Best.

Post.

EVAR.

I promised to be a land-lover today The good news is : Glenn is helping to curb the bloody world carnage's. Cut the violence in half? Stop one neocon from gasping with fright. The reaper swings the sharp scythe!

from Virgil, Aeneid. V11,

`At first gale whips up the foam-topped wavelets, then little by little the sea begins to heave, the billows roll and the sea surges from the deep to the very heavens.`

Nature gets angry. The world of Tom F. is a fantasy.? The nightmare. Yes.

The GOP economy of world consumption and globalization is slow suicide.

...read like a comic book?

Green Lantern ("more will power"), Superman ("the American way"), Batman ("bring it on"), etc.

If I wanted the JLA to govern America, I'd ask for more colorful tights.

(In this analogy, Friedman plays the part of the Simpsons' Comic Book Guy; I can almost hear him hiss: Worst. Policy. Ever.)

Salon's war in Iran is like a disease with no symptoms, cause or cure.

Friedman laments that "Team America" -- that's really what he calls it -- "is losing on just about every front."

Friedman is a tool. People should be forwarding these clips to him until he's too embarrassed to appear in person anywhere again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1f8wYZR-zM&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0xo3kRR3X8&NR=1

Sorry if someone already beat me to this.

Well, there's only one solution to this problem:

We have to invade Syria to liberate this poor blogger. After all, America must solve all the problems of the world, since we are the only beacon of morality, justice, and freedom.

Mr. Hamden has been in custody for who knows how long now, still waiting for a hearing. I got to read his case this semester, but there he sits, in Cuba. Prosecutors are walking off the job because they are being forced to pursue trumped-up charges in kangaroo courts so we can pretend we are justified in detaining these "terrorists," most of whom (from Afganistan, at least) were handed to us by our allies in the region, who may or may not be international drug dealers.

But we are better than them. Yes, we are. Just keep repeating that.

While Rob Mac is probably right about Persia crossing its borders and attacking its neigbors or others in the neighborhood, has modern Iran done so?

I think not.

While another reader reminds us that Iran "attacked" the US by holding US citizens hostage at the US embassy, people ought to remember that the US and UK undermined a democratically elected government, headed by Mohammad Mossadegh, when that country wanted a fair price for its oil. This happened in 1953.

Now, sacking the US embassy isn't justified, but people should understand that when the US undermined that democratically elected government, via the CIA, it:

a) allowed the Shah to have total control of the country

b) wiped out the liberal, secular, progressive, democratic forces of that country

c) allowed the mullahs, which produced Khomenini. to be seen and respected as the opposition in Iran

When the Islamic revolution happened in 1979, the US and its Sunni allies became neverous and tilted toward Iraq, which led to a long war.

This allowed Saddam Hussein to get the wrong ideas and led him to invade Kuwait and engaged in other bad behavior.

The roots of the war in Iraq can be traced to bonehoeaded American decisions that undermined a democratically elected leader, brought in an autocrat, who was disposed by Islamic fundamentalists, who scared America , thus tilting its policies towards a leader, SH, who then became the first example of Friedman's Tony Soprano fantasy.

If interested see, "The Eagle and the Lion" by James Bill and "All the Shah's Mean" by Stephen Kinzer

I have been trying to fathom Tom Friedman for years - how could a guy with two pulitzers for work in the Middle East- screw it up so badly? Mostly I have hewn to the 'he's just another Israel apologist' explanation. But now, seeing the Rose interview again, watching his eyes and facial movements, and listening to his strangely unembodied words, I have had an epiphany: The man is batshit nuts.

clears throat. peakdavid. Paul Hellyer's views are often considered "fringe" ideas. For example, he believes "The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hellyer

http://video.msn.com/

?mkt=en-us&vid=73f6c962-ac45-47df-ae8c-7e1a15a4970f&from=copy

Watching Friedman's bizarre, violent, pseudo-sexual rantings, allow me to advance a theory I've held about our pundit (and political) classes.

A good pundit and politician has some experience in something else. Sure we may mock the many politicians who were or are lawyers, but that is experience and at times a remarkable one. A good pundit knows something else, even if it's a lit degree that had them reading a lot of books that we'd otherwise not read (said books can be quite informative). This experience connects you to the larger picture.

However when you become a politician or a pundit for too long, or worse are second-or-third generation, you're completely abstract from the bigger picture. Sure you think you're operating on the big picture, you may indeed be able to influence events, but you're missing a very vital something, ANYTHING, to connect you to something bigger than politics or punditry. Another job, previous experience, friends who aren't like you, etc. SOMETHING to remind you of what's out there in the world.

Our politicians and pundits are often so out of touch they really are in worlds of their own. The repercussions of their actions and attitudes are things they rarely experience. They're men and women in a sealed-off room, pulling strings that affect an outside they don't understand because they can't see it, touch it, or they think be hurt by it.

So at this point you have Friedmans. Who obviously has issues about masculinity and force, no understanding of the world, and is separate from his actions and even his previous opinions. Such a person's pathologies become policy or punditry (or both) because of position, and they are not seen as they are because of the abstraction, distance, and disconnection.

This is far too much of our politicians and punditry now - people with no connection to the bigger picture, mistaking their pathologies for truth.