friedman's point is when you're in singapore, or hong kong, you fly back to lax or newer, as thomas l. friedman always said, it's like flying from the jetsons to the flintstones. this is his preferred pop-culture analogy. this is riding 101 by the way. it's often a good way when you're getting with complex issues to find a pop-culture analogy that will make you giddy way -- the trick is not to use the same over and over which is what thomas l. friedman does with his jets in an flintstones. he said before 2001 after afghanistan, he said in america, in afghanistan the taliban were the flintstones and america were the jetsons. and the jetsons always beat the flintstones but actually that's not true. you know what the flintstones and the jetsons are. but in the flintstones are the classic. the jetsons are sort of cheesy knockoff with a bit of space-age with a bit of a space age getting attached to it. and where the limitation, the metaphor taken very early is in afghanistan, right now america, the jetsons, are desperate to get out and the taliban, the flintstones, all the have to do is hide their t