HE'S DONE IT AGAIN!!
Hate Speech??? Tommy - your own column says : "When their words are spotlighted, they often feel pressure to retract, defend or explain them. " and "...you are free to say what you want, but we are free to listen, to let the whole world know what you are saying and to protect every free society from hate spreaders like you. Words matter. "
Um, Tom - do you heed your own rhetoric???
I need to repost Al Franken's June 2005 comments on Friedman here.
"Columnist Tom Friedman's first paragraph in today's NY Times:
Ever since Iraq's remarkable election, the country has been descending deeper and deeper into violence. But no one in Washington wants to talk about it ... Liberals don't want to talk about Iraq because, with a few exceptions, they thought the war was wrong and deep down don't want the Bush team to succeed.
Incredible. And maybe Friedman's on to something. After all, we certainly didn't talk about Iraq yesterday with Larry Diamond, former adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority; or last week with David Phillips, former advisor to the Future of Iraq Project; heck, let's not even mention Col. Paul Belczak, chief of staff at the National Iraqi Assistance Center.
Other bastions of liberalism are surprisingly vacant: The Nation writes nothing, while the Center for American Progress refuses to address the obscure country.
All sarcasm aside, I wonder if Friedman would tell hero Marla Ruzicka that "Liberals don't want to talk about Iraq"? Too bad he can't. "
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Mr. Friedman, its time to tell you. You need help. Really. Yup, really. About 18 months ago your comments got the Palestinian/Israeli conflict (you are supposedly the MASTER of that domain!) wrong. Dead wrong. Now you just really showed me that you are NOT dealing with reality. I don't know what planet you are on, or if you are suffering from cranial/posterior inversion.... but frankly, I think you need medication. And a rest. A long long rest somewhere that you won't harm anyone. This is New York City. There are some wonderful programs for people who need help. Columbia Presbyterian has one. Or you could go to The Meadows out in Arizona. You have options.
I can't even be bothered to debate the issues with you Mr. Friedman because you are an almighty columnist for the New York Times and I am some blogging nobody. I cancelled my subscription long ago because I just couldn't take the media bias anymore. Particularly the anti-Israel media bias. Your growing solpisism is becoming a hinderance to your interactions with real people, I fear. Do you ever speak to Mr. Paul Krugman? I am sure he could tell you a lot more about liberals. Really, he's a nice man.
Mr. Friedman, you seem to be spinning further and further into a psychotic world of your own making. Reach out for help. This next Shabbat, go speak to your Rabbi. And make an appointment to see a professional. Who knows? A little Prozac or Lithium might put you on the road to recovery! I don't mind disagreement or debate with anyone. I have many people I call friends whose politics are light years away from mine. But..... your grip on reality is tenuous, if not non-existant.
I don't hate many people. It takes too much energy. I have had moments of rage over your columns. I have a nice copy of The Lexis and The Olive Tree under the short leg of the 115-year old china breakfront my great grandmother left me. It works WELL! Even people who think I hate them? I worry about them. And I worry about you. I am far from perfect and have done many foolish things in my life. I try not to judge people. But Mr. Friedman, you gravely worry me. Honest, you do. I hope that you think about what I said about getting help. I will pray for you, Mr. Friedman. Pray very very hard.
HMMMMM.....:
from: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/6/3/91545/13409
In a joint statement with Ratan N. Tata, head of India's Tata Group, New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. announced changes to the paper's editorial staff.
Noted columnist Thomas Friedman will be transferred to obituary editor. He will be replaced by Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, who has written extensively on issues of globalization.
Mr. Sulzberger was quoted as saying, "The recent moves will also enhance the perception about the company in the eyes of lenders and stakeholders and will lead to maximize shareholder value in the long run."
Mr. Tata was quoted as saying, "This is of how free trade benefits us all."
Mr. Friedman was quoted as saying, "What!?!?!?!?!?""
Mr. Jain will be filing columns electronically from in New Delhi. When asked for comment, he replied, "I am truly grateful for this opportunity, which has been enabled by technological advances that have reduced barriers for the flow of goods and services."
"These developments have truly made the world 'flatter', as Mr. Friedman so eloquently stated."
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For those of you who want to make a bid for Friedman's job once he departs, this from the New York Observer, May 2004 - should help:
Write your own Thomas Friedman column!
1. Choose your title to intrigue the reader through its internal conflict :
a. War and Peas
b. Osama, Boulevardier
c. Big Problems, Little Women
2. Include a dateline from a remote location, preferably dangerous, unmistakably Muslim:
a. Mecca, Saudi Arabia
b. Islamabad, Pakistan
c. Mohammedville, Trinidad
3. Begin your first paragraph with a grandiose sentence and end with a terse, startlingly unexpected contradiction:
a. The future of civilization depends upon open communication between Yasir Arafat and Ariel Sharon. If the two don't speak to each other, the world edges closer to the precipice of total war. If, on the other hand, they manage to engage in open conversation and resolve their differences, Israelis could soon be celebrating Seders in Saudi Arabia. But for now, the two men can't speak. Why? You can't make a collect call from Bethlehem.
4. Use the next few paragraphs to further define the contradiction stated above, peppered with little questions making it look like you are having a conversation with the reader. Feel free to use the first person:
a. My first thought was to ask: Why no collect calls from Bethlehem? It's easy to call collect from Bosnia, Kosovo, even Uzbekistan. Am I sure? Of course I'm sure. I was in each of those places just a few weeks ago, making collect calls all over the world. No problem. So why can't Arafat call collect from Bethlehem?
5. Remember: Thomas Friedman is the Carrie Bradshaw of current events. Think Sex and the City, write "Sects and Tikriti":
a. How can Islam get to its future, if its past is its present?
b. Later that day I got to thinking about global civilizational warfare. There are wars that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that take you far from where you
started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant clash of all is the one you have with your own civilization. And if you can find a civilization to love the you that you love, well, that's just fabulous.
c. Maybe Arabs and Israelis aren't from different planets, as pop culture would have us believe. Maybe we live a lot closer to each other. Perhaps, dare I even say it, in the same ZIP code.
6. Name-drop heavily, particularly describing intimate situations involving hard-to-reach people:
a. The Jacuzzi was nearly full when Ayman al-Zawahiri, former surgeon and now Al Qaeda's head of operations, slid in.
b. It was Thomas Pynchon on the phone. "Tommy," he said, probably aware we share that name.
c. Despite the bumpy flight, I felt comfortable in the hands of a pilot as experienced as Amelia Earhart.
7. Include unknowns from hostile places who have come to espouse rational Western thought and culture:
a. I visited Mohammed bin Faisal Al-Hijazi, former top aide to Ayatollah Khomeini, now a reformer and graduate of the Wharton Business School.
b. Last year Nura bin Saleh Al-Fulani worked in Gaza sewing C4 plastic explosives into suicide bombers vests. I caught up with Nura last week in Paw Paw, Mich., where she sews activity patches on the uniforms of Cub Scout Pack 34.
8. Make use of homey anecdotes about your daughters, Natalie and Orly, enrolled in Eastern Middle School, Silver Spring, Md.:
a. My daughter Natalie, a student at Eastern Middle School, a public school in Silver Spring, Md., asked me at breakfast: "Daddy, if my school has students who are Muslims and Jews and Christians and Buddhists all working together, why can' t the rest of the world be that way?" There was something in the innocence of her question that made me stop and think: Maybe she has a point.
9. Quote a little-known Middle East authority at least once in every column:
a. Stephen P. Cohen
b. Stephen P. Cohen
c. Stephen P. Cohen
10. Conclude your column with a suggestion referring back to the opening contradiction, but with an ironic twist. Make sure the suggestion you proffer sounds plausible, but in fact has no chance of happening:
a. Driving into Bethlehem in the back of a pickup, I wonder: What if Yasir Arafat and Ariel Sharon sit down and play a game of poker? And what if the stakes are these: If Sharon wins, the Intifada is over. If Arafat wins, Palestine gains statehood. One game of no-limit Texas hold 'em, and the Middle East crisis is resolved. Just like that. Yasir and Ariel, deal 'em out.
OOOOOO Congrats Tom!! Brooks and Friedman Married in Private Ceremony
See IDDYBUD and BILLMON's comments
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