I Got Nuthin'

To say, that is. I've got brain cramps from editing bad prose most of the day. And aside from reading some history about World War I, I've done pretty much nothing today to further the cause of sanity and civilization. But tonight I ran across this on a blog I don't frequent that often. See all those links down the side? I probably visit about half of them in a given year. I have about half a dozen regulars, and no time to add others that probably worthy. It's become the perennial, nay, daily question: where does one find the time to read? No wonder half the world loses themselves in video games and other mindless media. Old fashioned media requires time and concentration. Even if you willing, the first commodity is hard to find in sufficient quantity.

Anyway I was surfing around in this blog "Stop Me Before I Vote Again" (clever, no?) and I ran across this wonderful example of delicious screed directed at one of my favorite targets: New York Times pontificator extraordinaire Tom Friedman. The author of this blog, one Michael J. Smith, has got to have something going for him. He agrees with me and Matt Taibbi. Listen:

I happened to pick up a copy of last Saturday’s NY Times today on the subway and was gobsmacked to find a mighty piece by the apparently retooled, neobionic Thomas Friedman occupying almost the whole of the op-ed page. The online version runs about 2,300 words. Never have I seen a neuron-buster on this scale dropped by the Times, even on a test range, much less in combat. The effect was devastating. As soon as the page was exposed to the air, people all around me began to lose consciousness and snore sterterously. I don’t know why I was spared; perhaps I used to read the Times enough when I was younger to develop an immunity.

But even I didn’t dare read this damn thing of course. There are limits. I cherish what scraps of sanity I have left. A quick browser word search — eyes averted — revealed that this is clearly not the old Thomas Friedman, since there is no reference to a cabdriver anywhere in the text.

I love it.