farmdoc's blog post number 231

In four previous Farmdoc’s Blog posts I’ve mentioned Thomas L Friedman. He’s an interesting guy. The New Yorker agrees, because its 10 November 2008 edition includes an 11-page profile of him. The meanies put only an abstract on their website – not the full article. Here are eight short extracts (with minor editorial tweaks): 1. (Regarding Friedman’s book The World is Flat) Maureen Dowd, his Times colleague…has been kicking herself for not calling her book about gender relations The World is Curvy. 2. As soon as…(George W Bush)…saw the…(The World is Flat)…title, he said, ‘You see, I was right!’ 3. I’m a big believer in ‘To name something is to own it. And the people who named ‘green’ – named it liberal, tree-hugging, sissie, girlie-man. I’m out to rename green. If you rename it geopolitical, geostrategic, capitalistic, strong, you’re going to get a totally different response. 4. We have already hit the iceberg and SS Humanity’s going down. 5. My dad died at fifty-six, so I’ve always been aware that time is short. 6. …violent radical Islam represents the third great totalitarian challenge to open societies, after Soviet Communism and Nazism. 7. …pessimists are usually right, optimists are usually wrong, but most great changes are made by optimists. 8. I don’t do pessimism. I’m the last guy walking. I’ll be looking for the solution at the end of the road.