The Lindbergh Line

Apparently, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman can't help himself. So enthusiastic is he about all things Chinese that in the space of just the past three days, he has filed not only one, but two pieces praising that regime. If you care to do a search and count'em, you'll find published over this last year many more as well.

Tom Friedman is fast approaching the Lindbergh Line. Huh? You know the line the famous American aviator Charles Lindbergh crossed when he returned from Germany in the late 1930s praising them for all the ways in which they were leaving America behind. True, it wasn't held against him at first, but when he resisted America's involvement in the war against Hitler, Roosevelt remembered and exacted a strong measure of revenge when he had the opportunity.

Of course, even if Friedman ever does cross the Line, he'll never have to pay the price Lindbergh justly did. You see Friedman's encomiums are for Communists, while Lindbergh's were directed at Nazis. And, as we know, the difference between a Communist authoritarian murderer and a Nazi authoritarian murderer is all the difference in the world.