Quote of the Day

During a fit of some sort or another a few years ago, I think I might have banned all references to Thomas Friedman on Phron. Whatever. If the ban is somewhere in the backpages of this blog, it's officially lifted with this:

How long are we Americans going to go on thinking that we can thrive in the 21st century when doing the optimal things — whether for energy, health care, education or the deficit — are “off the table.” They’ve been banished by an ad hoc coalition of lobbyists loaded with money, loud-mouth talk-show hosts who will flame anyone who crosses them, political consultants who warn that asking Americans to do anything important but hard makes one unelectable and a citizenry that doesn’t even ask for optimal anymore because it believes that optimal is impossible.

That's the thing. The Neocons think we're big wimps because we won't bomb indiscriminately and dominate other people in the name of American magical powers. No, we're wimps because we - and they - can't pull ourselves out of fantasyland and make the truly important decisions.