friedman (WAS: internet & social control)

[Himself]

Was Friedman for or against the Iraq war?  I never could figure it out.
Neither could he.  What a doofus.

Friedman occasionally has some insight, and used to have some guts, but
his writing has of late been so pompous and cautious and content-free
it's like he's auditioning for the Ralph Belamy role in a Frank Capra
remake.

Plus, his prose is atrocious: The New York Press had a hilarious send up
of Friedman's metaphor-mangling writing style a few weeks back.  I
laughed so hard veins bulged out of my forehead and I frightened small
children.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of The Great Quail
> Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 10:35 AM
> To: The Whole Sick Crew
> Subject: Re: friedman (WAS: internet & social control)
> 
> MalignD writes,
> 
> > For the record, I'm not a particular fan of Friedman's
> > and I found his comments, posted here, re WMDs
> > regrettable and wrong.  But to dismiss him as an
> > apologist ignores much that he's written about Iraq
> > that's highly critical of the Bush administration,
> > particularly the woeful state of the post-war
> > operation.
> 
> I agree with Malign on this one. I read all of Friedman's books, and I
> usually read his columns. While his personality can be, at times,
grating,
> and I certainly understand why the far Lefties on the List find his
> politics
> reproachable, he is still a left-leaning moderate with a lot of sharp
> criticism for politics-as-they-are. Although I don't always agree with
> him,
> he usually writes something worth reading.
> 
> And I think it is ludicrous to compare him to Pynchon, by the way. But
> then
> a lot of the conversations around here have been ludicrous lately.
"Pale
> Fire" is starting to look increasingly more relevant to, if not
Pynchon,
> at
> least the Pynchon List.
> 
> --Quail