The World is Qat

Given the outlandish analogizing the mustachioed marvel is capable of when he's stone-cold sober, just imagine the absurdities that must issue from this man's mouth when he's on hallucinogens!

His latest column, from Yemen.

So, this blog has been on a fairly long hiatus, and in the meantime, much of note has transpired in Friedman Land. For example, he wrote this, which is silly:

Our economy is still very fragile, yet you would never know that by the way the political class is acting. We’re like a patient that just got out of intensive care and is sitting up in bed for the first time when, suddenly, all the doctors and nurses at bedside start bickering. One of them throws a stethoscope across the room; someone else threatens to unplug all the monitors unless the hospital bills are paid by noon; and all the while the patient is thinking: “Are you people crazy? I am just starting to recover. Do you realize how easily I could relapse? Aren’t there any adults here?”

Yes, we're just like that! Because it's a situation that happens so often that we can all immediately relate to and understand it. Great analogy, Tom!

And he also wrote this, which is wrong:

For decades, this was considered the most dangerous place on earth, with Taiwan and China pointing missiles at each other on hair triggers. Well, over the past two years, China and Taiwan have reached a quiet rapprochement — on their own.

Tom, those missiles are still there! What's more, they're actually increasing in number, as this recent report from Brookings makes clear.

And then there's this, from the same column:

Taiwan has no oil, no natural resources. It’s a barren rock with 23 million people who, through hard work, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world. They got rich digging inside themselves, unlocking their entrepreneurs, not digging for oil. They took responsibility. They got rich by asking: “How do I improve myself?” Not by declaring: “It’s all somebody else’s fault. Give me a handout.”

... which is slightly misleading, given that 1) although it isn't sitting on a giant pool of oil, Taiwan is a lush tropical island with a vibrant agricultural industry and can hardly be described as a "barren rock," and 2) the KMT actually did benefit from some major handouts, by declaring, "The Communists want to invade. Give me billions of dollars in economic and military aid and favorable access to U.S. markets."

And folks, I can't emphasize this enough — this is the stuff he comes up with when he's not on Yemeni hallucinogens ...