Insanely Liberal

Back when I was in high school, my girlfriend's father suggested that I read "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" by Thomas Friedman. So I read it, or got around to reading it freshman year at Georgetown. It was a pretty good book and didn't say too much about policy, more like it was a book about observations in the world today.

So Friedman got a Pulitzer for that book and went on to become an award winning columnist. I never thought Friedman would become part of the loony left, but then, there I was reading the Sunday edition of The State. This article was so shocking that I had to return from my posting hiatus to write comments about it. Below is what I think is the entire article. I really don't care if I'm violating copyrights or whatever. If they didn't want it distributed, then they wouldn't have published it.

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On Tuesday President Bush will deliver his State of the Union and map out priorities for his last three years. The direction in which America needs to go is obvious: toward energy independence. If Mr. Bush steps up to that challenge, this speech could be a new beginning for his presidency. If he doesn't, you can stick a fork in this administration. It will be done - because it will have abdicated leadership on the biggest issue of our day.

Me: Even greater than terrorism, immigration control, deficits, health care, entitlement reform, congressional ethics reform, or military issues. Instead, Friedman decides that energy independence is the biggest issue of the day. And considering what those on the left think of Bush, I'm surprised that he'd even want Bush to be a leader on this issue.

Here's the speech I'll be listening for:

My fellow Americans, on May 25, 1961, President Kennedy gave an extraordinary State of the Union address in which he called on the nation to marshal all of its resources to put a man on the Moon. By setting that lofty goal, Kennedy was trying to summon all our industrial and scientific talent, and a willingness to sacrifice financially, to catch up with the Soviet Union, which had overtaken America in the field of large rocket engines.

Which proved, in later research, to be a complete lie. There was no missile gap, but that doesn't matter in the actual analysis.

"While we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first," Kennedy said, "we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last."

Well, I guess that works if you're only competing against the Russians, but even so, the US wouldn't have been last if the Russkies had reached the moon. We would've been second. Well ahead of the Portuguese.

I come to you this evening with a similar challenge. President Kennedy was worried about the threat that communism posed to our way of life. I am here to tell you that if we don't move away from our dependence on oil and shift to renewable fuels, it will change our way of life for the worse - and soon - much, much more than communism ever could have. Making this transition is the calling of our era.

So you're telling me that if we don't move away from oil dependence, then renewable fuels are going to launch ICBMs at us? No, wait! Friedman is letting us know that GREENPEACE has nukes and isn't afraid to use them.

Why? First, we are in a war with a violent strain of Middle East Islam that is indirectly financed by our consumption of oil.

Wouldn't it be easier to just go at the root of the problem (the violent strain)? Oh wait, we're already doing that. I guess Tommy boy didn't check CNN when he wrote this.

Second, with millions of Indians and Chinese buying cars and homes as they join the great global middle class, we must quickly move away from burning fossil fuels or we're going to create enough global warming to melt the North Pole.

We're going to ignore for a second that global warming is an uncomfirmed theory at best. Instead, why does the US have to be the one who makes the sacrifices? How about the Indians and Chinese get off their asses and change their lifestyle?

Because of that, green cars, homes, offices, appliances, designs and renewable energies will be the biggest growth industry of the 21st century. If we don't dominate that industry, China, India, Japan or Europe surely will.

And what's wrong with that? It's not like China, India, Japan or Europe don't already dominate other industries? It's not like that's a horrible thing either. Just ask the owners of Toyota, Honda, Saab cars. Or the people who buy things at Wal-Mart. Apparently Tommy hasn't heard of the economic term comparative advantage.

But to lead, we must impose the highest energy-efficiency standards on our own automakers and other industries so we force them to be the most innovative.

Because that worked so well for Ford and GM

I want to inspire girls and boys across America to study math, science or engineering to help our nation achieve green energy independence. President Kennedy said, Let's put a man on the Moon. I say, Let's make oil obsolete.

Except that oil will be needed for other products other than just gas.

Finally, my call for spreading democracy will never be achieved if some of the worst regimes on the planet - Iran, Sudan, Venezuela - have so much oil money they can misbehave and ignore the world, and if the rest of us - Europe, America, China and India - are forever coddling them to get access to their crude.

I didn't know Sudan was being coddled to by the world because of their massive oil reserves. I thought it was because it was an African nation and Kofi Annan is an idiot.

With all of this in mind, I am sending Congress the Bush Energy Freedom Act. It is based on ideas first offered by the energy expert Philip Verleger

Who?

and it argues the following:

Transportation accounts for most of our oil consumption. And many Americans have purchased big cars and S.U.V.'s, expecting gasoline to remain cheap.

Oh, I thought people bought big cars and SUV's for their size and supposed safety standards. Silly me.

That is no longer the case.

So people will stop buying SUVs and big cars? Problem solved.

Therefore, I propose creating a government agency that will buy up any gas-guzzling car or truck in America at the original new or used price, and crush it.

I can see this working wonderfully. A new government agency that is supposed to take cars and crush them. I'm surprised Tommy didn't come up with some cute acronym for this. And I could get into the logistical problems (any SUV can be bought and then sold to the government for it's new or book used value? Time to head to the junkyard!), but I'm sure you people can figure them out.

This national buy-back program will be financed by a $2-a-gallon gasoline tax that will be phased in by 10 cents a month beginning in 2008 - so people know what is coming and start buying fuel-efficient cars right now.

Or give lawmakers enough time to write their political careers good-bye, because no one (even Hillary) wants to be known as the politician who doubled your gas prices. Of course, we haven't even touched that little thing called inflation.

By removing so many gas guzzlers, we will quickly reduce our oil consumption and create a huge demand for new energy-efficient cars from Detroit, which will rescue our auto industry.

Because Detroit has done so well designing and marketing energy efficient cars already. Oh, wait. Almost all of Detroit's profits come from SUVs and big trucks.

We have to do something drastic. The Harley-Davidson motorcycle company is worth more today than General Motors! But by sharply raising the gasoline tax, we'll also make sure that Detroit shifts its fleet to energy-saving plug-in hybrids and hydrogen- and ethanol-burning vehicles, which will force Detroit to out-innovate Toyota.

Or go out of business

And by generating so much income from a gasoline tax, we will be able to give gas-tax rebates to lower-income folks and have plenty left over to pay for new investment in education and scientific research.

And the truth shall set you free! Tommy doesn't want to reduce oil consumption... he wants more taxes! And how does one create a gas-tax rebate to begin with? It's not like lower-income folks don't already have enough tax breaks to work with.

Impossible? Read my lips: Nothing is impossible when Americans put their hearts and minds to it.

Because America is really clamoring to give up their SUV's and get taxed up the ass.

One last thing: I have accepted the resignation of Vice President Dick Cheney, who felt he could not be a salesman for the Energy Freedom Act. I am nominating Jeffrey Immelt - the C.E.O. of General Electric, who has focused G.E.'s innovation around "eco-imagination" - as Mr. Cheney's replacement.

Because the Vice President's job is to try and sell politically-doomed legislation. I missed that part of the Consitution. And I'm sure that Mr. Immelt would love to be involved with this political winner too.

Good night, and God bless America.

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So what's the end result of all this? For me, Thomas Friedman is exposed as just another knee-jerk liberal columnist for the knee-jerk liberal New York Times. I'm never going to put stock in what he says anymore because what he wrote on Sunday was one of the more insane ideas that I've ever heard of. Creating a federal agency with the sole purpose of collecting and smashing SUVs and Trucks? Couldn't he have been a bit more creative? I've always regarded Friedman as a pragmatist, but no longer. He's just another crazy lefty who's given into big government "tax and spend" policies and scare tactic environmentalism.

First thoughts from "Stupid in America"

I love it how Inez Tenenbaum was made to look like an idiot. I really love how Democrats in South Carolina were made to look like idiots.

Yes, Inez, we know that South Carolina is improving in every category. It's easy to improve when you're starting from zero. Now, if you'd just be able to move past those educational juggernauts like Mississippi and Alabama, then you'd be getting somewhere.

South Carolina, a great place to live. Just not a great place to enroll your kids in (public) high school.

TGIF Friday Line Up

No, "Family Matters" and "Full House" aren't coming back to ABC, but John Stossel is. In case you've never read his work (I have), he's a journalist for ABC News and is probably the most unapologetic libertarian journalists out there.

So tonight, on 20/20, there will be a presentation called "Stupid in America: How we are cheating our kids". Here's the blurb from the webpage:

There are many factors that contribute to failure in school. A major factor, Stossel finds, is the government's monopoly over the school system. Parents don't get to choose where to send their children. In other countries, choice brings competition, and competition improves performance.


Stossel questions government officials, union leaders, parents and students and learns some surprising things about what's happening in U.S. schools. He also examines how the educational system can be improved upon and reports on innovative programs across the country.

Oh, and I like this quote:

"I think it has to be something with the school, 'cause I don't think we're stupider."

I think there's a textbook case for irony to be said here.

I may take notes or at least have some kind of reaction to it whenever I get another chance to go online.

While Joe Biden drones on about something

Dan and I (and Luisa) created a religion forum over in LiveJournal called....

The Religious Feedbag

Get it? Political Feedbag = Religious Feedbag. It's some good stuff. I would've liked to have it held here, but that's alright, the posts are still available for all the public to see, it's just that you can't comment without a LiveJournal account. But that's alright.

But as for here, that means that I'll have to keep all the religious stuff confined to there, rather than here. No, that doesn't mean that I won't stop calling NARAL baby killers or the "pro-death" wing of the Democratic party, but if you want to see me go off on Pat Robertson, then you'll just have to go over there.