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My title alludes to the sitcom starring William Shatner, based on this Twitter feed, though who knows, that feed is probably a knockoff of the original. Anyway, David Biancolli said on NPR that "Bleep My Dad Says" is the accepted pronunciation of that show (which he panned as one of the worst on TV, incidentally).
First a disclaimer. I don't like Tom Friedman any more than you do. I think he's royally pompous, and he tends to speaks in column-ready axioms (quoting Larry Summers, he said, "In the entire history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car."). Yeah thanks. "Get off Facebook and get in their face." Or something.
The other day, I caught about 20 minutes of this broadcast. Friedman was being his obnoxious, I've traveled the world and I know more than you, I've talked to so-and-so in such-and-such, and we need to get "beyond politics" (he consistently fails to acknowledge that most of the changes he advocates are Democratic positions), he drops the name No Labels (though I'm not positive he used it formally), and he rolls along without regard for whether he's completely made his point, and ...
He said some really compelling stuff.
If you have time this week, I recommend listening to it. I know it's tempting to dismiss the stuff he brings up, because he is so pompous, and because he's such an elitist ... but the stuff about globalization and what it will mean for the American labor market -- well, we aint seen nothing yet, in his view, and he's not alone on that.
If nothing else, you can enjoy the irony of a man talking about American productivity, and how will we enjoy our huge salaries by global standards, etc., and never even hint at the fact that he works for a print newspaper, a rapidly dying industry.
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