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Friday, January 27, 2006
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Ken emails me this:
This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fall on the
same day. It is an ironic juxtaposition: One involves a meaningless ritual in
which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the
other involves a groundhog.
10:07:55 AM 
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Great list. Number 7: Thomas Friedman:
The worst of all creatures in the political opinion jungle: a cretin who thinks he’s a genius. Friedman’s intolerable knack for converting irreducibly complex geopolitical/socioeconomic situations into simplistic, tin-eared insta-clichés makes him one of the most dangerous people on the planet, arming people even stupider than him with the illusion of knowledge in the form of a crude vocabulary of badly mixed metaphors and ill-conceived flashcard images, thereby having a negative net effect on the nation’s intellect. India and China are "like a bottle of champagne" which someone has been "shaking for 40 years;" the modern economy dictates that "you need to be at a certain level to be able to claim your share of a global pie that is both expanding and becoming more complex;" and the threat of terrorism is a "bubble" that threatens to "undermine" open society. Friedman’s disorienting literary ineptitude is nearly enough to distract us from the indisputable fact that he has no fucking idea what he’s talking about. For this dolt-friendly parlor trick and a slavish devotion to globalization and technology as abstract, almost mystical tenets, Friedman has achieved iconic status. Exhibits the easy smile and benevolent smugness of an unjustly celebrated man who has never thought very deeply or rigorously about anything at all.
8:16:14 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 2/1/2006; 8:45:21 PM.
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