{"id":46,"date":"2013-10-02T19:41:23","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T19:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/?p=46"},"modified":"2014-03-22T23:02:17","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T23:02:17","slug":"deep-thinkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/?p=46","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Deep Thinkers&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As much as the Left loves to point to Thomas Friedman as a \u201cdeep thinker\u201d he simply is not. In fact, because of the global warming intellectual \u201ctrain wreck\u201d (a theory to which he has invested a catastrophic share of his reputation) Friedman should retreat from his positions and rethink most of what he has, shall we say, proselytized.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That being said let me respond to his opinion published in today\u2019s NYT editorial page. Here\u2019s the link:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/10\/02\/opinion\/friedman-our-democracy-is-at-stake.html?_r=0\">http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/10\/02\/opinion\/friedman-our-democracy-is-at-stake.html?_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>First, Friedman, right on liberal cue, offers some irrelevant diversity argument as to why the views of congressional representatives from gerrymandered districts should be considered flawed. Well, gerrymandering cuts both ways (just ask Californians). Until we make gerrymandering unconstitutional we\u2019ll have to live with whatever contribution to political polarization it may cause but it doesn\u2019t neutralize the arithmetic of nominal population\u2026.The proportion of political views represented in congress are still legitimate\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Second, he accuses the Supreme Court\u2019s \u201cCitizen\u2019s United\u201d ruling for partially causing our current political atmosphere. Ridiculous. Indeed, the Right AND Left are now allowed to \u201cscream\u201d as a result of their ruling. But as our parents always taught us \u201cjust because you&#8217;re screaming doesn\u2019t make what you\u2019re screaming more persuasive.\u201d (I ignored that life lesson as I do become more persuasive the louder my voice)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And lastly, Friedman falls into that favorite of liberal tar pits \u2013 blame FOX News and its ilk\u2026\u2026.Good Lord, a tired trope this makes\u2026\u2026As Charles Krauthammer joked about the predictable popularity of FOX: \u201cYes, FOX News is no doubt popular because it has tapped into a niche \u2013 half the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What Friedman and all the other left-wing \u201cdeep thinkers\u201d have completely missed as to the explanation for the \u201chostage taking\u201d by the GOP as an attempt to mortally wound Obamacare is that two thirds of the country really dislike this law and therefore the GOP thinks they\u2019ll win the messaging game with the public. We\u2019ll see\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Obamacare will not work \u2026The greatest threat is from that oldie but goodie: adverse selection. Too many sick people will sign-up with not nearly enough healthy people signing-up. It will suffer what the insurance industry calls a death spiral\u2026\u2026But the ideological reason (and the perfectly legitimate concern of the Tea Party) for its demise is IT\u2019S IMPOSSIBLE TO CENTRALLY PLAN ONE FIFTH OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY. Do you understand that \u201cdeep thinker\u201d Tom Friedman? Being adamantly opposed to Obamacare doesn\u2019t make one an extremist. It doesn\u2019t make one a racist. It makes one economically informed\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Do you understand that President Obama? Do you understand that all the people who voted for President Obama? Do you understand that all of you technocrats that insist \u201cthe smartest guys in the room\u201d really exist and they can figure it all out? (the \u201cAngels\u201d as Milton Friedman famously mocked)\u2026..<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You will. Eventually. Hostage taking or not\u2026\u2026\u2026.America is intuitively a capitalistic, free-market people and Obamacare irritates that intuition &#8211; thankfully\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As much as the Left loves to point to Thomas Friedman as a \u201cdeep thinker\u201d he simply is not. In fact, because of the global warming intellectual \u201ctrain wreck\u201d (a theory to which he has invested a catastrophic share of his reputation) Friedman should retreat from his positions and rethink most of what he has, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127,"href":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jerkstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}