Oh how I do enjoy Thomas Friedman’s tortured syntax:
What’s unfolding in the Arab world today is the mother of all wake-up calls. And what the voice on the other end of the line is telling us is clear as a bell:
“America, you have built your house at the foot of a volcano. That volcano is now spewing lava from different cracks and is rumbling like it’s going to blow. Move your house!†In this case, “move your house†means “end your addiction to oil.â€
Get it? It’s clear as a bell: it’s a wake up call, and there’s your house, and a volcano, and four different cracks spewing lava, and you have to move your house, and by “move your house” the voice means —
Oh, sure, the voice could have jumped right over all of that and gotten to the point: “end your addiction to oil.” But what fun would that be?
Remember the first rule of holes: “When you’re in one, stop digging. When you’re in three, bring a lot of shovels.”