archy

Fair play for Tom
We lefty bloggers beat up on Tom Friedman a lot. Sometimes he deserves it and sometimes we’re being hypercritical. Prior to 2002, I disagreed with maybe one in ten of Friedman’s columns. But that tenth column just drove me nuts. I explained my feelings to my wife once as thinking Friedman wrote well thought out columns most of the time, but every so often he would just lose patience and write a childish screw ‘em all rant. Since the ramp up to the Iraq invasion, most of his columns have been of that sort. Yesterday, he wrote a calmer column admitting we are in deep crap and may not get out of this unless heroic measures are taken. It’s not a perfect column, but rather than dwell on what’s wrong with his position, I want to recognize that he’s headed in the right direction and especially give him credit for a good hook.

I have never known a time in my life when America and its president were more hated around the world than today…. It's no wonder that so many Americans are obsessed with the finale of the sitcom 'Friends' right now. They're the only friends we have, and even they're leaving.

As Atrios says, reward good behavior.