mocking Thomas Friedman

"Poking fun at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is something of a parlor game for people who closely follow the Middle East. His penchant for starting columns with quotes from anonymous taxi drivers who, with astonishingly regularity, confirm his own views of the world and what needs to be done, inspired a parody account on twitter called Taxi Wisdom (sample response to a Cairo journalist writing "Cab driver from Cairo airport explained everything to me. Going home now." "How it's done!") He also frequently gets strings of basic facts wrong when making his arguments.   Well, after two recent columns in which he cites anonymous young women turning to him for advice, an enterprising band of writers have decided to broaden the circle of women who can turn to the Pulitzer Prize winner for his wisdom. Their blog is called "Mr. Friedman, could I ask you a question?" and it's my favorite of the genre so far.  First, some background. The amusement (or anger, depending on your point of view) really kicked into overdrive last year following a March 1 column in which he proposed a series of "not-so-obvious" factors contributing to the Arab uprisings that, to be generous, were not-so-obvious because they were completely disconnected from unfolding events.   The first factor he cited is President Barack Obama, and the scenario he invented was breathtaking in the completeness with which it was made up entirely from thin air. "I’m convinced that listening to Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech — not the words, but the man — were more than a few young Arabs who were saying to themselves: '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.'"  I have spoken to hundreds of young Egyptians both before, during and after the uprising against Hosni Mubarak. Not one of them has ever uttered a statement even remotely like this. The experience of almost everyone else with ties to Egypt is the same. That Mr. Friedman was a priori convinced of what was going on in the hearts and minds of millions of Egyptians based on -- well, nothing but his own opinions -- speaks for itself."