Posted on 05/04/2008 3:54:40 PM PDT by shrinkermd
...They are not only tired of nation-building in Iraq and in Afghanistan, with so little to show for it. They sense something deeper — that we’re just not that strong anymore. We’re borrowing money to shore up our banks from city-states called Dubai and Singapore. Our generals regularly tell us that Iran is subverting our efforts in Iraq, but they do nothing about it because we have no leverage — as long as our forces are pinned down in Baghdad and our economy is pinned to Middle East oil.
Our president’s latest energy initiative was to go to Saudi Arabia and beg King Abdullah to give us a little relief on gasoline prices. I guess there was some justice in that. When you, the president, after 9/11, tell the country to go shopping instead of buckling down to break our addiction to oil, it ends with you, the president, shopping the world for discount gasoline.
We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The new NYT is going to give up on the BDS, go to the MDS and puff Barack Obama as a necessary, messianic black leader. They have the ink and Barack has the $. We will see.
The last messiah we had was FDR. He raised taxes--90% was the top marginal rate and just before he was elected Congress gave him Smoot-Hawley which actually eliminated most foreign trade. But the MSM loved him, adored him and to this day speak of him with reverence.
Barack are you next?
Tommy tommy you little noodnik you. Ever hear of the Protestant Ethic? Ever read Poor Richard's Almanac by... hmmm... that famous Asian, Ben Franklin? Geez...
Who is going to the tell the staff at the NYT that they should they are not so strong, losing money and should start looking for new jobs?
here’s an Asian value I practice: I refuse to pay $4.50 for the Sunday Times
And Hillary Clinton will be the nation’s salvation, right?
There is no more productive worker than the American worker and it really doesn't matter from where that American's ancestors originate. It's just a plain fact, must be the water.
I think the NYT, in spite of its endorsement of her, sees Hillary as finished.
And, actually, I sense they're rather happy about it.
Wow. $4.50? I think it was a buck the last time I bought it.
it’s an inconvenient truth I’m sure.
I’ve stopped looking at it on the newstand; might be more now
Tom Friedman, he awaits a truth to be told to the American People, but he is looking at the wrong “truth” he reaches for a truism, and then extends it outward.
He fails to grasp that those who do have the “asian values” are doing quite well in America, those who do not, but lottery tickets and whine and complain like...NYT columnists...
“It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others.”
Does anyone have any idea what Friedman is talking about? I’m paying taxes through the nose for the items above. Does “enlisted” mean pay higher taxes?
Friedman is such a pompous ass. Nothing wrong with America a return to cheap energy can’t fix. Want to end our dependence on foreign oil? Let’s drill.
Who on earth died and made Friedman king? I am extremely tired of his intelligence without a portfolio.
He apparently feels that the Earth is Flat, wasn’t that notion rejected 2,500 years ago or so...?
I will say that the Average American carries far too much of a debt load, in that he may be correct, but comparing a podunk Singaporian Airport to a massive one in NYC is a bit absurd.
If so, only because we choose not to be, and have chosen to lift lots of boats around the globe. We've also chosen not to flaunt our power and influence. For example, our incredible wealth has put China to work and filled their coffers.
Capitalism has lots of imperfections, but the benefits that eminate from a free capitalist system are incalcuable.
the new york times is great. its size makes it perfect for kindling in the fireplace. it also fits just right in the bird cage. for dog training, its also good; it makes paddles of the right size with which to tap the backside of that cute little puppy when it urinates on the carpet. its also perfect for spreading on the floor on a rainy day to prevent a mess when people enter the house. but it’s such a shame that it’s so expensive.
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