Just wanted to drop you a line thanking you for the writing on Hastings. I am of two minds on the war in Afghanistan, but of one on Hastings' reporting: it was perspicacious, clever, and honest. I can quibble here and there with some of the writing (the Christian Bale comparison was particularly hard to stomach) but the execution comes rather second.

I wanted also to ask you to continue hammering Thomas Friedman in your work. I hate that guy. Last semester, in my final classes as an undergraduate, I was assigned "The World is Flat." I stupidly bought it on audiobook and listened to it on a drive up to my girlfriend's college. At one point- when he claims PERSONAL COMPUTERS were a major factor in the fall of the Soviet Union- I ripped the cd out of the stereo and winged it into a forest. I regret the ecological consequences of this act but remained committed to the symbolism.

Not only is his writing rebarbative, his opinion on any given topic has as much thought and consideration behind it as my recently deceased great grandmother's. The fact that he gets paid to puke up this stuff on a regular basis is a sad thing, indeed.

Take care- fight on- regards,
Sean Mulligan