dagblog - Comments for "Oh No, Tom Friedman Again!"

Think of him as Tom Fructose

Donal — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:44:27 +0000

In reply to Oh No, Tom Friedman Again!

Think of him as Tom Fructose - he makes everything seem sweeter, but you're still hungry after you read his column.

You've hit on something true,

acanuck — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:34:08 +0000

You've hit on something true, Richard. Al Franken is the Antifriedman. He's the kind of authentic big-D Democrat the party needs to save itself. I've never been as impressed by a first-term senator -- and that includes the guy from Chicago.

Brilliant.

Michael Maiello — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 23:35:27 +0000

In reply to Destor, I despise Tom

Brilliant.

Destor, I despise Tom

Richard Day — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 23:08:35 +0000

In reply to Oh No, Tom Friedman Again!

Destor, I despise Tom Friedman, always have.

I would like to see, sometime in my liife, a debate between Tom and Al Frankin...they both attended the only suburban school the antisemetic minneapolitans could bear.

Tom always thought he was smarter than everyone else...

Al always thought: HELL I CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS. hahahahahha

Boy, I really though twice

Red Planet — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:36:15 +0000

In reply to Oh No, Tom Friedman Again!

Boy, I really though twice about quoting Friedman because I was afraid it would lead into a discussion of the rest of the tripe he wrote today.

Yes, his Op-Ed is pretty smart, right down to the closing paragraphs. When he, once again, reveals his pre-schooler's grasp of what's at stake.

Just remember this. When people say that Social Security is in trouble, what they mean, but don't want to say out loud, is that they want the U. S. Government to default on the "trust fund" bonds, which were bought and paid for by American workers over the past three decades, and which have been squandered on foreign adventures and tax cuts for the rich.

What they mean is that they don't think the "full faith and credit of the United States of America" extends to actual Americans.

If you check the Wikipedia

NCD — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:26:48 +0000

In reply to Oh No, Tom Friedman Again!

If you check the Wikipedia page on Friedman, you will find he married a rich heiress and lives in an 11,000 + sq. ft. residence in Bethesda on 7 1/2 acres, property valued at $9.3 million, and gets paid up to $50k per engagement or speech.

His financial and living situation gives some perspective on his opinions on Social Security - he for one, won't need it. He is just another rich guy pontificating to the serfs.

Friedman isn't really putting

acanuck — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:22:56 +0000

In reply to Oh No, Tom Friedman Again!

Friedman isn't really putting forth a plan; he's sketching an idea he hopes some really smart leader will emerge to flesh out and implement. So he can suggest vaguely that some services, "like Social Security," might have to be reduced. Notably, he doesn't propose cutting the bloated defense budget in half and ending two senseless military occupations halfway around the world. That would free up some cash.

If anything is done with the

DF — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:58:08 +0000

In reply to Oh No, Tom Friedman Again!

If anything is done with the Social Security fund, I want it used to immediately pay down the debt that all the Tea Party blue hairs are supposedly so enraged about.

I actually proposed this to a conservative friend of mine (like has a Michael Savage license plate frame conservative) who absolutely despises Social Security, refers to it as a Ponzi scheme (which is just stupid because the money is invested), etc. I thought, hey, one-two punch! You hate the debt, you hate Social Security - why not just let the two come in contact and cancel each other out in a kind of matter/anti-matter interaction?

Surprisingly enough, he hated this idea! Seems he didn't like the idea of all those decent people having put their money in only to get nothing out. When I pointed out that those same people are the ones who allowed their political leadership to run up such a large debt, the same people who are now vehemently protesting taxes of all kinds, he didn't seem to come around.

It's really odd to me to hear people twice my age gripe about all of the problems that have developed on their watch, but what are they really willing to do to solve any of these problems? For many of them, the answer is jack nothing. They want to cash out and live easy. Color me shocked.

Friedman's right about one

we are stardust — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:57:33 +0000

In reply to Oh No, Tom Friedman Again!

Friedman's right about one thing: education needs more money; the President, during this Education Week is quoted as saying money isn't as important as Reform.

Arne's Reform is competition among schools, charter school increases, corporate contributions to charter schools, interference in local districts, merit pay, i.e. a Shit Taco that will provide more heartburn, not less.

'Freedom does extend, to a certain extent, from financial security.'

'Nothin' left to lose' is also freeing, in it's way, I hope, because a lot of us will be sharing that sort of freedom. And plenty of us who thought we'd provided fairly well for retirement will go into it with either nothing, or not much now.

By the by, you may want to read S Johnson's new column; beats me, but I hope he's right...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-29/obama-as-comeback-kid-just-needs-lower-dollar-commentary-by-simon-johnson.html