April 23, 2008
Don't Pie Me, Bro!
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman joins the list of pundits to face the confectionary firing squad:
Friedman ducked, and was left with only minor streams of the sugary green goo on his black pants and turtleneck.He stood in bewilderment and mild disgust as the young man and woman bolted from the stage and out the side door, throwing a handful of fliers into the air to relay the message they apparently were not going to deliver personally.
"Thomas Friedman deserves a pie in the face...," the flier said, "because of his sickeningly cheery applaud for free market capitalism's conquest of the planet, for telling the world that the free market and techno fixes can save us from climate change. From carbon trading to biofuels, these distractions are dangerous in and of themselves, while encouraging inaction with respect to the true problems at hand..."
RIFuture found the video on YouTube. It only took Friedman about 40 seconds to recover enough to begin making light of the attack. Me, I think speakers not towing the radical-left line on university campuses should begin carrying Tasers. Now there's a YouTube video that I'd like to see.
As Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would say..."Tim Friedman LIIIIIIIKES the pie!"
What a waste of pie, though. Ann Coulter needs the calories much more than 'ol Tim.
Once again I am ashamed of my Alma Mater. It goes to why I won't donate any $$ to Brown. So typical of the students whenever someone comes to campus with an non-leftist ideology or position. I can remember reading articles over the years in the school paper that some speakers such as Dinesh D'souza and David Horowitz should be allowed to speak and denied their 1st amendment rights.
I'll give a plug for my fellow Brunonians who are working to correct some of the lack of intellectual diversity and freedom @ Brown.
http://idiversity.org/index_html
Posted by: tcc3 at April 23, 2008 8:13 PMJustin, Friedman IS the radical left.
But these two nitwits were Communists, according to their literature. Their problem with Friedman is that he isn't, near as I can tell.
They have a problem that his environmentalism exists within capitalism. You know, the same capitalism that allows their parents to afford the $50,000 Ivy League tuition.
For what it's worth, all the Brown students I know tare embarrassed by these two stellar examples of higher education.
Posted by: EMT at April 23, 2008 9:35 PM"Justin, Friedman IS the radical left."
Which is, of course, the delicious (pie) irony of this sad episode. Hope someone files assault charges. He's totally on board with the global warming agenda. However, despite his best efforts, he's just not considered radical enough by some far-out leftist kooks, who don't like that he thinks that capitalism isn't the Great Satan.
From what I know about his views, he thinks that "innovation" in the way that people and countries do business is a key way to fight climate change (accepting the assumption for the sake of argument). Of course, the pie-flinging neo-Luddite crowd doesn't like anything reeking of improvement in the human condition by means of technological advancement, because in their minds, that requires "exploitation" of someone, somewhere. They'd prefer we live in huts, if they have us live at all, since, in their minds, humanity's continued existence is the cause of pretty much every ill.
By the way, Friedman is Jewish. I've read some rather anti-semitic stuff coming from the left talking about him being a pawn of Israel, calling him a Zionist, and that sort of thing (there were some real good ones over at the Huffington Post). Not sure what that has to do with global warming. So much for the peace and love crap.
Posted by: Will at April 24, 2008 1:08 AMhere's an idea-saran wrap under the toilet seats at the next ACLU awards dinner-I mean if this is going to be the infantile season....
Posted by: joe bernstein at April 24, 2008 9:12 AMAnother alumnus here.
It is a shame that Brown has so many close-minded leftist thugs who seek to intimidate and disrupt.
I hope the students are charged with assault.
Posted by: Citizen Critic at April 25, 2008 1:49 PM