M2RB: Lisa Loeb
Fools like me
Fools like me
I did, I can
I was, I am
Only human, living, dying
Just like any fool who ever breathed
Thanks to Yoram Ettinger, who reads Tom Friedman so the rest of
us don’t have to, we can get a great idea of what things look like at
the bottom of the New York Times writers' rabbit hole...the one accessed
through the connecting door from his China wormhole. I'm very grateful
since I would rather watch Joy Behar on The View with Allidunce while
having a root canal without any anaesthesia. Seriously. Take it away,
Yoram:
Tom Friedman, the
New York Times foreign affairs columnist, is perceived to be a Middle East
expert. Is he?
In January and June,
2000, on the eve of Bashar Assad’s ascension to power, Tom Friedman (T.F.) was
charmed by Bashar Assad’s background: a
British-trained ophthalmologist; married to a British citizen of Syrian origin;
fluent in English and French; President of the Syrian Internet
Association. He compared the eventual
Butcher from Damascus, potentially, to Deng Xiaoping, who led China’s economic
reforms, modernization and rapprochement with the USA. Swept by wishful-thinking, T.F. assumed that
Bashar could liberalize Syria, attract international investors, normalize
relations with Israel, end the Arab rejection of the Jewish State, thus
demolishing the Iran-Syria axis and ending Iran’s involvement in Lebanon. The prerequisite for such an enterprising
scenario was an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. However, as expected, Bashar chose to follow
in the footsteps of his ruthless father, Hafiz Assad, slaughtering T.F.’s
assumptions and Syria’s domestic opposition, irrespective of the Golan Heights,
Israel’s policies or existence.
In August, 2006,
T.F. told NPR Radio that Bashar Assad’s Syria was not a natural ally of Iran.
He maintained that Syria could resume its traditional role as an ally of the
pro-US Arab camp of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Thus, he rewrote Syria’s
recent history, which has been consistently anti-US since 1946, as well as
pro-Iran since 1979.
In June, 2009, T.F.
stated that “for the first time, in a long time, [Middle East] forces for
decency, democracy and pluralism have a little wind at their backs.” He identified a tailwind to pro-American
elements, and a setback to Iran’s fortunes, in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran
itself. According to T.F., “the
diffusion of technology – the Internet, blogs, YouTube and text messaging via
cellphones” – tilted the Middle East in favor of the US. He was determined not
to allow the real Middle East to stand in the way of his vision of a Middle
East consumed by globalization, modernity, democratization and the Internet.
Unfortunately, the increasingly boiling seismic Arab Street from Morocco to the
Persian Gulf has repudiated T.F.’s vision.
In February, 2011,
T.F. determined that “the Muslim Brotherhood is not running the [anti-Mubarak]
show…Any ideological group that tries to hijack these young people will lose….
This uprising feels post-ideological…. The emerging spokesman for this uprising
is Wael Ghonim, a Google marketing executive.”
Enthralled by the
Arab Spring delusion, T.F. concluded that the Egyptian Street “tried [radical]
Nasserism, tried Islamism and is now trying democracy.” He was convinced that “the democracy movement
came out of Tahrir Square like a tiger…. Anyone who tries to put the tiger back
in the cage will get his head bitten off…. Witness one of the great triumphs of
the human spirit….. The first pan-Arab movement that is focused on universal
values….”
T.F. underestimated
the surge of the non-Facebook trans-national Muslim Brotherhood and its credo:
“Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law; the Prophet is our leader; Jihad
[Holy War] is our way; and martyrdom for the sake of Allah is the highest of
our aspirations.” To T.F.’s frustration,
the Muslim Brotherhood aims to consolidate Islamic Sharia’ as the legal
foundation in Muslim and “infidel” lands, as a prelude to the reestablishment
of the Islamic Caliphate.
T.F.’s pro-PLO,
pro-Palestinian stance dates back to his active involvement, while at Brandeis
University, in the pro-Arafat radical-Left “Middle East Peace Group” and
“Breirah” organizations. It was
intensified during his role as the Associated Press’ and New York Times’
reporter in Lebanon. There he played down Arafat’s and Mahmoud Abbas’ rape and
plunder of Lebanon and their intense ties with international terrorism, while
expressing his appreciation of the PLO’s protection of foreign media in Beirut.
In September 1993,
T.F. welcomed Arafat as a peace-pursuing statesman. He established moral equivalence between the
role-model of terrorism, the PLO, and the role-model of counterterrorism,
Israel, as well as between Arafat and Rabin: “Two hands that had written the
battle orders for so many young men, two fists that had been raised in anger at
one another so many times in the past, locked together for a fleeting moment of
reconciliation.” T.F. provided a robust
tailwind to Arafat’s strategy of deception and bamboozling September 1993
statement at the White House: “Mr. President, I am taking this opportunity to
assure you and to assure the great American people that we share your values
for freedom, justice and human rights — values for which my people have been
striving….”
In July, 2000, T.F.
posed the question: “Who is Arafat? Is he Nelson Mandela or Willie Nelson?”
However, Arafat’s track record is compatible with another metaphor: “Who is
Arafat? Is he Jack the Ripper or the Boston Strangler?”
Has Tom Friedman
been mistaken? Or, has he been, deliberately,
misleading?
As Rick Moran remarked, amazing, isn’t it? And they pay Friedman for this stuff. I guess
you could say T. F. is the P. T. Barnum of the pundit world, though not
nearly as much fun. Perhaps not as much fun, Mr Moran, but he could occupy all 3 rings.
Fools Like Me - Lisa Loeb
Everybody go
The party's over
I want to be alone in my head
In my bed tonight
You never show
You must really love her
You think I don't know
But I do, yeah it's true
I think over is over
I'm right back where I started
(when it comes to wanting you)
I can't have what I wanted
[Chorus]
But I did, I can
I was, I am
Only human, living, dying
Just like any fool who ever breathed
If love is blind
If love's a drug
It always is
It always was and
Love was surely made for fools like me
I know where I'm going
I'm tripping I'm sliding around
That's ok
At least I'm excited
It wasn't how I planned it
(wasn't how I planned it
Feet are where I landed
At least I understand it now)
My feet are where I landed
(feet are staying on the ground)
[Chorus]
Fools like me
Fools like me
I did, I can
I was, I am
Only human, living, dying
Just like any fool who ever breathed
Maybe it's the sanest thing
Or just the sweetest kind of dream
But love was surely made for fools
(Love was surely made for fools)
Love was surely made for fools
(Love was surely made for fools)
Love was surely made for fools like me
The party's over
I want to be alone in my head
In my bed tonight
You never show
You must really love her
You think I don't know
But I do, yeah it's true
I think over is over
I'm right back where I started
(when it comes to wanting you)
I can't have what I wanted
[Chorus]
But I did, I can
I was, I am
Only human, living, dying
Just like any fool who ever breathed
If love is blind
If love's a drug
It always is
It always was and
Love was surely made for fools like me
I know where I'm going
I'm tripping I'm sliding around
That's ok
At least I'm excited
It wasn't how I planned it
(wasn't how I planned it
Feet are where I landed
At least I understand it now)
My feet are where I landed
(feet are staying on the ground)
[Chorus]
Fools like me
Fools like me
I did, I can
I was, I am
Only human, living, dying
Just like any fool who ever breathed
Maybe it's the sanest thing
Or just the sweetest kind of dream
But love was surely made for fools
(Love was surely made for fools)
Love was surely made for fools
(Love was surely made for fools)
Love was surely made for fools like me
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