COFFEE BREAK 156

+ updated at 1:37pm EST, Wednesday, March 10, 2010

+ Blue Skies, Nothing But Blue Skies ... for a week now. wow. This doesn't happen here in the Mohawk Valley

+ Haaretz offers "When Israelis degrade Israel by humiliating Joe Biden" by Bradley Burston.  Excerpt: "What conceivable advantage is there in the Interior Ministry choosing the occasion of a high-profile visit by Joseph R. Biden, Jr., a mission aimed at soothing strained relations between Israel and the Obama administration, to announce the approval of 1,600 new homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem?"

In case you don't know it, Haaretz is an Israeli newspaper.  Why is it that the Israelis can have an informed conversation about Israel's controversial policies in their major media outlets and we can't here in the USA?

+ Shuck and Jive offers "Better than a Month of [Evolution] Sundays" by John Shuck. 

Excerpt 1 (a quote from Michael Zimmerman):

What do the following have in common?
A. Sarah Palin's claim that health care reform will lead to "death panels."
B. The birthers' claim that President Obama was born in Kenya.
C. The constant refrain that the evolution/creation controversy is a battle between religion and science.

The simple answer is that there is overwhelming evidence demonstrating that each statement is false while proponents of each hope that the frequency and volume of repetition substitutes for truth.

Excerpt 2 (a comment by "Pastor Bob"): "The truly interesting (strange) thing about claims that Obama was born in Africa or Indonesia is that because his Mom was an American citizen, Obama is an American citizen from birth. Which means he can run for president no matter where he was born!"