One More Reason The New York Times Should Be Paying YOU $50 If You Get TimesSelect
“Someone” shoved this under the proverbial e-mail door this morning in a plain brown envelope marked “Read Only If Full Digestion of Breakfast Has Occurred.”
Among other things, the message contained a November 11 piece (”Thou Shalt Not Destroy the Center”) by Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, whose ramblings now hide in that politically correct and hermetically sealed alternative universe known as TimesSelect (link not provided for that reason; quoted text is at the end of his column):
Ronald Reagan, the most overrated president in U.S. history, lowered taxes and raised government spending, triggering a huge spike in the deficit. But because he did it with a sunny smile and it happened to coincide with the decline of the Soviet Union, he is remembered as a Great Man. The senior George Bush raised taxes and helped pave the way for the prosperity of the 1990’s. He also managed the actual collapse of the Soviet Union without a shot being fired, using unsmiling but deft diplomacy. Yet the elder Bush is somehow remembered — including, it seems, by his own son — as a failed president.
Add it all up and you can see that we have put ourselves in a position where only a total blow-out crisis in our system will generate enough authority for a democratic government to do the right things.
Let us pray.
So here are Mr. Friedman’s lessons for the day:
- Totalitarian empires just collapse without being pushed.
- Tax increases lead to prosperity.
- The 9/11/01 attacks a few miles from Mr. Friedman’s office do not represent a “blow-out crisis.” (I guess 9/11 was only a “blow-up” crisis, which doesn’t count.)
And, in light of the above, where does Mr. Friedman think “the center” is?
The Times’ march towards becoming Manhattan’s quaint little alternative newspaper continues.
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Other Times-related Blasts from the Past:
- Nicholas Kristof and Mao: He Just, Can’t, Let, Go
- There May Be More “Black Tuesdays†in The New York Times’ Future
- The New York Times-Washington Post Headline-Sharing Conspiracy Vindicates Their Longtime Critics
- If It’s Monday, There Must Be At Least Three Obvious New York Times Errors, Omissions, or Hilarities to Report
- New York Times Running Out?
