Douchebag of the Day
Evil intel fucker Tom Friedman.
His "points" today:
1) everyone needs to change their lifestyle and get off petroleum-dependency (fine, though somewhat disturbing that a "friend" who works at the Pentagon is passing on this message)
2) the BP oil spill is really the fault of all Americans, for their never-ending thirst for oil (partly true, but again it's disturbing that the Pentagon source passing on this message)
3) the BP oil spill wasn't even really BP's fault: "stuff happens" at 5000 feet below sea level-- a truly obnoxious statement that ignores obvious signs of wrong-doing by BP and of course completely ignores that the disaster was an inside-job.
4) "we managed to survive 9/11 without letting it destroy our open society or rule of law" -- what a fucking douchebag
5) "We managed to survive the Wall Street crash without letting it destroy our economy."-- uh, LOTS of people's lives have been destroyed by the economic downturn, but I guess it depends how you define "destroy".
6) "We do not know when the next Times Square bomber might get lucky. We don’t know how long the U.S. and Israel will tolerate Iran’s nuclear program. We don’t know if Pakistan will hold together and what might happen to its nukes. We don’t know when North Korea will go nuts." -- Ugghhh, the man is literally a walking propaganda machine.
7) "Since the end of the cold war and the rise of the Internet, we’ve lost the walls and the superpowers that together kept the world’s problems more contained. Today, smaller and smaller units can wreak larger and larger havoc — and whatever havoc is wreaked now gets spread faster and farther than ever before." --This sounds totally ad hoc and bogus. Is there a source for this conclusion?
8) We need to do solve our problems now, not wait. The only solution given is "We need to make our whole country more sustainable. So let’s pass an energy-climate bill that really reduces our dependence on Middle East oil." Uh, ok... sure...
Yes, certainly to some extent, Americans as a whole are to blame for being complacent and self-centered and lazy. And my life-style is unfortunately very petroleum-dependent. The problem in most parts of the country, we've been offered no choice in the matter. Public transportation is pathetic, and really, it's the government that can promote better policies to help people reduce their consumption of petroleum. But the state and local govts are cash starved and limited in what they can do. Only the Federal government can effectively control the oil companies and the automobile industries, and of course the Fed Govt is massively dysfunctional. It all boils down to the fuckers in charge and whether we can really take back the country from them.
FWIW, This article approaches the same petroleum theme as Friedman, but much more sensibly.
UPDATE: Here's a good take-down of Friedman, on his earlier douchiness relating to the Israeli raid on the Turkish flotilla.
His "points" today:
1) everyone needs to change their lifestyle and get off petroleum-dependency (fine, though somewhat disturbing that a "friend" who works at the Pentagon is passing on this message)
2) the BP oil spill is really the fault of all Americans, for their never-ending thirst for oil (partly true, but again it's disturbing that the Pentagon source passing on this message)
3) the BP oil spill wasn't even really BP's fault: "stuff happens" at 5000 feet below sea level-- a truly obnoxious statement that ignores obvious signs of wrong-doing by BP and of course completely ignores that the disaster was an inside-job.
4) "we managed to survive 9/11 without letting it destroy our open society or rule of law" -- what a fucking douchebag
5) "We managed to survive the Wall Street crash without letting it destroy our economy."-- uh, LOTS of people's lives have been destroyed by the economic downturn, but I guess it depends how you define "destroy".
6) "We do not know when the next Times Square bomber might get lucky. We don’t know how long the U.S. and Israel will tolerate Iran’s nuclear program. We don’t know if Pakistan will hold together and what might happen to its nukes. We don’t know when North Korea will go nuts." -- Ugghhh, the man is literally a walking propaganda machine.
7) "Since the end of the cold war and the rise of the Internet, we’ve lost the walls and the superpowers that together kept the world’s problems more contained. Today, smaller and smaller units can wreak larger and larger havoc — and whatever havoc is wreaked now gets spread faster and farther than ever before." --This sounds totally ad hoc and bogus. Is there a source for this conclusion?
8) We need to do solve our problems now, not wait. The only solution given is "We need to make our whole country more sustainable. So let’s pass an energy-climate bill that really reduces our dependence on Middle East oil." Uh, ok... sure...
Yes, certainly to some extent, Americans as a whole are to blame for being complacent and self-centered and lazy. And my life-style is unfortunately very petroleum-dependent. The problem in most parts of the country, we've been offered no choice in the matter. Public transportation is pathetic, and really, it's the government that can promote better policies to help people reduce their consumption of petroleum. But the state and local govts are cash starved and limited in what they can do. Only the Federal government can effectively control the oil companies and the automobile industries, and of course the Fed Govt is massively dysfunctional. It all boils down to the fuckers in charge and whether we can really take back the country from them.
FWIW, This article approaches the same petroleum theme as Friedman, but much more sensibly.
UPDATE: Here's a good take-down of Friedman, on his earlier douchiness relating to the Israeli raid on the Turkish flotilla.
posted by spooked at 10:17 AM
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