Anyone who goes to a Thomas Friedman reading deserves what he or she gets.
Friedman not only is a less-than-elegant writer - his style might be described as mindless-bouncy, pop-radio style - he is a parody of a genuinely thoughtful man.
His main function with his columns and parts of his books is as a boisterous aluminum-siding salesman for the Pentagon's interests, as well as for those of its mini-geopolitical replica, Israel, which has been favored by some of the most irrational columns ever printed in a major newspaper.
He wrote a book on globalization which proved he doesn't know what globalization is.
Years ago, he used to whine - he whines a lot - about Japanese cars in America. He sounded a lot like a UAW union boss instead of a thinker.
Now what on this planet could be further removed from green things than the Pentagon? Cluster bombs? Land mines? White phosphorus bombs? Thermonuclear warheads? Germ weapons labs? Torture?
Friedman is a perfect example of the way American-style marketing works. Here is a fairly mediocre mind, promoted by huge amounts of money every year to get a certain point of view "out there."
