Thomas Friedman is a vacuum

If it wasn't already obvious, Thomas Friedman is a staggering waste of flesh and breath.  It's a common and stupid thing these days to overuse the word "literally."  (As in, "I didn't eat lunch, so I was literally starving.")  Here it is justified: he literally has no idea what he is talking about.  To even remotely suggest, let alone straight-up state, that Egyptian revolt was inspired by Obama (“Hmmm, let’s see. He’s young. I’m young. He’s dark-skinned. I’m dark-skinned. His middle name is Hussein. My name is Hussein. His grandfather is a Muslim. My grandfather is a Muslim. He is president of the United States. And I’m an unemployed young Arab with no vote and no voice in my future.”) or by Israel ("when you live right next to a country that is bringing to justice its top leaders for corruption and you live in a country where many of the top leaders are corrupt, well, you notice"), you cede any right to publish anything further, in any format, in any medium, in any language.  Stop.

Necessary venomous take-down here.

The Arab TV network Al Jazeera has a big team covering Israel today. They frequently report Israeli incursions on Palestinian towns, illegal settlements on Palestinian land, Israeli killings, torture and illegal detention of Palestinians as well as Israel’s continual transgression of international law. I will ignore this and focus on a few incidents of domestic housekeeping (and include a completely irrelevant reference to Google maps!) in order to prop up my theory and ignore the fact that if Egyptians are in any way inspired by anything that happens in Israel, it is their ability to identify with Israeli oppression of the Palestinians. When you write a column for the New York Times and your name is Thomas Friedman, well, that’s what you do.