Tom Friedman quit writing real articles back in the 90s.
This showed up on HN a while back: http://thomasfriedmanopedgenerator.com/
Hah!
When i was younger and trying to educate myself into a higher class, I read a couple of his books. The only good one was From Beirut to Jerusalem, which was published in 1989. Everything after that was just crappy analogies.
I really don't understand how an "expert" in Middle East affairs could think that the USA going to war in Iraq was a good idea.
I don't begrudge Sharef for using the connection. It's another reminder of how important networking is.