Now It's Time For Today's Game Of How Many Holes Can We Pick In Thomas Friedman's Latest New York Times Editorial

OK, Boys and Girls. Can you pick more holes in Friedman's latest editorial than I can? I'll give you 1 advantage--you've had less gin than I have tonight.

With that handicap, let's play!!!

1. Friedman says, " In the West it was avoided because a toxic political correctness infected the academic field of Middle Eastern studies - to such a degree that anyone focusing on the absence of freedom in the Arab world ran the risk of being labeled an "Orientalist" or an "essentialist."

That's right. Not only is Friedman an expert in Middle Eastern studies (wasn't he a distinguished professor in the field at both Oxford and Harvard at the same time) but he takes Edward Said down to his essence--if you believe that Middle Eastern nations should have some form of self-representation, then you are an Orientalist.

2. Friedman says, " Well, the combination of 9/11, the Bush policies and the flattening of the world, whereby everyone can increasingly see how everyone else is living, changed all that - as evidenced this week with the publication of the third Arab Human Development Report, written by a courageous group of Arab social scientists under the auspices of the United Nations Development Program. This is one of the finest U.N. products under Kofi Annan.

Yes, Kofi Annan is great when he serves the purpose of the Bush administration. But goddamn him when he doesn't. And of course, there is no question that 9/11 brought democracy to the Middle East. The people of Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Kuwait, the U.A.E., Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria are all blessing Osama Bin Laden, not because his actions were a blow against American infidels, but because he knew that by blowing up the World Trade Center he would finally awaken Americans to the need to promote democracy in the Arab world. And of course the people of Iraq thank W every night.

This is only just a beginning, mostly because the gin is really starting to take effect. Besides I want to give all you boys and girls plenty chances to beat me at this edition of....How Many Holes Can We Pick In Thomas Friedman's Latest New York Times Editorial!!