Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Meanwhile, In Library News....

Gabe points me to this:
Look who is the featured speaker at the Special Librarians Association annual conference in June?
OMIGOD, it's Thomas Friedman, friendly enemy of all logical thought!

And what is Thomas Friedman doing today? According to Alex Pareene at Salon, Friedman has brought his special touch to Egyptian coverage:
What the turmoil in Egypt also demonstrates is how much Israel is surrounded by a huge population of young Arabs and Muslims who have been living outside of history — insulated by oil and autocracy from the great global trends. But that’s over.
Pareene comments: "I don't know what this means. Egypt has the Internet, and major world cities, and massive unemployment due in part to 'global trends,' and many young Egyptians attend college abroad, and they are basically as much a part of "history" as anyone else, anywhere."
Sadly, I don't think Matt Taibbi, renowned authority on Friedman's casual acquaintance with logic, is yet on Friedman's trail this week. The trail is too fresh. So, one must make do with Taibbi's greatest hits - like this!:
Thomas Friedman does not get these things right even by accident. It's not that he occasionally screws up and fails to make his metaphors and images agree. It's that he always screws it up. He has an anti-ear, and it's absolutely infallible; he is a Joyce or a Flaubert in reverse, incapable of rendering even the smallest details without genius. The difference between Friedman and an ordinary bad writer is that an ordinary bad writer will, say, call some businessman a shark and have him say some tired, uninspired piece of dialogue: Friedman will have him spout it. And that's guaranteed, every single time. He never misses.

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