Via Realtor.com: Ashlee Simpson’s home has been relisted with an asking price of $3.69 million, down from the original price of $4 million. Built in 1992, Simpson bought the home in 2007 for $4.5 million. Located in Beverly Crest, the Mediterranean-style home has five bedrooms and six and half bathrooms. The property also features an art studio, dance room, media room, service entrance, meditation garden, fire pit, pool with spa, and cathedral beamed ceilings in the living room. The 7,100 square foot, Beverly Hills Post Office villa displays views of both the hills and canyon.

Ashlee Simpson recently made headlines when she filed for divorce from husband, Pete Wentz of the band, Fall Out Boy. The twenty-five year old Simpson is also mother to Bronx Mowgli Wentz. Jory Burton of Sotheby’s International Realty represents the listing. Burton has also represented real estate listings for Simpson's ex-boyfriend, Ryan Cabrera.

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Via Curbed LA: This 1927 Spanish-style home in Altadena seems to be covered almost completely with gorgeous tile. Saltillo (terra cotta) tiles cover most of the floor, and moroccan/moorish-style tiles line the stairs, entryways, bathrooms, and gardens. The five bedroom, four and a half bathroom home is 4,216 square feet and sits atop an 18,000 square foot lot. According to the original listing, the home was built by New Yorker Maurice Swetland, who published the American Architect magazine.

The original listing notes that Swetland and his family were European travelers who "incorporated internat'l stylistic ideas into the homes they built." Curbed LA also mentions an added bonus: "The property also boasts award-winning gardens wherein one might find a friendly bobcat as well as an open-air greenhouse." The home has been on the market for forty-two days as of this posting and is priced at $1.545 million.

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Via Curbed LA: This 1926 English Tudor home sits high in the Hollywood Hills, about half a mile from the Mulholland Highway hiking trail to the Hollywood Sign. According to the listing, the two-story property has almost 3,000 square feet of living space on a "rare double lot" of over 19,000 square feet. English Tudor features include the turret, which encompasses both the entryway and an upstairs dressing room. The home also has original wrought iron railings and banisters and is surrounded by wooden patios and winding paths that lead to well-manicured gardens. There are four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a two-car garage, and an "updated cook's kitchen."

Tudor revival homes, inspired by English medieval architecture during the Tudor period, started gaining in prominence throughout Europe in the late 1800s. From the Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources (PDF): "The first Tudor Revival buildings in the United States were built in the late 1890s. In Los Angeles, the first Tudor style buildings were built in the early 1900s, and the style was popular through the 1920s."

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Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker is using phony budget projections to manufacture a staged "fiscal emergency" in his state so that he can whack programs and political opponents, but even his fake "emergency" pales in comparison to the cost of the Afghanistan War to his state. In fact, the U.S. would only have to bring home 151 troops from Afghanistan to save more money than Walker's ridiculous union-busting plan.  Better yet, ending the Afghanistan War altogether would save taxpayers in Wisconsin $1.7 billion this year alone, more than ten times the amount "saved" in Walker's attack on state employee rights.

One might ask, "Isn't Walker's fake budget crisis a state budget issue? How would ending the Afghanistan War pay for that?" We get this question a lot when we talk about the cost of war to a state's taxpayer. Keep in mind that state budgets are tangled with federal spending. That's especially true over the past couple of years, as state budgets have relied on federal Recovery Act funds to balance their books during the recession.  Spending decisions at the federal level are therefore doubly important, as they not only affect the national budget, but also what funds are available to help preserve state-level public structures.

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Recently I had one of the hardest conversations I've ever had with anyone. It was with a valued employee who blindsided me. She sent me an e-mail asking for a promotion -- and then went on to explain everything that wasn't working about me, the company and how she would fix it all in her new job. I got upset, wanted to fire her and moaned to my boss. I didn't want to talk to her about it, but I knew we needed to fix the situation. I asked her to write a list of all the concerns she had about me and the company. We sat down and addressed each one of them. Once the conversation got going, it actually wasn't that hard -- in fact, it was a huge relief to finally deal with everything that had been unsaid between us. I learned a great deal about myself, about my employee and some serious issues that needed to be addressed within the company. Since that conversation we are more in-sync than ever. Now we are talking about her promotion from a place of utter partnership, instead of reaction and emotion. None of that would have happened without that difficult conversation.

Personal growth starts in your real life with the real conversations you are not having.

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One of the reasons Barack Obama got elected president is that to a majority of voters he was right on the major issues facing the country. Obama's views regarding the war in Iraq, the economy, the environment and the need for widespread change in our government resonated with an electorate that had grown very critical of the Bush administration's approach to these and other issues. While candidates are often judged by their views on major issues, presidents are more frequently judged on their performance. The two are not unrelated, so, for example, because Bush was perceived as a failure by 2008, Obama's positions, most of which were in direct opposition to Bush's, were more popular among voters.

This is the environment which now frames the Obama presidency. The protestations of the far right notwithstanding, Obama's position on issues are still relatively popular, but they are no longer particularly relevant to how the president is viewed. For almost all presidents, opinions on issues are considerably less relevant once they are in office. Occasionally this dynamic even works to their favor. Many voters never really cottoned to President Reagan's far right ideology, but they were pleased enough with the results he delivered to reelect him in a landslide in 1984. Needless to say, this dynamic has not been nearly so helpful for Obama.

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New to the market is Richard Neutra's Staller House for $10.9 million. Built in 1955, this post and beam style home was renovated by Irish architect Lorcan O'Herlihy of LOHA in 2001, according to Triangle Modernist. The Staller House was subject to additions prior to LOHA's renovation, states Curbed LA. The current owner, film producer Gary Levinsohn is best known for the award winning "Saving Private Ryan" and anticipates continued success with his upcoming "Blackbird" staring Olivia Wilde and Eric Bana.

The Staller House features 6,674 square feet of living space on over an acre of Bel-Air land. The five bedroom, seven bathroom house has a guest house, pool, spa, parking for twelve, and an extensive wine room. The Staller House is one of a few Richard Neutra-designed properties currently on the market. The Pacific Palisades Troxell House and the Kronish House in Beverly Hills are also listed for sale.

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Via Realtor.com: Earlier this year, actress Olivia Wilde filed for divorce from filmmaker Tao Ruspoli, her husband of eight years. At the time, the "House, M.D." regular had recently released the movie "Tron: Legacy" and was filming "Cowboys & Aliens" (to be released this summer).

Wilde is letting go of the Venice home she and her husband bought in January 2010. The three bedroom, three bathroom home was put on the market for $3.095 million in March. RealEstalker notes that, "After just two days on the open market, the status of the listing on Redfin was changed from 'active' to 'pending.' That's right, hunnies, this house had a deal within days." According to the official listing, the home was recently renovated to add handcrafted mesquite counters and white oak cabinetry. The living room has wood-beamed ceilings and the backyard has been transformed into a stunning outdoor entertainment space by Jay Griffith, a Venice landscape designer who's worked on homes by architects Wallace Neff, Richard Neutra, and Paul Williams.

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Most intelligent political analysts' reaction (right, left and center) to the news that Donald Trump may be considering a run for the presidency could be summed up as some version of: "You have got to be kidding me." Followed quickly by: "This is going to be so much fun!" But the real punchline to this joke of a candidacy was actually on the punditocracy, when Trump's poll numbers took off and soon put him either in the lead or very close to it for the Republican nomination. Republican voters, it seems, aren't following the punditocracy's lead on "The Donald."

What it all means, from my perspective, is not very much. There are two basic trends at play here. The first is the fact that the political chattering class reads far too much into polls taken way too early. The second, which stems from the first, is that at this point "name recognition" is one of the biggest factors in whose name winds up on top of the list. Donald Trump's celebrity value is showing up loud and clear on the straw polls taken in the past few weeks. But this doesn't mean he is even going to run -- and if he does, it's likely not going to get him very far.

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I recently suggested that Justice Sam Alito's lonely dissent in the Phelps First Amendment case seemed to embody the "empathy standard" for judicial review, the very standard that Republicans warned about in the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Over the weekend, Emily Bazelon made a similar observation in a provocative piece for The New York Times Magazine. In it, she called Alito "the closest thing conservatives have to a feelings justice" and said that, in his opinions, "we get a window onto right-wing empathy on this court."

Bazelon's profile of Alito is worth reading in full as it provides a portrait of how empathy may be used to underscore and affirm personal feelings, rather than transcend them. This was precisely the fear of Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. They believed, in the words of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, that empathy "empowered" a judge to "favor" some plaintiffs over others, and that the President's desire to appoint judges with a special capacity for empathy essentially meant, in the words of Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, that he intended "to pick people who will take sides."

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If one lesson is to be learned from the remarkable events unfolding in Egypt, it is that Arab public opinion matters. For too long Arab voices have not been listened to, nor have Arab sensibilities or aspirations been respected. The Egyptian people have not only risen up, demanding to be heard, they have challenged other Arabs and the West to pay attention to what they are saying.

On Thursday night I watched a remarkable scene unfolding on television. As my dinner partner, Patrick Seale, and I sat transfixed watching the BBC, there, on one half of a split screen, was President Hosni Mubarak making a last ditch effort to save his rule. On the other half screen were throngs in Tahrir Square. The disconnect was so real. Mubarak was talking, but he simply wasn't listening. He played every card at his disposal: the caring father, the patriot, the xenophobe, the reformer and more. Maybe, I thought, he was reaching out beyond the square to those he thought might also be listening. But if his imagined and hoped for audience was there, they were not responding. The crowd in the square was listening and his lack of responsiveness to their concerns only served to inflame them and deepen their resolve.

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You are probably reading and re-reading the title, wondering how I could possibly put all these words in one sentence, however, this has been my experience with addiction. When I go back to my childhood, I now realize how I have been surrounded by addiction my entire life. Then again, who hasn't? You just have to turn on the television, listen to the radio, open up an Internet browser or for that matter go to your local church and addiction is everywhere. As a society we still have a tendency to see addicts as homeless people living in back alleyways, but I believe that this is the way that we are able to keep addiction from our own personal realities until we are ready to deal with it.

There is no easy way to look at addiction, especially when it affects our personal lives or our loved ones. There are many different ways to see addiction and I believe that by choosing one way over another, it keeps us polarized and unable to deal with the devastation that addiction causes to families, communities and our society. Some believe it is a disease, others believe it is a choice. Does it really matter what someone believes, or is it more important to create awareness and education about the impact of addiction?

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A really important lesson to be learned from 9/11 and its aftermath concerns America's collective grandiosity. Prior to 9/11, it was virtually unthinkable that America would be attacked on its own soil. On September 11, 2001, as we watched the terrorist attack on live TV, we saw the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapse right before our eyes and witnessed the instant death of more than three thousand people.

The terrorist attack of 9/11 inflicted a devastating collective trauma on the American psyche. In horrifyingly demonstrating that even America can be assaulted on its native soil, the attack of 9/11 shattered our collective illusions of safety, inviolability, and grandiose invincibility, illusions that had long been mainstays of the American historical identity. In the wake of such shattering, Americans became much more susceptible to resurrective ideologies that promised to restore the grandiose illusions that have been lost. It was in this context of collective trauma and resurrective ideology that Americans fell prey to the abuses of power of the Bush administration. Following 9/11, Bush et al. did not merely go after Al Qaeda. Fueling and exploiting the dread of retraumatization, they declared war on global terrorism and drew America into a grandiose, holy crusade against the forces of evil, enabling Americans to feel delivered from trauma. The disastrous consequences of this resurrective move are now history.

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The Cut caught up with Alex McCord of the "Real Housewives of New York," who revealed that she'll be walking in five fashion shows this season, including Susan Cianciolo and Malan Breton of "Project Runway" fame. She told The Cut, "There are these girls out there who are 15, but there's definitely room for women who are not 15...like me," and that the designers weren't prepared for how tall and skinny she is: "They saw me and they were gonna ask how I wanted my hair and makeup, and they said, 'We're gonna put you in the show look,' and I was like, 'Yes, put me in the show look!' and they said they would because I looked like a model. Their words, not mine."

McCord might be finding her own place in the frenzied world of fashion. She walked the runway at Brooklyn Fashion Week in an episode of "Real Housewives" and she's on the celebrity board of New York Model Management. She's already stepped out to several shows this season, like Park Choon Moo and Farah Angsana on Thursday.

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Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton preliminarily struck down key provisions in Arizona's infamous SB 1070 law and ruled that states cannot preempt federal law. While important, this is a victory that rings hollow for me and all those who care about the true reform of our immigration system. In many ways, the damage to neighborhoods and communities had already been done, as people did not wait to see how the law would affect them. Many mixed-status families pulled their children out of school and moved out of state, closing stores and restaurants and leaving many immigrant neighborhoods like ghost towns. This did not just affect undocumented immigrants but all those whose status might be called into question -- including citizens, permanent legal residents, and temporary visa holders.

The court's preliminary decision is only the beginning of the litigation process, which will unfold in the coming months. Yesterday's ruling, however, is a necessary first step in affirming the principle that it is the federal government's responsibility to set immigration policy and to enforce that policy. It affirms that even if the federal system is failing, states do not have the authority to set or enforce their own policies.

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Look. I'm probably the only one around who feels this way, but I'm getting pretty sick of people being busted for sexual indiscretions. I'm not talking about rapists, excuse me, ALLEGED rapists like our visitor now on bail from the IMF, or alleged abusers or bullies, or even the occasional drunk who does something entertaining to enthrall us all for the five or six seconds that represents our common attention span. I'm talking about people who engage in dirty, nasty, illicit sex with another consenting adult and then are forced to bend themselves into painful little pretzels to cover up their indiscretions and mistakes. I'm talking, in short, about Arnold.

I'm with Arnold. I feel for him. I'm sorry that the secret he kept that held his life together was revealed by the whorish, prurient media. I'm sorry that people are cruising the internet looking for pictures of the lady he banged to such productive effect. I'm sorry that when those pictures were found and published by the sleazy, greasy little websites that feel they're performing some kind of public service by doing crap like this, everybody got together around the national water-cooler to cluck, whinny and chortle about how chubby and lackluster the woman turned out to be. I'm sorry he's fodder for the machine. I'm sorry he's been terminated.

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According to a Pew Forum report, entitled "Faith in Flux," most people who decide to leave their childhood religion say they did so before the age of 24. This indicates that development in understanding of religion and religious practices is a key factor in determining whether or not young adults will stick to their religion, switch religions or simply distance themselves from religion in general, like approximately 16 percent of Americans today. This makes it clear that the role of a religious education teacher is crucial in a young adult's life.

In the Holy Quran, which addresses itself to humankind, not just Muslims, the importance of learning is emphasized in the angel Gabriel's first words to Prophet Muhammad, iqra, meaning "read/recite." His first command to the Prophet was to educate himself about his Creator, and one of his first descriptions of God was "the Most Generous, who taught by the Pen, taught Man that he knew not" (96: 3-5). Learning is integral in a person's life in order to fulfill his or her purpose in life, which is to worship God. Indeed, learning and using one's knowledge to better the condition of humanity is a form of worship. The Quran is definitely not the first text to emphasize this, and this belief is not one that is held only by Muslims.

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"The American system of public education is the greatest mechanism for social and economic mobility in the history of the world." I wish I had said that. Actually, it was my friend Tim. Tim is a conservative Republican. Let me clarify that. At various points in his life Tim has been a professional conservative Republican, with credentials that make Scott Walker look like an over-promoted Boy Scout. Among other things, Tim was the Chairman of California College Republicans, a member of the CA GOP State Executive Committee, and a GOP nominee for state Assembly. In other words, there is nothing liberal or Democratic about recognizing the fact that an assault on public education is an assault on equality.

I do not man to minimize the extent of inequalities in American education that Jonathan Kozoll and Jennifer Hochschild have so ably documented. And Wisconsin is no different. Since 1993 the state has employed an insanely complicated system of "tiered" state and local funding that numerous analyses show has resulted in money being funneled toward wealthier districts and away from those most in need. The poorer districts in Wisconsin are already operating on a shoestring. But despite all its defects, it remains the case that in America, and specifically in Wisconsin, publicly funded education is a powerful equalizing force, almost the only one left.

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The backslapping over the bitterly contested passage of the Zadroga bill in the waning hours of the 111th Congress has quieted down. As the hard work of implementing the important $4.3 billion bill gets underway there has come the kind of news that forces us to stop once again and take notice. This time it's word of the death of retired New York City firefighter and ground zero responder Roy Chelsen. His passing is painful affirmation of the need for the kind of monitoring and research that will be made possible by the funds that flow from the Zadroga bill.

Chelsen, 51, had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, and a tough ticket for anyone. It is the second most common blood cancer in the United States after leukemia. There were 20,000 new cases diagnosed last year in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute, and half as many deaths. But multiple myeloma is generally considered a disease of the elderly. That's not to say that no one in middle age ever gets it.

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When I decided to fast from January 11 until January 22, in solidarity with the Witness Against Torture group in Washington, DC, I had little hope of lasting more than a day or two. The presence in Washington began on January 11 to mark the ninth anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo to "war on terrorism" detainees. The fasting community in DC will be participating in vigils, lobbying, and public events each day of the Fast for Justice. The focus is the closure of Guantanamo, the release of the captives, and an end to torture, I wanted to see what the fast would feel like, would I get dizzy, faint, so hungry I would break down and eat anything near at hand? Years ago, at the New York Catholic Worker, I fasted for a day or two at a time, for spiritual focus. But I was much younger then, and I had the support of the fasting community.

The current fast is a liquid fast, which for me means coffee, tea, Pellegrino water, sometimes with a shot of orange juice in the water. I suspect the DC people, in their hoods and orange jumpsuits, are much more severe than I am, water and electrolytes, perhaps? I am aware of the irony of the case of Pellegrino resting at my feet as I write today.

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At the hearing of the Board of Regents on November 9 at Medgar Evers College, the interest of the audience, mostly educators and parents (sprinkled with a prominent handful of politicians), was divided between two connected issues:

1.Trying to get an explanation for why the "recalibration" of the state-wide test scores had been done in such a messy fashion. It left over 60,000 students back a grade and waived the needed remedial work to get them back on grade. After listening for almost an hour and a half to the elaborate "plan" to rectify the problems of the schools -- and establish "new standards" for "college-ready" high school graduates -- I did not hear a word about the test mess. Nor did I hear about how a "higher standard" of educational excellence could be achieved in the "Regents Reform Agenda Implementation Update," as the presentation was called. Especially since the same flawed "high stakes tests" would be used as "data" to determine student progress. The power point presentation by John B. King, Senior Deputy Commissioner of the State DOE, was as lucid as the earlier power point presentation I had seen several months before by the Resident Explainer of the City DOE, which showed that the low grades received were by the students were better if you looked at them a different way.

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Martha Stewart wants to interview some HuffPost favorites on her new programming for the Hallmark Channel, the New York Daily News reports. Stewart has her eye on House Speaker and Most Stylish Female Politician Nancy Pelosi, saying, "She's a phenomenal woman, I mean, look at what she's done," and calling her "absolutely beautiful." Stewart also said she'd be interested in talking to Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton.

She won't be sticking only to politics, though. The New York Post reports on September 19, Hallmark will air an hour-long, fashion-themed "Martha Stewart Presents" featuring interviews with designers Donna Karan, Diane Von Furstenberg, Tory Burch and J. Crew's Jenna Lyons. Stewart told the Post, "I'm attracted to groups of people," like "the hottest, sexiest, young male movie stars -- who are they really, how do they live, how do they cope?...There's also my favorite comedians and how they come up with their material, how are they so talented and verbose and so fantastic?"

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I was out puttering in my garden this morning, planting a few new perennials - (I'm running out of space for planting new things!). My mind was on work, as it is a lot these days. I stood up for a second, and looked out over my now-5-year-old garden, and thought of how far we have come together. When I started it was rocks and sandy clay--a dusty, hard-packed, unproductive mess. Now I've got incredible bushes, trees, flowers, herbs, vegetables; and everything is filling in and working together to create a hospitable, productive, and beautiful garden. And working in the garden is a lot easier, too.

As I was napping on my couch a bit later (it's Sunday, mind you--even CEOs need a day of rest!), I started thinking about how good business is similar to organic gardening. I'm in my second year of the job as CEO of Rodale, and it's kind of like the second year of starting a new landscape--I can see the potential, and I can also see how far we have come...but as any gardener knows, there is lots more to be done. And as anyone who has seen me garden knows, I'm always a big dreamer! People have called me crazy...until they come back a few years later and see what I've done.

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Fleet Foxes debuted with such a spectacular grasp of Americana that the band seemed to hail from indeterminate time and space -- they could've came from the Great North Woods, the Mississippi Delta, the Blue Ridge Mountains -- when in fact they were from outside Seattle. Sure they garnered knee-jerk reactions to contemporaries like My Morning Jacket or Band of Horses but these were more to do with the mellifluously clear voice Robin Pecknold shares with Jim James or Ben Bridwell than anything else. Fleet Foxes have the sort of condensed sound that triggers a cascade of aural reminders without even approaching a facsimile of their influences.

They distill the history of American music with genre-busting focus. Their sound reminds me of a cake, or some other concoction where the individual components are apparent, yet indivisible from the larger whole. Rather than being followers of the "parfait" model -- a layer of woodsy folk here, a stratum of AM rock there, a dusting of sunny pop, a patina of Appalachian harmonies --Fleet Foxes are masters of synthesis. On their self-titled debut, the band channeled this energy into taught, arrangements that sailed forth beneath this tension; a sort of precise meandering. On Helplessness Blues they roam free, osmosing into extended jams, tempo shifts, drifting into open territories under a slack mainsail.

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With the spring teasing us with the warming rays of the sun, it's no surprise that people are asking once again about what white wine they should be trying. Some recommendations are pretty easy to make. In the New World, for example, telling someone about New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or a Napa Chardonnay is pretty straightforward. Everyone knows the grape varieties and the styles are pretty well understood as well.

Venture abroad to France and things get a bit more difficult. Though once you get the grape and region association down, you know Burgundy is Chardonnay, Bordeaux is mostly a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, Vouvray is Chenin Blanc - it's pretty straightforward.

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The cover story of Time Magazine speaks volumes. It's a 19th century picture of Abraham Lincoln with a 21st century computer generated image of a tear streaming down his face. The headline: "Why We're Still Fighting The Civil War." It's a headline that really disturbs me after learning that my great-great-great grandfather, Sandy Wills, fled his oppressive slave master, Edmund Wills, in 1863 to fight for his freedom with the 4th Heavy Field Artillery. It was a heroic story that was lost to my family for more than a century until I logged onto Ancestry.com and realized -- once and for all -- just how critical this epic battle was in American history.

What rattles my brain is why so many Americans are still confused about what the North and South were fighting about. Sandy Wills was NOT confused about the true mission of the war when he and five other enslaved teens who were imprisoned on the Wills plantation plotted their great escape and crossed the Tennessee state line into Columbus, Kentucky to enlist in what they were certain was a battle for their emancipation. These Africans were forced into a world of illiteracy -- but they were acutely aware of the high stakes involved.

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Via Curbed LA: Lloyd Wright’s iconic 1927 Sowden House has hit the Los Angeles housing market once again. Perched high above the Los Feliz street lights, this Mesoamerican masterpiece is a stone’s throw from old Hollywood haunts and new Hollywood premieres. The Sowden House joins two other Wright family homes that are also for sale: La Miniatura and the Ennis Residence, both designed by his father, the great Frank Lloyd Wright. In his father's style, Lloyd Wright’s primal, neo-Mayan temple was built to emphasize the surrounding elements and wildness of nature.

Most recently owned and twice renovated by house-flipper extraordinaire Xorian Balbes, the house is in top condition. Down from seven bedrooms to four and up from four to five bathrooms, this home has over 2 million dollars worth of renovations. The textile block home boasts a central courtyard with both treetop and city views. The Sowden House has been featured in films such as “The Aviator” and the TV show “America’s Next Top Model.” This

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Despite a modest downtick in the aggregate unemployment rate due in part to labor force withdrawals, U.S. labor markets remain in a deep recession. High levels of open unemployment and underemployment and nearly 7 million hidden unemployed dominate the scene. The recent release by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics of its January 2010 dislocated worker survey allowed us to identify the extraordinary impact of record high dislocation of U.S. workers over the 2007-2009 period, predominantly in the private for profit sector.

Between 2007 and 2009, there were 15.43 million U.S. workers who were displaced permanently from their jobs. This was by far the highest number of workers displaced over a three year period in the past 30 years for which we have such data. Nearly 11% of U.S. workers 20 and older were displaced from their jobs, the highest dislocation rate in our post-WWII history. While many key demographic groups experienced double-digit or near double-digit displacement rates, they were highest among younger workers (under 30), men, Blacks and Hispanics, those without post-secondary degrees including persons with 1-3 years of college, construction, manufacturing and mining industry workers, and most blue-collar occupations and lower level service occupations (food prep, janitors, office cleaners). Nearly 1 of every 5 White and Black males under age 35 with no college schooling were displaced, contributing to a depression among our nation's youngest male workers.

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When history decides to shift, people are always looking in the wrong direction. That's what makes so-called tipping points so unsettling -- the experts miss them so often. In the case of Egypt, nobody expected peaceful popular uprisings to topple Mubarak. The Arab world was focused on the dangers of Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda or Israel. It was taken for granted that the repressive regimes of the Arab world were here to stay, backed by the military, secret police, and powerful friends on the side like the United States.

History apparently had different ideas, and so we stand at a moment like the fall of the Berlin Wall, where a society collectively says, "Enough is enough." The way in which collective consciousness makes such decisions is mysterious. The day before change occurs, there's every reason to think it won't. Hosni Mubarak had been in place for thirty years, Soviet Communism for seventy. What we will see now is a great deal of backing and filling as the experts tell us all the factors that made this a predictable upheaval, and the pro-Mubarak West eats a little crow for not supporting the protest movement quickly or strongly enough. One of the protesters had appealed to an American reporter, "Why can't you see that we are just like you?" A good question.

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