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Nation of Stupid

Tom Friedman: “9/11 has made us stupid.” 

Sure has made some people stupid, no question.  Friedman is writing against Giuliani as the “9/11″ candidate, saying we need a 9/12 candidate.  Which, as an attempt to be clever, is pretty stupid, too. 9/12, you’ll recall, was the day after 9/11. Pretty much the day its been ever since.  I don’t know what you were thinking about that day.  I actually was thinking about international tourism, just like Friedman wants us to. But I was working out a travel itinerary for Afghanistan.* Friedman wants to get everyone thinking about travel to the United States.  A lot of people were thinking about that on 9/12, too. Jose Padilla, Richard Reid, to name a couple.

I think what Friedman is trying to say with his 9/12 remark, judging by his laundry list of complaints, is that what he wants for president is a 1/20/09 candidate for Chamber of Commerce chairman.  A perky tourism cheerleader who is anyone but Bush. Sounds like Obama. Maybe Edwards.  I think Hill would even frighten the Euros away, though Bill back in the White House could be quite the freakshow attraction.

I do like Friedman’s idea for building a free hospital at Guantanamo for poor Cubans … that’s pretty much all of them, I think … only I’d like to see it built next to the prison, not in place of it.  The lines of people streaming into that place would be a pretty good joke on Michael Moore and Fidel.  Getting past the Cuban army might be a problem for them, though, and the exit would have to be on the dock with boat service to Miami, or you’d never get them out of the place.

Friedman’s 9/12 argument, ironically, is a variant of George Bush’s biggest post-9/11 mistake, when he told a nation looking for leadership to ”Go shopping!” instead of “Enlist!”  The latter being the message that our current and 1/20/09 leadership still need to focus on.  Because this war isn’t over by a long shot.

Welcome, Real Clear Politicians, Surberistas, Riehlists, seekers of Vodka wisdom, etal. It’s Monday now and we’ve got some Yglesiasts incoming … make it a learning moment. Come on in. Over 19,000 served, and we’re not talking about felafal burgers. Check out what Hollywood’s dishing up in wartime: It’s crazy. Maybe Hollywood should check these guys, take notes. Hey, this looks like an inspiring tale with a happy ending! But forget about all of that. Because global warming’s gonna eat your brain. 

* To my great astonishment, that trip never happened.  It was the money. More or less around 9/12 … Friedman’s dream date … the economy slumped, advertising went to hell and my newspaper, with a massive mortgage from recent empire-building projects, had determined by October or so, that $50,000-plus for Crit to gallivant over goatpaths was a no-go. 

Topics: GWOT, media

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:19 am on Sunday, September 30, 2007

17 Responses to “Nation of Stupid”

1. saltydog Says:
   September 30th, 2007 at 8:38 am

   The man has officially entered his second childhood (assuming that he made it out of the first one).

   “You may think Guantanamo Bay is a prison camp in Cuba for al Qaeda terrorists. A lot of the world thinks it’s a place we send visitors who don’t give the right answers at immigration.”

   So, now we’re supposed to base our actions, not on reality, but on the misperceptions of “a lot of the world?”

2. Every Nation Needs a Common Purpose « The Van Der Galiën Gazette Says:
   September 30th, 2007 at 9:08 am

   [...] at Jules Crittenden’s place, Thomas P.M. Barnett’s place, Conservative Belle and the All Spin Zone. For more views, go to [...]

3. Don Surber » Blog Archive » Crittenden 1, Friedman 0 Says:
   September 30th, 2007 at 9:56 am

   [...] Crittenden of the Boston Herald smacked down Thomas Friedman’s suggestion that 9/11 made us stupid. Friedman wants us to promote international [...]

4. JammieWearingFool Says:
   September 30th, 2007 at 10:18 am

   Thomas Friedman is Over

   Thomas Friedman wishes 9/11 never happened, because it’s made us all stupid.

   He’d much rather discuss the bridge collapse in Minneapolis or the state of the facilities at LaGuardia Airport. Or emissions standards.

   Anything except the fact we’r…

5. RebeccaH Says:
   September 30th, 2007 at 10:27 am

   Thomas Friedman desperately wants to go back to 9/10. That’s what I get out of reading that stuff. Sorry, Tommy, all the misty nostalgia in the world isn’t going to close our eyes to the realities we should have seen a long time ago (and probably would have, if not for the likes of you, so thanks a heap, Tom).

6. Stop The ACLU » Blog Archive » NYTimes: Thomas Friedman Wants America to Get Over 9/11 Says:
   September 30th, 2007 at 10:52 am

   [...] coverage: Jules Crittenden Don Surber Wizbang JammieWearingFool linked with Thomas Friedman is [...]

7. The_Real_JeffS Says:
   September 30th, 2007 at 11:06 am

   Meh, it’s the New York Times. This is just another tantrum in their on going fit of rage from the realization that they aren’t the center of the universe after all.

8. SteveMG Says:
   September 30th, 2007 at 11:09 am

   For every “good” Friedman column one has to endure three silly ones.

   Recall during the Elian Gonzalez controversy (the young Cuban boy living in Florida who was ordered to be given back to his natural father living in Cuban), there was a picture taken of a INS agent breaking into the home to take Elian. (www.athousandandone.com/photos/0/448a07d7cb24f_s.jpg)

   In the picture (above), Elian was seen with a scared look on his face.

   Friedman said about the incident and photo:

   “Yup, I gotta confess, that now-famous picture of a U.S. marshal in Miami pointing an automatic weapon toward Donato Dalrymple and ordering him in the name of the U.S. government to turn over Elian Gonzalez warmed my heart. They should put that picture up in every visa line in every U.S. consulate around the world, with a caption that reads: `America is a country where the rule of law rules.’ This picture illustrates what happens to those who defy the rule of law and how far our government and people will go to preserve it.”

   Apparently his thoughts about the treatment of adult terrorists is different than those of 6-year old children.

   SMG

9. PoliBlog ™: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » What Should a 9/12 Mindset be? Says:
   September 30th, 2007 at 11:16 am

   [...] NYT (9/11 Is Over) is going to make a lot of people mad, I suspect (some examples already here and here). While I do not agree with every sentence in the piece, and think some of his comparisons towards [...]

10. Calling his own readers stupid doesn’t seem a good way to go | BitsBlog Says:
    September 30th, 2007 at 11:28 am

    [...] people, including Jules Crittenden, have noted the New York Times in column by world famous idiot Tom Friedman : Tom Friedman: “9/11 [...]

11. Wake up America-Friedman Wins Rubber Chicken Award Says:
    September 30th, 2007 at 12:25 pm

    9/12 has made Thomas Friedman Stupid–Presenting h

    The only requirement for winning this award is to have made the stupidest or most asinine comments or publication in the previous week. You have earned it Thomas Friedman, congratulations.

12. Sister Toldjah Says:
    September 30th, 2007 at 12:34 pm

    Tom Friedman: We need a 9/10 president in a post-9/11 world

    Friedman, in his opinion piece in today’s New York Times, writes that 9/11 “made us stupid” and implores “us” to get back into “our old habits and sense of openness”:
    […] Times columnists are not allowed …

13. Old War Dogs Says:
    September 30th, 2007 at 1:25 pm

    2007.09.30 Politics and National Defense Roundup

    [Updated frequently throughout the day. Please come back often.] Not new, but well worth posting again. (H/T: Right Wing Sparkle)I’m Already Home God bless our troops, on this fine Sunday morning and throughout the year. Surveillance ShowdownPrivacy z…

14. LeatherPenguin » Hit Whores in Action Says:
    September 30th, 2007 at 2:00 pm

    [...] first is addressed by Jules Crittenden » Nation of Stupid. The second, which I found to oh such more fun in its inanity, is provided by the Times’s [...]

15. tanstaafl Says:
    September 30th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

    Geez, where’s Times Select when you need it ?!

    Tom just heard from the Chinese that they’re gonna meet Euro emission standards ?!

    Cough, gag, wheeze, they better hurry up.

    Before the Three Gorges dam breaks (right now, that engineering marvel just has 50′ waves from landslides) or “people” in Chinese cities can no longer see their hands in front of their faces.

    911 made someone get stuck on stupid, or maybe they were stupid before.

16. saltydog Says:
    September 30th, 2007 at 5:36 pm

    What 9-11 has shown is the poverty of ideas, especially moral ideas, of too many of those running our most important institutions.

17. The Sunday Funnies « Just Above Sunset Says:
    October 1st, 2007 at 12:39 am

    [...] to this was expected – from the right, Jules Crittenden, Nation of Stupid; from Macranger, Oh How the Left Hates 9/11; from AJ Strata, The Liberally Naive; from Chuck [...]

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