Althouse: "I feel like we're like an unemployed couple who just went out and decided to adopt a special needs baby."

December 6, 2009

"I feel like we're like an unemployed couple who just went out and decided to adopt a special needs baby."

"You know, I mean, that's really kind of what we're doing. And that's like, whoa, y'know, that terrifies me."

Special-needs columnist Thomas Friedman attempts to say something about Afghanistan.

ADDED: From March 2008, another Friedmanism:

35 comments:

Scott said...: I'm sure they pay him a lot more than they pay me. He must in some way deserve to be blathering like that in front of a national audience.

All I can get for my vast intelligence is the right to post in a comment thread on Althouse. :(; 12/6/09, 5:59 PM
Rumpletweezer said...: Tom Friedman is my touchstone. If we agree on something, I know I'm wrong about it.; 12/6/09, 6:04 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: I wish straightening out the borders--both literally and figuratively--were an option over there. The border with Pakistan is a hopelessly convoluted line that invites constant accusations of incursions. And the borders are somewhat arbitrary to begin with, dividing populations in half in some cases.; 12/6/09, 6:05 PM
rhhardin said...: So it's a retarded country.; 12/6/09, 6:06 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: It used to be "all the news that's fit to print", and now it's "open mouth, insert foot".; 12/6/09, 6:13 PM
Anonymous said...: Terrorist Bill Ayers also came out recently against Obama.

Once you've lost the terrorists in your own party ... I think your presidency has pretty much imploded.

And I notice now that a majority of adults now believe that Barack Obama has the country on the wrong track and disapprove of the way he is running the country.; 12/6/09, 6:13 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: I'm sure this analogy came to mind only because all they can think about at the NYT is Sarah Palin.; 12/6/09, 6:14 PM
Alex said...: Nah, a liberal would have just aborted the baby.; 12/6/09, 6:34 PM
Jack said...: That Tom Friedman quote is much older than March, 2008. It's more like late 2003 or 2004.

Bloggers.; 12/6/09, 6:47 PM
rcocean said...: Wow, that whole bubble thing - that's the most stupid thing I've ever heard. I mean, Damn that was seriously dumb.

Thanks for posting it. I feel even more justified in my refusal to read him.; 12/6/09, 6:52 PM
rcocean said...: To misquote Orwell:

Only a New York Times Editorial writer could say something that stupid.; 12/6/09, 6:54 PM
lucid said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/6/09, 7:03 PM
lucid said...: Friedman has been flamboyantly wrong so often that he is now a parody of a columnist. He once predicted tha the internet would drive Amazon out of business because anybody could sell books out of their home.

In Afghanistan, we--the wealthiset and most powerful nation in the history of the world--are acting to save our own future, not to take care of an orphan child. what a foool he is.; 12/6/09, 7:04 PM
1775OGG said...: Rumple is right on!

Friedman is one of those who couldn't find his ass if he sat on it nor pull his foot out of his mouth after he speaks.

Of course, Rose acts like Friedman is "brillant!"; 12/6/09, 7:06 PM
vbspurs said...: Afghanistan is like Special Olympics, or something.

Cheers,
Victoria; 12/6/09, 7:20 PM
kentuckyliz said...: Unemployed couple adopting a special needs baby to get the Social Security Disability checks?; 12/6/09, 7:29 PM
somefeller said...: Don't mock the Mustache of Understanding.; 12/6/09, 7:36 PM
Factory Yoyo said...: I have said it before:
Tom Friedman is no thinker but a repeater of others thoughts, and his columns are representations of the thoughts of the last few people he has spoken with.
His writing style is clumsy, unfocused, and all too much alarmist.
How this joker became a multi millionaire with one of the nicest spreads in Washington DC speaks to me the greatness of America.; 12/6/09, 7:55 PM
David said...: As tasteful as it is persuasive.; 12/6/09, 8:18 PM
HT said...: "special needs?" What do you have against "retarded?"; 12/6/09, 8:38 PM
Richard Fagin said...: Mr. Friedman's comment is more appropriately applied to the proposed health care nationalization...uh, I mean, reform.; 12/6/09, 9:15 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Tom Friedman cracks me up. He would be funny except people really take everything he says seriously (when they should take 20% of what he says seriously).; 12/6/09, 9:32 PM
Fred4Pres said...: This is like relying on Tom Friedman...

Disappointing!

H/T: Ace; 12/6/09, 9:43 PM
careen said...: His Cliff Clavin stache makes me uncomfortable. Can't watch it.; 12/6/09, 10:15 PM
From Inwood said...: Tom F is never as funny as when he makes sillier comparisons than MoDo.

Maybe someone in his "Arab Street" should help finance the adoption of this baby!

Jason: I think that you have the answer: The obsession with Sarah P.

It's like the old joke of the shrink showing the naughty lady ink blots & asking what they mean to her. When she keeps answering "sex", the shrink stops & she says "everything reminds me of sex. So with the NYT & Palin.

BTW, the NYT will now have 11 fact checkers vet your Palin conclusion.

Also BTW, can we describe the MSM’s fact checking every Palin quote & event as “Palintology”?
I don’t know if anybody has said something like this neologism before I just did; if so, I apologize for unconscious parallelism.; 12/6/09, 10:25 PM
Cedarford said...: Lucid - In Afghanistan, we--the wealthiset and most powerful nation in the history of the world--are acting to save our own future, not to take care of an orphan child. what a foool he is.

No, I would argue that it is the people that think we can have endless war costing 100 billion per "rescue project nation" in a series of unstable Islamoid countries who are the fools. Why exactly MUST we intervene and occupy Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan *shudder*, Iran, Lebanon, Syria? Because a few thousand "Evildoers" may take up residence there and the price to block that is soldiers that cost a million dollars a year to field?

When Bush laid out his idiot reasoning of endless preemptive wars to prevent "another 9/11"..even he never imagined 30-year long nation-building wars. And he imagined it could all happen forever with China picking up the loan and while he could reward Americans with more and deeper tax cuts..and no sacrifice.
(And without going after where 95% of the work and effort into 9/11 happened - Germany, the UAE, and the USA)

Yeah, the analogy is fairly apt - unemployed wastrel couple decides to venture out and get a 30-year commitment to a special needs baby completely outside what should be their vital needs as a couple..; 12/6/09, 11:40 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Althouse:

Thanks for serving up the NYT tidbits. They are regular reminders, to me, that the NYT still sucks. You save me mucho time!; 12/7/09, 12:12 AM
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vbspurs said...: This is the second post that I've seen so far, with late night spam comments...; 12/7/09, 2:10 AM
lucid said...: @cedarford:

wishful thinking on your part. palistan has 100 nukes and is prey to taliban. afghanistan is about not having a bomb go off in an american city.

besides, look how well we did with nation-building in europe and the far east after wwII. what's your problem with success and prosperity?; 12/7/09, 5:34 AM
knox said...: Tom Friedman, Joe Biden, and Obama should all go out for beers sometime and dish about how dumb Sarah Palin is. Because, clearly, they're all much smarter. Much. I mean, she really deserves ridicule. Whereas they are virtual founts of wisdom. Or something.; 12/7/09, 10:05 AM
bagoh20 said...: Why are analogies so irresistible in argument? Attempting to make an issue clearer by pretending it is something else completely different is mildly insane. You have to ignore the details of both the target and the analogy in order to even get it. Yet we can't resist.

A special needs child is worth adopting even if you can't afford it. Of course you could just let it run in the streets learning to be a criminal and eventually breaking into your house some night to rape you with nuclear weapons.; 12/7/09, 11:24 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Special needs isn't all that much more expensive than a normal child, but it is more time consuming. Being unemployed actually helps, since a parent needs to be around more often.

I see what he's trying to say, but the analogy is poor.

What he is saying may be correct. It's almost impossible to pull the poorest countries out of their mess. Doing so during a war is even harder. Why we should be doing so at all is a legitimate question.; 12/7/09, 5:22 PM
showbiz111 said...: I think Tiny Tom really feels like he's an unemployed couple who just went out and aborted a special needs baby, cause he's a died in the wool liberal and most liberals would never let a special needs baby go to term, hence their pathological hatred of Sarah Palin who CHOSE to carry such a baby to term. How horrid. Could you imagine not doing everything to have a perfect baby, and if that means scrambling a few eggs (abortion) well the ends justify the means.; 12/9/09, 2:45 PM
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