On July 8, U.S. budget statistics revealed a slight increase in the official unemployment rate, to 9.2%.  For many of these people and others, the U.S. offers a “food stamp” program designed to provide minimal subsistence.  During the recent recession, participation in this program has soared.  As of April 2011, nearly 45 million, or one in seven Americans (14%) was participating in the food stamp program.

On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy stated, "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

“The euro crisis will give Germany the empire it’s always dreamed of,” so wrote the Chief Political Correspondent Peter Oborne in his Telegraph-supported blog.  Oborne referred to the recent agreement by EU leaders to a German-led plan to continue “bailout” funding for Greece and Portugal—a decision that is likely to impact Spain, Italy and Ireland as well.   What this means is that Germany, with Europe’s strongest economy, will be footing most of the bill—with German tax money going to support Greece and Portugal, while these nations work to pay off their debt.

By her own admission, she was not what anyone expected. She promised that hers would not be a typical commencement address, because she was not a typical college student. After thanking the faculty and staff of Living University, she added, "I’m sure that none of them thought that their first candidate for a bachelor’s degree was going to be a 71 year old widow from Milwaukee."

Oslo, Norway, the city of the Nobel Peace Prize, turned into a city of terror as an angry and deranged gunman set off explosives in the city center killing seven people.  Later that day, he visited an island summer camp where he shot and killed 76 more people, mostly teenagers.

While the Norwegian native gunman claims to be a member of an anti-Islamic group, the media has painted him as a “right-wing Christian extremist.”  His lawyer and many others suggest that Anders Behring Breivik is mentally insane—a plea he may make himself at his court hearing.