And he wrote a lot of books about movies and a couple screenplays, which getting back to it, Ebert was originally a critic writing in the newspaper. Besides the movies angle and the liberal blogging angle, what surprised me reading the eulogies online were the number of people who said that Roger Ebert was the person who had inspired them to write, to decide to be journalists and authors, when they were young. Which, if that isn’t the highest praise, I don’t know what is. To be an inspirational figure, to make an adolescent see something in themselves, something for the world, an idea, and an identity. It’s pretty cool, and Ebert was a pretty cool guy. He lived a life worth living that positively influenced the world around him, beyond just being good at his job.

The movie that was Roger Ebert’s life just finished. I give it a thumbs up.

Friedman wrote this book, and it’s a really good book, called ‘From Beirut to Jerusalem.’  He documents his time as embedded reporter in both cities, during the heady times of tumult in the 80′s, and explains how and why what happened happened.  He does a good job at that; like I said, it’s a good book, at least the Beirut part, because I never finished the Jerusalem part, taking too long with a book lent from a friend.  I learned quite a bit, who the actors are, why they’re doing what they’re doing, personally, and I’m sure a lot more people did, too, because because of this book, Friedman had a pretty good name for himself going into the 21st century.  He had been there, and done that; reporting in Beirut in the 80′s was the gold standard in embedded journalism, and ‘From Beirut to Jerusalem’ separated him from the rest of the pack and put him up towards the top, in television- and NY Times- pundit land, where your opinion has some pull and the big bucks are made.

So, that’s the setup.  And then the Iraq War happens, which Friedman was a head cheerleader for; he would be one of the girls at the top, with one foot cupped in the hands of those below, and the other pulled up over her head and held with one hand as she holds her arms up in a ‘V’.  This shit was going to be great, said well-respected journalist and war correspondent Tom Friedman, for no other reason than, as he famously said on PBS, telling the Middle East to suck America’s dick.  The Middle East needs some slapping around, and the US of A are just the guys to give it to ‘em. Besides, it’s going to take like 2 weeks anyways, remember the last time?  We’ll be greeted as liberators, the oil will pay for the war, it’ll be like the end of a movie, all neat and tidy with a bow.  And if well-respected journalist and war correspondent Tom Friedman says this war is going to be totally awesome, you had better believe it’s going to be!

And it was, for a little while.  It was just like the first Iraq War; even easier, really, when no Republican Guard showed, to put up any resistance.  Saddam got his, and his son did, too.  The US’s dick was being waved for all the world, and the slapping around the Middle East deserved was being administered.  But funny, none of those WMDs had turned up yet.  And funny, too, there wasn’t much greeting as liberators going on.  And then, funnier yet, the Iraq War started turning to shit, openly and obviously.

So Friedman came up with ploy, which has come to be known as the ‘Friedman Unit.’  If we haven’t found any WMD yet, said Friedman, just wait a little while, it’ll turn up, just you wait and see.  Give it another six months or so, we’re going to find that shit in a bunker somewhere.  If we aren’t being greeted as liberators, said Friedman, just give it some time, when the Iraqis see all these great things we’ve done for them, they’ll change their minds.  Give it another six months or so, they’ll stop blowing our stuff up and start throwing parades.  You just wait, you’ll see.  Just another six months or so, and everything will come up aces.

And that bought himself and the Bush regime some time, about six months or so.  And when six months or so had gone by, and still no WMD, and still no greeting as liberators, well, he just did it again.  Just wait a little bit longer, said Friedman, you’ll see I’ve been right all along.  And because there was no pushback, no questioning of the war allowed in the press, that was enough, we’ll just have to wait and see.  It was just that easy.

That ended up buying Friedman and the Bush regime about 6 Friedman Units, or 3 years in yours and my time.  Until shit was so openly bad, the stink was just seeping through everything they did to mask it, and they couldn’t hide how things, shall we say, were not going according to plan over in Iraq.  Was this war winnable?, that was the new question, when the stink was no longer maskable.

In answer to the new question, Friedman gave his old reply.  Just you wait and see, only a little longer, we’re gonna win this war.  And then whether or not to send more troops, in what is known as the Surge, a Friedman Unit or two later.  Just you wait, after the Surge, you’ll see.  And so on.  And so forth.  The War proceeded along in Friedman Unit increments, lasting about 16 in total, until Obama pulled the troops out and left the mercenaries in, calling it a war.

So now this week is the 10-year anniversary of all that, the beginning of all that, at least.  Or the 20 Friedman Unit-th anniversary, which, Wonkette already beat me to the punch on that joke.  And what does The Mustache have to say about it, given so many Units to reflect?  What will happen with Iraq, what is the legacy of the war?  And I shit you not, Friedman says that we have to wait just a little bit longer…it may take generations…we won’t know until the 20th anniversary of the war.

Well-respected journalist and war correspondent Tom Friedman, everybody!  A big round of applause!  A guy that’s not ashamed to play his big hit, over and over again, night after night, ‘cuz that’s what the people paid for.  Not only that, he took it to eleven and went meta with it, for the big 10-year anniversary column.  I heard you like Friedman Units in your Friedman Unit, so you have to wait Friedman Units for your Friedman Units.  It’s amazing in its simplicity, yet audacious in its design.  It’s a fractal; Friedman Units from Friedman units, to infinity.  Truly the work of a master.

So here’s to the Mustache himself, well-respected journalist and war correspondent Tom Friedman, on his brilliant work, for which, he has paid no price whatsoever.  May the next 20 Units be just as wonderful as the last 20 were.

postscript: I swear that I did not know of this before, but apparently this shit really does write itself.  Via Wonkette after going back and comparing what I wrote to their Friedman article, the Thomas Friedman Op-Ed Generator.

Press is in cahoots with the wealthy and the GOP?  Liberal bias.

George W Bush can’t string two coherent sentences together?  Obama is an eloquent speaker only because of the teleprompter.

Reagan and W Bush exploded their national budgets, and increased the national debt more than the rest of the presidents combined?  The only times in the last 30 years that the budget has been balanced (Clinton), or the decreased over year to year (Obama) have been under Democrats?  Democrats are the big spenders, and the GOP is the party of fiscal responsibility.

Brushing off the intel left from the departing Clinton administration, marked ‘Urgent!’ and ‘Attention Required’ about how there is an imminent threat of bin Laden going to carry out a terrorist attack in the US, with a ‘you covered your ass, now can we get back to figuring out how we’re going to gin up a war with Iraq?’?  Bengazi is totally the worstest most incompetent terrorististicest thing ever!

See how that works?  I could go on and on.  Give me any example, and it is simply a case of: ‘you’re guilty of what I’ve been doing.’

Reagan dealt with terrorists and drug cartels, yet Clinton was the one impeached.

W Bush fucked things up so hard, so out in the open.  Blew the budget, doubled the debt, instituted a huge beurocracy of spying on American citizens, pissed away any good will towards the US, instituted torture, got a whole bunch of people killed that didn’t deserve it for no good reason other than to line the pockets of himself and his cronies, made the schools get worse under No Child Left Behind, allowed the environment to get worse because everyone stopped giving a fuck apparently and we’re seeing already where that’s getting us, left the country in a huge deficit, on the brink of economic collapse, a bunch of people lost their jobs and the stock market crashed, 401K’s were cut in half, home values, too, trillions had to be spent to prop up the banks lest the entire world economy was going to come tumbling down?

Obama’s fault; because it sure wasn’t the other guy, what was his name again?

Bonus opposite example!: Obama was the one that got bin Laden?  In two years, after W Bush’s 8?  Clinton totally dropped the ball on getting him in the 90′s.  I’m just going to pretend for a second that 9/11 didn’t happen in 2001, that we had the opportunity to get him in 03 but Bush said that ‘was not a priority’ never happened, and that 8 years never actually transpired between Clinton and Obama at all.  (No.  You never break kayfabe.)

When you add up the direct cost of the war, $1 trillion, for the actual military, with the indirect costs like Blackwater (Xe or whatever they changed it to), bribing locals and the billions ‘misplaced’ and still unaccounted for, and the school building and well digging infrastructure stuff, another $1 trillion, plus the cost of the VA, and the Pentagon, CIA, and other agencies that aren’t technically military, another $1 trillion, plus the cost of paying the interest on the loans, because the Bush regime thought it would be ok if we didn’t actually pay for the war as it was going on, instead we borrowed the money from the Chinese, and lowered taxes, so we could borrow even more, another $3 trillion.

That’s $6 trillion.  And the debt is $15 or 16 trillion.  6 divided by 16 is 0.375, so 37.5% of the national debt is an effect of the Iraq War.

And all the talk in the political press is about the debt, the debt, the debt.

But not where it comes from.  Hey, look over there!

And they don’t really want to talk about what happened ten years ago, either, because so many people who still call themselves ‘journalists’ today cheerled the whole thing.  If that wasn’t full-on Minitru stuff, what is?  The way the coverage was so one-sided.  There wasn’t anyone on the television who peeped a word against, and if they did, they were fired.

That it all proved out false, 100 percent false, everything was wrong, and a lot of mistakes were made, is one thing; but it’s another thing when nobody has paid any sort of price.  The same politicians are out there as if they have any sort of credibility on anything, and the same press reports this for the public.

And nobody says, ‘Hey!  Aren’t you the same guys that were so totally wrong about everything only recently?  Why should I listen to what you have to say?’

Nobody?

(I mean, nobody with any sway.  Paul Krugman is out there saying it, and Charles Pierce and Taibbi.  But for every one of those guys, there are fifty, or a hundred pundits in opposition, like, Krugman is on Meet the Press every once in a while, but David Brooks or Tom Friedman or George Will or Peggy Noonan are on every week.)

Because they’re complicit in the crime; they drove the getaway car while the GOP robbed the bank.  They penned glowing paeons to Bush’s manliness and what a fuckin’ great time this Iraq thing is going to be, and now they are up there, with a straight face!, telling us that the debt is really, really a big problem, and really, who could have predicted that the debt could go up ten trillion dollars over ten, twelve years anyway, amirite?  So now we have to cut social security (which doesn’t even contribute to the debt until 30 years from now) and medicare (hey, not only will you get to enjoy medicare beginning at the tender of of 75 (they must expect life expentencies to be going up, which is a good thing, right?), you’ll get a valuable coupon for your next doctor’s visit!).

And nobody can say, hey look, the Republicans were hugely, openly, very recently wrong.  About everything.  Maybe they don’t know what they’re talking about.  Because the press went right along with it.  They’d be admitting their own guilt.  They’d be admitting that they themselves shouldn’t be given a serious listen, because they were either a) incompetent or b) lying, and both disqualify you for future worthiness as an expert on anything.

So the GOP doubles down on the bullshit, and the press doubles down on obfuscating it.  And hey, look over there!, the debt.  The debt, the debt, the debt.  But where did it come from?, it just appeared there one day, around the day that that black guy got sworn in.

And that’s the legacy of the Iraq War, the single greatest mistake in the history of the United States.  Happy ten year anniversary, everybody!

And that’s just the top line.  Kaner had the cherry on top with the highlight reel spin-o-rama, putting it right in the right spot with the backhand flip over the nearside shoulder, without looking, so just before the goalie thought he was going to do it, he did it, and it was done and over with.  Overall, he had a good puck-controlling game, floating through the offensive zone; you can overlook his 2 or 3 stupid turnovers when the rest of his game is as good as last night, but that’s Kane and that’s what he’s going to do, so you take the good with the bad.  He’s never been more confident with the puck, he’s playing with a lot of patience, even if he still gets too cute at times, which, also, he’s doing less of this year, being too cute with his passes, and just burying that shit, instead.  So, more goals and less assists, and he’s never played better or impacted as many games.

The D corps had three goals, which tells you about the one-sidedness of the game, but hopefully portends more production in the future.  Like on the power play, still their biggest weakness, though improved over last year.  And more goals from slap shots from the top, in general, is going to make their game better, obviously, because it increases their threat level if they can score from anywhere.  Leddy’s game is improving, he’s so smooth with the puck; if he becomes the offensive-defenseman Campbell-replacement he’s looking more and more like, sooner rather than later, watch out.  Roszival, I got a hard on for this guy.  As Leddy’s D partner, he’s steady eddie so Leddy can work his tricks up the ice; but on top of that, he handles the puck like the seasoned veteran he is, never panics, and can really make some sweet up-ice passes.  He plays like the steady veteran defenseman that surprises you at times Sopel-replacement the Hawks have lacked the last few years; and, hockey fans should know, the sixth defenseman is important, because if he’s bad, it tends to show up on the score sheet.  I had a hard on for Sopel, too, if that matters.

Hjalmarsson and Oduya have been the Hawks’ best D pair so far this season, it was nice to see Oduya get a goal as a reward last night for those guys.  Hjalmarsson blocked another shot as you read that last sentence.  Keith and Seabrook are Keith and Seabrook, they haven’t been the Hawks best pair so far, but that isn’t because their play has dropped any, it’s because the Swedes upped theirs.  And they finally don’t have to play 30 minutes a game each, and always on the crucial PK and power plays, because they can be confident with their other 2 pairs; so less minutes for them and less production is a good thing.

Crawford had a good game, which, it’s kinda hard to remember back to when the score was tied 0-0 while basking in the postgame glow of a 7-goal curbstomp, he made a few good saves early, before the ice tilted so heavily down into the Stars’ zone.  He didn’t need to have a great game, I think the Stars only had 6 shots through 2 periods, but he didn’t let in any soft goals either, something he obviously worked hard to change before this season, so that all went exactly according to plan.

Finally, as this becomes more and more the replacement for the post that got eaten the other day, quick thoughts on personnel, who to dress and whatnot.  So, the Hawks have a good problem, in that they sorta have too many guys that are capable of handling it, but not enough spots on the roster each night.  (20 guys dress for each game, which usually breaks down as 2 goalies, 6 defensemen, and 12 forwards (four centermen and eight wingers)).  So, every game, there is a guy or two or three that didn’t dress, but could have, and had he played, played capably.  Plus, right now, Sharp is hurt, so when he comes back in a few weeks, there’s another roster spot taken, and another guy squeezed out.  My opinion, and this is over the last couple of roster spots, since it’s mostly determined, but I’m going to write out all the names to keep it straight in my head:

top line: Toews, Hossa, Saad; Saad is playing so well, not only in the role this line needs but the total package, he’s got to stay there, and moving Hoss with Toews rather than Kaner (in years past, Kane played on top line and Hossa on second) has improved everybody’s game, and is a better fit in that Toews’ and Hoss’s games work better together (and Saad’s fits in with as well), with the puck possession, and the taking it away from the other team, and the constantly pressuring the other teams’ zone, while it gives Kane more space to pull his magic tricks, rather than trying to find Hossa and force a pass because you gotta get it to the big guy, he’s Marion Hossa, a two-for-one win-win deal.  The game comes to this top line because they bring it to the game, and they don’t have to force it, meanwhile Kane’s game grows, like putting a fish in a bigger fishtank.

second: Bolland, Kane, Sharp when he comes back; Bolland does something every game to earn his status as ‘guy who when he’s on your team, you love him, and when he’s on the other team, you fucking hate that guy’, so, of course, he’s great.  If he could only improve his percentage at the dot (Kruger, too, but Kruger seems to have a knack for winning defensive zone faceoffs, and faceoffs at important junctures on the PK, so that’s probably why his line is the defensive specialists line this year, and not Bolland’s like in years past, though the Rat is really good on the PK.  Remember that shorthanded goal against the Canucks the year they won the Cup?  Duude.).  Sharp, before he got hurt, was having a wonky season.  He must have hit the post ten times the first few weeks of the season, so he was playing fine, but it wasn’t showing up on the score sheet.  He’s always been streaky, but his streaks in the past have been ten games in a row where he scores, not ten games in a row when he hits the post.  So, he wasn’t off.  But he was a bit off.  You know?  Fortunately, other guys have been able to step up and fill in on the scoring, before and after he got hurt.  Hopefully he comes back healthy, and the time off sets him back to ten games in a row where he scores mode.

third, and this line is clicking so hard with the secret gritty ingredient Andrew Shaw, who, playing with him, Stalberg and Bickell have upped their games like they ate the manna of the gods, they are a goddamn menace in the other team’s zone, especially behind the net: Shaw, Bickell, Stalberg; Stalberg has been playing awesome, his speed makes him dangerous, and he’s contributed way more than what he shows in points.  Bickell is realizing his potential, and together this third line being such an offensive threat is what has put the Hawks over the top and separated them from everybody in the rest of the pack except the Ducks.  Shaw, he’s affectionately known as the Scrapper in this household, he plays hard and bigger than he is, and he’s the glue, or the grit, or the magical incantation power word Abracadabra! that created a monster.

fourth line, also playing really well in their role as defensive pains in the ass: Kruger, Frolik, and the interchanging of Mayers, Bollig, and Carcillo game-by-game, depending on who they are playing and what they need in that game; Kruger looks really good this year, he’s taken it to the next level.  Frolik in years past was the guy that played good and played hard and had a bunch of shots but none of them ever seemed to go in.  So this year, he’s the guy that plays good and he plays hard, and he has a bunch of shots but none of them ever seem to go in, but he’s on the defense line, so all that is just groovy, because the other team didn’t score, either.

Keith-Seabrook

Oduya-Hjalmarsson

Leddy-Roszival

(the only thing I’ll say here, is that I obviously like Roszival in the 6th spot, but over the course of the season, I’m cool with giving him a break here and there and getting Brookbank his reps, that’s been working out so far)

Crawford-Emery

(and the only thing I’ll say _here_ is that you got to go with Crawford, even as well as Emery has played.  Emery is still the backup, if it turns out that he’s going to go for the playoffs, he goes then, but until then, and the only way you find that out, is Crawford plays most games.  If Crawford can play like he has been playing and like he did a couple years ago in the playoffs, or just a shade under, he’ll be just fine for the Cup run.  And he looks very solid, thus far, I think he still leads the league in goals against, which is obviously doing a good job.)

So that leaves 2 open spots, barring injury of course, one of which is Sharp’s when he comes back, barring any crazy shit with that.  The pool of players who can take the last spot(s), which is basically the ‘tough guy spot’, with the Hawks: Carcillo, Bollig, Hayes, and Mayers.  Who is the last guy to dress, in my musings to no one on the internet?  Bollig, with a caveat; but first, why not the other guys.  Mayers, he’s been the utmost team player, but I’m going with a younger guy.  Hayes, he’s the right call-up with Sharp out, but I don’t think he’s there yet (which makes him the right call-up, to get him more reps), if he can play tougher with his big boy frame, which is what he is doing in Rockford, in the big boy league while he’s up, I will have to reconsider.  And then Carcillo, in my musings on the internet to no one, the last man cut.  I like Carcillo, I do, not everyone does, and they have good reason not to.  He plays like a methhead, and it’s when he crosses over the line he constantly straddles of ‘fucking just enough shit up/fucking up too much shit’, that his play becomes a liability, and is ultimately why he’s my last guy cut, and I give the ‘tough guy’ job to Bollig.  Because he too straddles that line, but as he’s getting more and more play, he’s making less stupid plays that put the Hawks on the PK and more good hockey plays, contributing more than just big checks and knuckle sandwiches.  Carcillo, I think, has played great at times, before he got hurt this year and last, he was mostly ‘fucking up the right amount of shit’ up on the top line, but now Saad has that spot.  So, it’s him or Bollig, and I give the nod to Bollig, with the caveat, he keeps getting better and better as he has been; and like I said, it’s a good problem to have, you can never have too much depth, and thus finisheth the Blackhawks musings for the day.

edit: oh yeah, The Streak is what I forgot to talk about, hilariously enough, as that was the only thing that was being talked about before.  It’s good that it’s over, it was becoming a distraction, and when it got to the point of ‘what do you think about what Lebron James said about your streak’, I think it can safely be said it became that becoming, past tense rather than future tense.  It was a thing in and of itself, rather than just an indication of consistent, sustained strong play that happened to have a couple lucky bounces and a couple games where Emery pulled a rabbit out of his hat that filled in the gaps where a loss here and there would have been.  And it had no real significance in and of itself, because keeping the streak together doesn’t mean shit, winning the Stanley Cup is the only thing worth a shit.  So all The Streak ™ does is indicate what I just said it indicated above, and potentially give the Hawks a better position for the playoffs.  A means towards the ultimate ends; a good thing to have happen along the way, on the journey to Mount Stanley.

The good thing is, the Hawks knew that/know that/have been stating on the record that/and have been playing like they believe that all along.  To play ‘em one game at a time, each game is a separate event, and you play to win each one, and then add it up later.  Every sports cliche, just like Crash telling Nuke to write it down on the bus, but showing exactly why they are cliches in the first place, because they work.  Their collective mindset is in the right place; they’re playing like they ain’t done shit yet, because they ain’t.

Furthermore, and finally, forsooth and forthwith, that the streak happened at the beginning of a shortened season, the focus on starting strong can really pay off for the Hawks if they can finish strong, and finishing strong is what they’ve been doing within games, which is how they put The Streak ™ together in the first place.  Putting yourself in good position for later by playing good now, and the Hawks jumped on it from the beginning (beating the defending Cup champions convincingly on national tv the first game of the season right after they hung up their banner was a pretty good start).  They went exactly half of the season without losing in regulation, which is ridiculously good, it doesn’t matter that it’s a half-season.  They’ve really put themselves in good position with The Streak ™, it was a good thing even though it’s a good thing that it’s over.  The Streak ™ is dead; long live The Streak! ™