EZ Reads 6/18/09: Irony

It's always nice to get the breaks you were looking for to help push a project forward... when it'll be much harder to take advantage of them. Not that they are any less appreciated, it just makes them a bit trickier to take advantage of.

• Freakonomics discusses morality, economics, and Jewish leap years.
• A really fantastic piece questioning Warren Buffet's methods and morals. Important to keep in mind when thinking about the approaches the Obama administration are trying to take.
• Daled Amos discusses the WaPo's attempts to present the shaping of President Obama's views on Israel as coming exclusively from Jews, as opposed to Arabs.
• It's always crazy to read the offers Israeli leaders have made to the Palestinians - in this case, Olmert's offer to Abbas, via Jewlicious. Geez:

  At the end of Olmert’s term he tried one last maneuver in an effort to secure a legacy. Olmert told me he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in September 2008 and unfurled a map of Israel and the Palestinian territories. He says he offered Abbas 93.5 to 93.7 percent of the Palestinian territories, along with a land swap of 5.8 percent and a safe-passage corridor from Gaza to the West Bank that he says would make up the rest. The Holy Basin of Jerusalem would be under no sovereignty at all and administered by a consortium of Saudis, Jordanians, Israelis, Palestinians and Americans. Regarding refugees, Olmert says he rejected the right of return and instead offered, as a “humanitarian gesture,” a small number of returnees, although “smaller than the Palestinians wanted—a very, very limited number.”

• Cool piece on the speed of baseballs coming off of bats in Major League Baseball.
• Funny rap video on Material Maidel about Jews abroad's opinions on Israeli policy.
• Interesting article about how a brain tumor has turned a painter into a Picasso.
  

Check them out.