The Lexus And The Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman

[bobbolink]

Does anyone have any feedback about this book?

Worthwhile?

No?

[Ian David]

1. Thom Hartman says it's completely false, right down to being based on a lie.

The author completely misrepresents the Japanese auto industry.

I'd google it for you, but I'm multi-tasking.

[dem629]

9. How did anyone stay awake long enough to hear Hartman finish a thought?

[Greyhound]

10. There are a few of us left that have an attention span longer than a

30 second McDonald's spot.

[dem629]

12. I'm just saying Hartman is a great

substitute for Lunesta and Ambien.

[Greyhound]

15. Yeah, got that.

His ideas require thought, an understanding of how things connect, and some knowledge of history. All of these elements disqualify the majority of 'Murikuns.

[dem629]

The only thing I would add

is that when you imply the majority of 'Murikuns don't/won't get him, let's be more specific and say 99.9999999999% of them fall into that category. The comparatively microscopic sliver of 'Murikuns who "enjoy" him have their reasons, I suppose. And there's no accounting for taste. After all, a slightly larger percentage of people purchase Ashlee Simpson songs.

[Ian David]

21. In addition to an attention deficit, you also appear to be lacking the gene to recognize hyperbole.

[dem629]

22. Are you Bill Frist?

I'm sorry if my opinion of Hartman got you all bunched up. I hope you get that worked out in short order.

[Ian David]

25. I'm just messin' with ya. n/t

[leftchick]

17. or a gnat

;)

[Ian David]

19. This is true some of can-- Look, a bunny! n/t

[Greyhound]

26. LOL!

Now I have clean off my display, thanks!
:rofl:

[Ian David]

18. Maybe you're a natural born hunter-gatherer? This might help...

[glowing]

2. Hmm, Thomas Friedman.. I'd pass.

[rockymountaindem]

3. "The World is Flat" was totally awful

He's the only person I've ever read personally to describe the "race to the bottom" in glowing terms. Unfortunately he's representative of all too many people, I suppose.

[lostnotforgotten]

4. Waist Of Time - Need To Understand That Friedman Lives In A 11,000 SQ FT House

His wife is Arie to the largest shopping mall fortune in the world.

He lives in a glass house and is out of touch of reality

[alarimer]

23. Matt Taibbi's take on Friedman

"Reading Thomas Friedman is like listening to the man talking to himself"


When some time ago a friend of mine told me that Thomas Friedman's new book, Hot, Flat and Crowded, was going to be a kind of environmentalist clarion call against American consumerism, I almost died laughing.

Beautiful, I thought. Just when you begin to lose faith in America's ability to fall for absolutely anything -- just when you begin to think we Americans as a race might finally outgrow the lovable credulousness that leads us to fork over our credit card numbers to every half-baked TV pitchman hawking a magic dick-enlarging pill, or a way to make millions on the Internet while sitting at home and pounding doughnuts -- along comes Thomas Friedman, porn-'stached resident of a positively obscene 11,400-square-foot suburban Maryland mega-monstro-mansion and husband to the heir of one of the largest shopping-mall chains in the world, reinventing himself as an oracle of anti-consumerist conservationism.

Where does a man, who needs his own offshore drilling platform just to keep the east wing of his house heated, get the balls to write a book chiding America for driving energy-inefficient automobiles? Where does a guy whose family bulldozed 2.1 million square feet of pristine Hawaiian wilderness to put a Gap, an Old Navy, a Sears, an Abercrombie and even a motherfucking Foot Locker in paradise get off preaching to the rest of us about the need for a "Green Revolution"? Well, he'll explain it all to you in 438 crisply written pages for just $27.95, $30.95 if you have the misfortune to be Canadian.


I've been unhealthily obsessed with Friedman for more than a decade now. For most of that time, I just thought he was funny. And admittedly, what I thought was funniest about him was the kind of stuff that only another writer would really care about -- in particular his tortured use of the English language. Like George W. Bush with his Bushisms, Friedman came up with lines so hilarious you couldn't make them up even if you were trying -- and when you tried to actually picture the "illustrative" figures of speech he offered to explain himself, what you often ended up with was pure physical comedy of the Buster Keaton/Three Stooges school, with whole nations and peoples slipping and falling on the misplaced banana peels of his literary endeavors.


More (I recommend reading all of it, it's very funny).

http://www.alternet.org/environment/121617/someone_take_away_thomas_friedman%27s_computer_before_he_types_another_sentence/

I see someone beat me to this downthread. Oh well.

[bobbolink]

5. Thanks... you've all told me all I need to know.

I knew I could count on you!

:hi:

[Greyhound]

13. It can be useful to see how defective the logic of "free trade" is. n/t

[spag68]

27. Free Trade

Free Trade is definitely an oxymoron. Friedman is a money grubbing scumbag.

[Greyhound]

28. Worse, IMO. Either a simpleton chanting the mantra given to him with no thought,

or worst of all, a willing conspirator and provocateur of that which is meant to destroy the ideals that so many have died for and to enslave us.

[leftstreet]

6. He calls people who don't worship the globalization of capitalism "turtles"

:eyes:

[Idealism]

7. Friedman is a neo-liberal shill

He has a few interesting ideas, but overall not worth spending money on.

[leftchick]

8. here is an excellent review of his writing in general

Flat N All That
MATT TAIBBI takes on porn-stached New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s greenish ways.
By Matt Taibbi

http://www.nypress.com/article-19271-flat-n-all-that.html

When some time ago a friend of mine told me that Thomas Friedman’s new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, was going to be a kind of environmentalist clarion call against American consumerism, I almost died laughing.

Beautiful, I thought. Just when you begin to lose faith in America’s ability to fall for absolutely anything—just when you begin to think we Americans as a race might finally outgrow the lovable credulousness that leads us to fork over our credit card numbers to every half-baked TV pitchman hawking a magic dick-enlarging pill, or a way to make millions on the Internet while sitting at home and pounding doughnuts— along comes Thomas Friedman, porn-stached resident of a positively obscene 114,000 11,400 square foot suburban Maryland mega-monstro-mansion and husband to the heir of one of the largest shopping-mall chains in the world, reinventing himself as an oracle of anti-consumerist conservationism.

Where does a man who needs his own offshore drilling platform just to keep the east wing of his house heated get the balls to write a book chiding America for driving energy inefficient automobiles? Where does a guy whose family bulldozed 2.1 million square feet of pristine Hawaiian wilderness to put a Gap, an Old Navy, a Sears, an Abercrombie and even a motherfucking Foot Locker in paradise get off preaching to the rest of us about the need for a “Green Revolution”? Well, he’ll explain it all to you in 438 crisply written pages for just $27.95, $30.95 if you have the misfortune to be Canadian.

I’ve been unhealthily obsessed with Thomas Friedman for more than a decade now. For most of that time, I just thought he was funny. And admittedly, what I thought was funniest about him was the kind of stuff that only writer would really care about—in particular his tortured use of the English language. Like George W. Bush with his Bushisms, Friedman came up with lines so hilarious you couldn’t make them up even if you were trying—and when you tried to actually picture the “illustrative” figures of speech he offered to explain himself, what you often ended up with was pure physical comedy of the Buster Keaton/Three Stooges school, with whole nations and peoples slipping and falling on the misplaced banana peels of his literary endeavors.

[dem629]

11. LOL. Matt Taibbi complaining about someone else's "tortured use of the English language"....

now THAT is funny.

[leftchick]

16. Matt Taibbi is a wonderful writer

with a very fine whit and humor. Something Friedman completely lacks along with zero credibility on anything he chooses write.

:eyes:

[dem629]

20. I think Taibbi lacks all the talent of good writers.

Which is one reason he is given to the overuse of so-called "bad words." I'm not offended by such language, but it's a good way to recognize a lazy intellect.

[leftchick]

24. lol!

and what prey tell would you call friedman? I can't wait!

:rofl:

[dem629]

14. Not one of his better ones, in my opinion.

Longitudes and Attitudes is the best of his work.