Tom Friedman is Freakin Annoying

Tom Friedman gets paid big bucks to pontificate to us on the pages of the NYTimes. I'll never forget how James Howard Kunstler described a Friedman piece on alternative energy--something to the effect of "he's blowing green smoke out his ass", well as far as I'm concerned he's doing it again. In his Sunday column, Freidman takes the opportunity to opine on the BP oil spill and how this is our opportunity to change as really we are all responsible for the predicament we find ourselves in. ( Just a digression on the BP spill but what's up with the live cam shots on the CNN, CNBC etc. of oil seeping out in real-time? What's the point?)


At face value maybe Friedman has a point but his recipe is laughable. I'll let him spell it out:

"We have to use this window of opportunity to insulate ourselves as much as possible against all the bad things we cannot control and get serious about fixing the problems that we can control. 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. Let’s pass a financial regulatory reform bill that really reduces the odds of another banking crisis. Let’s get our fiscal house in order, as the economy recovers. And let’s pass an immigration bill that will enable us to attract the world’s top talent and remain the world’s leader in innovation. "

Friedman is a creature of the establishment. In his world some kind of legislation is going to get us moving to solve our problems. He doesn't get it, we are so far beyond that at this point that his cries ring hollow. Day after day hard working Americans have less and less reason to believe that the professional politicians who sit in various legislatures have any answers for the multitude of problems we as a society face. Think of kidding, take a look at what my own state legislature is proposing. They are going to borrow from the state pension fund to lend to that same pension fund. Yeah Tom, legislation is the answer to our problems.