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Topic: Thomas L. Friedman
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| UGoGirl | Posted – 4/15/2007 9:55:02 PM | show profile I'm not particularly a fan of Thomas L. Friedman. I can still remember how he supported the Iraq war (although with the caveat that we really had to get it right -- which we obviously didn't by any long stretch.). But anyway he does seem to be up on energy and climate issues. We are changing but not quickly enough... I went to rent a car and all the compacts were unavailable... people are starting to get it (yet gasoline consumption in the US is still up 5% over last year...). *** The Power of Green One day Iraq, our post-9/11 trauma and the divisiveness of the Bush years will all be behind us ? and America will need, and want, to get its groove back. We will need to find a way to reknit America at home, reconnect America abroad and restore America to its natural place in the global order ? as the beacon of progress, hope and inspiration. I have an idea how. It?s called ?green.? In the world of ideas, to name something is to own it. If you can name an issue, you can own the issue. One thing that always struck me about the term ?green? was the degree to which, for so many years, it was defined by its opponents ? by the people who wanted to disparage it. And they defined it as ?liberal,? ?tree-hugging,? ?sissy,? ?girlie-man,? ?unpatriotic,? ?vaguely French.? Well, I want to rename ?green.? I want to rename it geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic. ...A redefined, broader and more muscular green ideology is not meant to trump the traditional Republican and Democratic agendas but rather to bridge them when it comes to addressing the three major issues facing every American today: jobs, temperature and terrorism. ...No wonder more Americans have concluded that conserving oil to put less money in the hands of hostile forces is now a geostrategic imperative. President Bush?s refusal to do anything meaningful after 9/11 to reduce our gasoline usage really amounts to a policy of ?No Mullah Left Behind.? James Woolsey, the former C.I.A. director, minces no words: ?We are funding the rope for the hanging of ourselves.? ... NY Times Magazine, April 15 2007 |
| mailbag | Posted – 4/15/2007 10:38:08 PM | show profile | email poster He said nothing new. I saw most of the little video clip...(couldn't stand to watch his flailing arms any longer and killed it before the end.) He is just an overpaid talking head. He said nothing you and I don't already know and/or have not already discussed here. (Shit, maybe he stole your ideas Ugo!! lol.) But his weekend rant reinforces what I see as very wrong with our profession -- when media companies turn to their own to make them global spokespeople/specialists on topic du jour. He is only a journalist and someone at the NYT decided he should up his stardom a notch for whatever reason. (Maybe he got a pay raise to $410,000 this year and was required to do these little videos - who knows?) |
