How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

[floridaorange]

That Used to Be Us: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented and How We Come Back

If by some chance you haven't heard of Tom Friedman before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Friedman

Clear and articulate, Friedman covers a lot of ground in this presentation about his new book. (author of the 2005 book "The World is Flat).

Enjoy

[runningman]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

Are you an English major?

I notice you put articulate and smart together all the timHe writes for the New York Times..

The guy is a liar. You need to stop wasting your time on these guys

[floridaorange]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

Your opinion of America and out politics is nonsense 95% of the time RM. And not because you are from Canada either.

[res0nat0r]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

Of course he is a liar, the title of this post has the words 'how we come back' in relation to America, so he is obviously CIA. Nevermind the Pulitzers.

[runningman]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

And by nonsense you mean I am right all the time and you are ALWAYS WRONG..

He won a pulitzer in 2002 by carrying water for Bush..

[runningman]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

I really have never met a couple losers like you two.. you guys are always wrong and you fully trust your government and you believe your media..

You basically are weak and believe anyone in a position of power and you take them as an authority.. you can't think for yourselves.

[floridaorange]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

wasting your time on these guys

I really have never met a couple losers like you two..

Don't flatter yourself kid, we are never meeting.

[runningman]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

Ok Florida



I like 2 sugars in my coffee.

[runningman]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

Can you see the wave of shit coming your way Florida?? The banks robbed you and nobody went to jail, do you think they will stop?



These pics are your future

[res0nat0r]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

You know if the US goes under you are going to be selling your body on the street for cash soon after right? I don't know why you re jizzing yourself over his so much. You aren't going to be just north of us all happy watching hockey....

[88Mariner]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

lol @ tom freidman

brb, oppressive Chinese government is 'ideal'
brb, US needs to be more like China


this guy is a jackass. Yes have read his books. yes, cringed through most of them.

Hey Florida, maybe you could write your own Tom Friedman column? Here's some help:

1. Choose your title to intrigue the reader through its internal conflict:
a. War and Peas
b. Osama, Boulevardier
c. Big Problems, Little Women
2. Include a dateline from a remote location, preferably dangerous, unmistakably Muslim:

a. Mecca, Saudi Arabia
b. Islamabad, Pakistan
c. Mohammedville, Trinidad
3. Begin your first paragraph with a grandiose sentence and end with a terse, startlingly unexpected contradiction:
The future of civilization depends upon open communication between Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon. If the two don’t speak to each other, the world edges closer to the precipice of total war. If, on the other hand, they manage to engage in open conversation and resolve their differences, Israelis could soon be celebrating Seders in Saudi Arabia. But for now, the two men can’t speak. Why? You can’t make a collect call from Bethlehem.
4. Use the next few paragraphs to further define the contradiction stated above, peppered with little questions making it look like you’re having a conversation with the reader. Feel free to use the first person:
My first thought was to ask: Why no collect calls from Bethlehem? It’s easy to call collect from Bosnia, Kosovo, even Uzbekistan. Am I sure? Of course I’m sure. I was in each of those places just a few weeks ago, making collect calls all over the world. No problem. So why can’t Arafat call collect from Bethlehem?
5. Remember: Thomas Friedman is the Carrie Bradshaw of current events. Think Sex and the City, write “Sects and Tikriti”:
a. How can Islam get to its future, if its past is its present?
b. Later that day I got to thinking about global civilizational warfare. There are wars that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that take you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant clash of all is the one you have with your own civilization. And if you can find a civilization to love the you that you love, well, that’s just fabulous.
c. Maybe Arabs and Israelis aren’t from different planets, as pop culture would have us believe. Maybe we live a lot closer to each other. Perhaps, dare I even say it, in the same ZIP code.
6. Name-drop heavily, particularly describing intimate situations involving hard-to-reach people:
a. The Jacuzzi was nearly full when Ayman al-Zawahiri, former surgeon and now Al Qaeda’s head of operations, slid in.
b. It was Thomas Pynchon on the phone. “Tommy,” he said, probably aware we share that name ..
c. Despite the bumpy flight, I felt comfortable in the hands of a pilot as experienced as Amelia Earhart.
7. Include unknowns from hostile places who have come to espouse rational Western thought and culture:
a. I visited Mohammed bin Faisal Al-Hijazi, former top aide to Ayatollah Khomeini, now a reformer and graduate of the Wharton Business School.
b. Last year Nura bin Saleh Al-Fulani worked in Gaza sewing C4 plastic explosives into suicide bombers’ vests. I caught up with Nura last week in Paw Paw, Mich., where she sews activity patches on the uniforms of Cub Scout Pack 34.
8. Make use of homey anecdotes about your daughters, Natalie and Orly, enrolled in Eastern Middle School, Silver Spring, Md.:
My daughter Natalie, a student at Eastern Middle School, a public school in Silver Spring, Md., asked me at breakfast: “Daddy, if my school has students who are Muslims and Jews and Christians and Buddhists all working together, why can’t the rest of the world be that way?” There was something in the innocence of her question that made me stop and think: Maybe she has a point.
9. Quote a little-known Middle East authority at least once in every column:
a. Stephen P. Cohen
b. Stephen P. Cohen
c. Stephen P. Cohen
10. Conclude your column with a suggestion referring back to the opening contradiction, but with an ironic twist. Make sure the suggestion you proffer sounds plausible, but in fact has no chance of happening:
Driving into Bethlehem in the back of a pickup, I wonder: What if Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon sit down and play a game of poker? And what if the stakes are these: If Sharon wins, the Intifada is over. If Arafat wins, Palestine gains statehood. One game of no-limit Texas hold ‘em, and the Middle East crisis is resolved. Just like that. Yasser and Ariel, deal ‘em out.

[floridaorange]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

^It was just a presentation to watch and consider for 20 minutes, not something to write a thesis about although I'm glad you read his books Mariner (I won't be).

Ok Florida



I like 2 sugars in my coffee.

Then maybe I'll give you a 5 minute break so you can put down your tray and have some coffee with me one day. And I keep telling you it's not necessary you wear that tie.

[Shpira]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

no wonder i am loosing interest...SSDD

bunch of fucking geniuses...will watch when I get home...thanks for the post Florida.

[vinnie97]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

Mariner, thanks for mentioning his stance on our need to emulate China. Yes, we need a more authoritarian, centralized (oppressive) govt. to carry out the edicts of the national (international) bank...another useless idiot who doesn't deserve a mouthpiece.

[floridaorange]

Re: How America Lost Its Way in the World It Invented & How We Come Back

Mariner, thanks for mentioning his stance on our need to emulate China. Yes, we need a more authoritarian, centralized (oppressive) govt. to carry out the edicts of the national (international) bank...another useless idiot who doesn't deserve a mouthpiece.

Riiight If you stood up and asked Friedman the above statement in question format, you realize the entire room would do a face palm?