention to how a very simple-sounding notion can get in the way, frequently on a subconscious level, of our relationships with others (the “O” in The OPA! Way).
(On a side note, you might be surprised to know that our research has shown that most people are unfamiliar with Aesop’s fables and are unaware of the life lessons that they

I’ve always liked Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. Perhaps it is that she came on the scene when I was a teenage girl and infatuated with the royal weddings, like girls today. Perhaps it was her curly hair, which matched my own. Or her slight chunkiness, which also matched my

One of the quotes that I am best known for in my career as a life coach is, “Money matters, but mindset matters more.”
Now, as my book “Finding My Peace: Empowering Poetic Essays from the Soul” is released with so many personal details, life-changing “A-has!” and a lifetime miracle — I realize how much peace matters. Money is simply what you chase when you don’t know that you need peace.
Peace is the elusive “it” that everyone wants. Most of us don’t know what it is — much less how to find

The topic of resilience is at the top of my mind as I prepare a keynote to present to a medical society in Japan in a few weeks. Two months ago Japan was hit with a crippling earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. It is hard to comprehend how Japanese people can cope and bounce back from such overwhelming waves of crisis and negativity.
One of my heroes is Barbara Fredrickson, the leading researcher in positive emotions, or what she calls positivity. Fredrickson’s research revealed recently that positivity is the main mechanism of action for

Have you ever walked by the self-help section in a bookstore and noticed the people nearby with hats and sunglasses on, squatting in the aisles devouring the latest best seller? I admit it, I was one of those people making an effort to remain incognito with a personal growth book in hand for a long time. I was actually the person that took a copy of Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth” to a completely different section of the bookstore and hid it in a magazine to peruse the pages and find out the latest secrets to living an enlightened life. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I also ordered a copy of Steve Harvey’s book “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man” and left it anonymously in an airport when I was finished so it could never be traced back to my hands. I was embarrassed to let other people see I was reading material of this nature because of the stigma I had attached to self-help and personal

In order to free ourselves from fear, we must leave behind that which we understand and face what lies beyond: we must make the unknown, known.
If we stay within the confines of knowledge, we can never experience our full capacity. Even Einstein was aware of the limits of the intellect: He said “Knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world.” Your true greatness lies deeper than the mind: your raw, untapped potential, ready to expand and blossom in the manifest. Waiting patiently, there in the unknown void.
Dare to discover, to live with passion; to experience the fullness, joy, peace and unconditional love that lie in your heart. When you find them, you will realize that you always knew they were there, that what lay in the void was not unknown after all, but merely forgotten.
Then that fear becomes your greatest teacher, the light that leads the way forward: By walking towards fear, we continue to challenge the confines of existence, moving into ever greater awareness of our true self.
How do we do this? First, we must cultivate an inner awareness of what I call love-consciousness, which is what the facets of my system are

Well, tomorrow, May 21, 2011, is supposed to be the end of the world. Wait, I thought the Mayans said it was supposed to be December 21, 2012? Either way, it gets a lot of publicity. (This post is a good example.)
A Christian Family Radio station in Oakland, Calif. has been spending of lot of time, money and effort letting people know that if they step up and believe, they will be beamed to heaven when the giant worldwide earthquake hits tomorrow, while the rest will be left to

The state of the world is fraught with unprecendented imbalances and tremendous risks, and institutions are struggling to keep up with the changing times.
From a lack of progress on international trade and climate change negotiations to challenges involved in meeting energy and food security and the Millennium Development Goals, we are witnessing a number of failures in international governance. Moreover, the 2008-2009 global financial crisis starkly illustrated the systemic nature of risks, demonstrating how the integration of financial and trade markets quickly transmit turbulence in one economy regionally and internationally.
A major reason for the recent crisis was the belief that evolved in the exuberant economic climate beforehand, where free markets can self-regulate and that the purpose of business is purely to make a