Video: The obligatory “Tom Friedman hit by pie” clip
posted at 10:51 pm on April 23, 2008 by Allahpundit
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He supports free trade, ergo he must be pied. Charges likely to be filed: None, naturally. The boss thinks this incident will inspire some strange new respect among the media for the rights of campus speakers, but she’s more optimistic than I. Tom Friedman — object of liberal ridicule for his (initial) support for the war, since honored with his own nutroots neologism — as a rallying point for the press to decry harassment of visiting lecturers? The only part of this that’s likely to upset them is that he didn’t take it square in the face.
Thomas Friedman Hit in the Face by a Pie
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I admit, part of me enjoyed that.
Free Constitution on April 23, 2008 at 10:58 PM
If anybody ever tries that to me I hope I have enough warning to run straight at the bastard and punch him in the face.
FloatingRock on April 23, 2008 at 10:59 PM
Environmentalists are pu$$ies. Couldn’t even land a square shot from a foot away? Work on your arm, then the planet.
lorien1973 on April 23, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Well, Tom Friendman is a trend setter.
ninjapirate on April 23, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Why?
terryannonline on April 23, 2008 at 11:00 PM
I don’t always agree with Friedman, but the guy has the greatest lecture/teaching style that I’ve ever seen. The guy knows how to paint a picture with words. He always holds your attention.
RBMN on April 23, 2008 at 11:06 PM
Sorry, you lay down with dogs….
AYNBLAND on April 23, 2008 at 11:07 PM
I’m not impressed with Brown University. If this had been a YAF-sponsored event, Jason Mattera would have leapt out of the crowd screaming “nooooooo”, intercepted the pie Secret Service style, then turned and smirked at the camera as the video faded.
joewm315 on April 23, 2008 at 11:09 PM
A pie in the face is always funny. Especially when it’s not scripted.
I’ve always thought Friedman was naive when it came foreign policy, far too trusting of our questionable “allies” especially with regard to N. Korea. And his predictable environmentalist columns.
Free Constitution on April 23, 2008 at 11:09 PM
They couldn’t use apple pie? Too American for them?
SouthernGent on April 23, 2008 at 11:09 PM
The tactic is dangerous, as the late “right wing” politician Pim Fortuyn of The Netherlands (shot in the back and assassinated by a “radical animal rights activist“), discovered when similar leftist/anarchists threw similar-looking pies at him when he tried to speak, but which were full of feces under the shaving creme.
They could just as easily be tainted with worse.
Salmonella or even ricin.
The Three Stooges-cum-‘harmless’ political theater / gamesplaying” era of such “protests” ended on 9/11.
I’d plant a toe in their nads so hard they be doing permament falsetto for campus doo-wop group.
profitsbeard on April 23, 2008 at 11:13 PM
Call me pessimistic as well. Say, did you notice any MSM defense of ABC after the last debate, because I didn’t.
steveegg on April 23, 2008 at 11:16 PM
How do you even sneak pies into a lecture like this?
I demand to know the logistics.
askheaves on April 23, 2008 at 11:18 PM
Tom Friedman is a hand-wringing sissy. Did you ever read Longitudes and Attitudes? Tripe, mostly.
jaime on April 23, 2008 at 11:19 PM
This wouldn’t be the same Friedman who calls for surrender in Iraq, said the era of 9/11 is over, and says:
Would it?
amerpundit on April 23, 2008 at 11:24 PM
Well, it took him a while to decide what to do. Did he go on with his speech?
Ann Coulter got back up and spoke. Michelle continues to speak even when she is physically attacked and heckled. Hirsi Ali speaks. Conservative speakers may avoid physical confrontation, but they get right back on the horse which threw them and ride it till they are finished speaking and they get their point across.
This will stop when someone chooses the wrong speaker to throw at, he chases them down and pounds the crap out of them in self defense and based on some “hot pursuit” thought of quid pro quo. Pussies always try to hurt those who don’t fight back. When you actually fight back, they get too scared, and being pussies, they don’t try it again.
Don’t like my language? Tough. Get out of the kitchen.
Subsunk
Subsunk on April 23, 2008 at 11:26 PM
I don’t care what side you’re on. The act of throwing a pie at someone has to rank up there with the lamest, more cowardly exhibition of intolerance there is. This is what the mindless angry giblets of the left have been reduced to– an old Laurel and Hardy routine.
Potfry on April 23, 2008 at 11:26 PM
regardless of what we think of him (i happen to think he’s a very smart guy, although i don’t agree with him on everything), this kind of stuff is just childish and reprehensible and once again shows the level of “discourse” on college campuses.
the fact that friedman, bill gates, monsanto bigwig bob shapiro, and fox news’ courtney friel get this kind of treatment while ahmedinejad (sp?) and others of his ilk are welcomed with open arms… just… speaks volumes…
homesickamerican on April 23, 2008 at 11:27 PM
There is no reason to tolerate this at all.
hunter on April 23, 2008 at 11:29 PM
Read the article from Brown. The RCP/World Can’t Wait commies are behind this. I say we should just pack them in a C-17 and drop them over Pyongyang or Beijing. Their choice. They’ll be happy and we’ll be rid of them. Everybody wins!
malan89 on April 23, 2008 at 11:46 PM
Ya know the other side of the coin is the attitude the Pie-ee assumes after the Pie hits or doesn’t. Bill gates was totally a jerk about it. that! is letting the pie throwers win. you should (if you are not an self centered arrogant jerk) walk away smiling. getting hit with a pie means is that you are popular. popular enough to get someone angry. The smile shows that you understand and YOU win. even if your $500 dollar cardigan will need dry cleaning *Sniff* boo-frickin-hoo.
-Wasteland Man.
WastelandMan on April 23, 2008 at 11:47 PM
Is it just me, or should a bit of creme grazing the back of his head not count as being “hit in the face”?
calbear on April 23, 2008 at 11:57 PM
I feel the same way about bullets and knives with notes attached. I can’t WAIT to feel that much love.
askheaves on April 24, 2008 at 12:01 AM
As much as I disagree with Tom Friedman and most of what he says this kind of shit has got to stop. Remember when the hags of Code Stink got right in the face of Condi Rice last year with the fake bloody hands? It just as easily could have been a gun instead of a pie. Someone in security seriously fu**ed up here and needs to be called out on the carpet.
greasywrench on April 24, 2008 at 12:25 AM
Isn’t this sort of metaphorical for the way Friedman approached pro-legal immigration folks?
Mark V. on April 24, 2008 at 12:26 AM
C’mon, I am talking about a survivable public prank, and the proper reaction to it. Go with it and don’t be a schmuck was my message.
IF its something seriously more threatening then yeah I agree with you.
If some idiot comes after me with a gun or Knife then they better pray I aint got my .45 long colt with me.
-Wasteland Man.
WastelandMan on April 24, 2008 at 12:45 AM
Come on the guy a douche but he got pied by bigger douches.
This is just stupidity all around.
Chuck Schick on April 24, 2008 at 12:48 AM
Until there is a healthy dose of fear put in perps, nothing will change.
Johan Klaus on April 24, 2008 at 12:49 AM
I suppose I forgot my sarcasm mark (!)
It’s pretty tough to tell, in a couple seconds, what’s intended. After they catch you off guard and pie you, though, you take it in good humor… which Friedman could have done better (though, he did elicit a laugh).
askheaves on April 24, 2008 at 1:06 AM
For people like Tom Friedman, or George Stephanopolous, or even Hillary, who have been on the left most of their lives only to suddenly find themselves the target of verbal and in this case, physical abuse has got to be a bit of a shock, since I’m sure that until now, they no doubt believed all the irrational hatred came from the bitter, gun loving, church going goobers on the right stirred up by Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Fox News.
What will be interesting will be to see how they react — Either a realization that there are some loons on their side of the aisle who shouldn’t be coddled or manipulated just for short-term political gain, or something akin to the 1930s Stalinist show trials, where the accused basically had to stand up and confess their political heresies in public in the misguided hope of saving their own skins.
jon1979 on April 24, 2008 at 1:29 AM
Who was it that said, “Environmentalists are like watermelons, green on the outside & red on the inside”?
Apparently, only Socialism or Communism can save the planet. I think I understand their thinking since it would make everybody, except the small cadre of elite, equally poor.
clancy_wiggum on April 24, 2008 at 1:31 AM
It is obvious that you are not from Texas. I would have landed them both on their backs.
Johan Klaus on April 24, 2008 at 1:32 AM
The two pie throwers should be caned and dismissed from Brown. If the provocateurs are determined not to be students at Brown, they should be caned again.
Meanwhile, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn wonder why the podium wasn’t bombed…..
moxie_neanderthal on April 24, 2008 at 1:54 AM
His speech (YEARS AGO) in support of war in Iraq, about “Religion 3.0″ etc., was brilliant. Since then he has been pushed back hard, and cowed. Notice how he quit the stage.
A real man would have taken his shirt off and done his speech bare chested. Man-boobies and all.
I don’t know what warrants his being pied. He’s switched to global economy and alternative fuel analysis. He is mostly correct, but not to the lefties.
I am not sure the wacko leftos know WHO they are supposed to hate anymore. I expect Cindy Sheehan to get pied eventually.
Agrippa2k on April 24, 2008 at 1:55 AM
Frankly, I think this is a case of racism - pure and simple. He is Jewish, so whatever he is saying must be wrong.
That black kid with the “kill that Bush” video is more of a statement about the derangement of the left than about SOME black Americans.
Agrippa2k on April 24, 2008 at 2:02 AM
Friedman is a genius - at marketing the obvious, and the ridiculous, as some sort of insight. The fact that he can make $1 as a lecturer is a devastating indictment of the level of discourse today. He wouldn’t get a word in edgewise at a discussion where my friends and I were considering serious topics.
Haven’t read his sophomoric stuff in years, but one of my last favorites was his line that all the Arab world wanted was “a smaller Israel”. He’s the definition of Beltway lightweight.
IceCold on April 24, 2008 at 2:51 AM
Way off topic but when you mentioned obvious and ridiculous I recalled The Mr Obvious Show:
moxie_neanderthal on April 24, 2008 at 3:28 AM
I don’t have much like for Friedman (I would’ve shrugged it off and given the speech with pie all over my shirt if I had to), but this teaches us precisely what liberals are taught not to acquire in life:
Respect or decency.
Jockolantern on April 24, 2008 at 5:14 AM
profitsbeard is right. This is dangerous stuff. This time it is a pie, but when you’re on the stage and the lights are bright in your face, you can’t tell what is happening exactly. You are at a disadvantage all around because you are concentrating on your speech, and the lights, etc.
Someday, some idiot is going to take to the stage with more than a pie in his hand. Actually, it has happened before–ask the late Inejiro Asanuma.
p40tiger on April 24, 2008 at 6:16 AM
What a pansy. He looks like he wants to cry.
peacenprosperity on April 24, 2008 at 6:27 AM
The world is going mad! You’ve got the press treating a Democrat politician like she was a Republican and now you’ve got Tom Friedman being treated like he was Ann Coulter. What’s next?
TheBigOldDog on April 24, 2008 at 6:37 AM
Elitists.
No comment from Al the Gore?
Zorro on April 24, 2008 at 6:46 AM
This is only a small preview of what the Democratic Convention could look like this summer
Dudley Smith on April 24, 2008 at 7:41 AM
Brown has no dignity what so ever, except the campus Republicans have an awesome “back of the bus” display.
I want to see the audience grab these fascists and hold them for criminal charges. Open season physically on people you don’t agree with can’t be tolerated in this Republic.
Hening on April 24, 2008 at 7:55 AM
I guess some people believe in free speech and others like you don’t.
Dollayo on April 24, 2008 at 8:09 AM
How do we know these pie throwers weren’t conservatives…
That’s a joke folk.
right2bright on April 24, 2008 at 8:23 AM
Conservative or liberal, that kind of crap should not be tolerated.
p40tiger on April 24, 2008 at 8:36 AM
If this is wrong when the target is a conservative speaker, its wrong when the target is not a conservative speaker.
Nothing here to derive satisfaction or entertainment from.
Midas on April 24, 2008 at 8:39 AM
As Dr Thomas Sowell has pointed out(or was it Walter E Williams?), if you rank all the industrialized countries of the world from richest to poorest you also get the free-est trade to the most restrictive trade.
If someone buys something cheaper overseas it frees up that money for other things. We have a net gain of jobs in the past 20 years, not a loss.
Demand quality from the Chinese, demand security from all but don’t stop free exchange of goods and services. Thats liberty and its supposed to be what we are all about.
DavidM on April 24, 2008 at 8:51 AM
I wonder if these brave souls have the balls to try this when Chuch Norris speaks. Doubt it! But, I would pay big money to see them try it.
mhgoldwing on April 24, 2008 at 9:12 AM
I don’t know or even care about Tom Friedman, but this is ridiculous. There is no excuse for colleges allowing this to continue any further.
It’s a freakin’ pie. It can’t be that easy to conceal if colleges are checking the people who come in. Really, this has gone on long enough.
No one seemed to care when it happened to Coulter, because she’s “mean”, but this demeans a college’s reputation, or at least it should.
Esthier on April 24, 2008 at 10:19 AM
My first thought exactly.
Yup. My second thought - how’d they get these in, and sitting in the front nobody saw them?
Some speaker sometime needs to hold the university accountable, not only for damages to clothing, etc., but for such reprehensible lack of security. Don’t forget - these universities are “gun-free zones”, so it could easily be much more serious than a pie.
IrishEyes on April 24, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Fixed. Browse through Recreate68 and you’ll see that pies are way too wimpy to even be on the protest menu.
eeyore on April 24, 2008 at 1:47 PM
Okay, maybe it’s just me, but for once, just once, I’d like to see a speaker who sees this coming, and then lunges at the pie throwing jerks and just full-force body tackles them. Or perhaps body slam, pile-drive or just knock them off the stage. Then maybe, just maybe, we won’t see incidents like this again.
DakRoland on April 24, 2008 at 2:44 PM
Just like ‘em to run away as quickly as possible. The kid with the backpack looked like he wanted to give Friedman a limp-wristed slap after throwing the pie.
Grafted on April 24, 2008 at 2:48 PM
I pretty sure that, early in his political career, Obama was given a fundraising dinner by those two activist. I wonder what was served for dessert at the event?
2Tru2Tru on April 24, 2008 at 3:42 PM