List Dump

New York Times columnist Friedman's great wealth is a frame for his window on the world. He's been a strong supporter of "globalization": the international trade rules and government policies allowing corporations to function with legal prerogatives that routinely trump labor rights, environmental protection and economic justice. During the last decade of the 20th century, Friedman was a vehement advocate of -- in the words of a January 1998 column -- "bombing Iraq, over and over and over again." In early 1999, when he offered a pithy list of recommendations for Washington's policymakers, it included: "Blow up a different power station in Iraq every week, so no one knows when the lights will go off or who's in charge." Such disruptions of electricity would have deadly effects, from hospitals to homes where vulnerable civilians live. Evidently, Friedman could not let those considerations get in the way of his snappy prose. Often referred to as a liberal, Friedman is the worst kind of media douchebag.