How It Happens | Talking Points Memo

The bravery of a young Staten Island hate crime victim | SILive.com. Ganging up on a helpless special needs kid because his family is Muslim may not walk or quack like a typical hate crime, especially when one of these alleged gems is black and his three alleged beloveds are Hispanic.  Don’t look now, alleged parents, but the apples of your eyes are cheesing in the same big picture with skinheads, the junior Klan and the rest of the Hitler youth.  Too bad your alleged whiz kids cut history class. They missed the lesson that taught about a time when…

Rent Affordability on Minimum Wage – NYTimes.com. But even if you quibble with how exactly the Coalition put the chart together, it’s clear that there’s a mismatch between the minimum wage and the cost of living (or at least a decent cost of living). In New York, which is in the midst of a fight over raising the minimum wage, two individuals would need to work 68 hours a week each to manage the rent on a two-bedroom unit. If they have kids, the 70 percent of their paychecks left after rent won’t get them very far.

American Islam – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education. Here’s what I know. These three men, all converts, appeal to young American Muslims. They appeal, in large part, because they were born and raised in this country and have a vision for Islam that is unmistakably American. Though they’ve all spent time studying in Muslim-majority countries—Imam Zaid and Sheik Hamza were away for years—their focus remains on building a Muslim community that looks and feels, in every way possible, American.