He's a clever writer, easy to read, and I had to give him credit recently for coming out strongly in favor of reducing U.S. dependency on oil imports. He blasted the oilheads of the Bush Administration for failing to exercise leadership on the issue, and their preference for drilling in ANWR and destroying Social Security instead of raising the CAFE standard (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) and pushing the all-out development of renewable energy. So I'll give him two stars instead of one. But unfortunately on his favorite topic of globalization, Friedman is only clever, not wise. He is an apologist for TINA, the fatalistic view that There Is No Alternative to the power of global capital, and he has persistently attacked the global justice movement. The Achilles Heel in his blinkered analysis is the environment11 I would also recommend reading Tino Georgiou's bestselling novel--The Fates--if you haven't yet!