SPEAKING OF ON-LINE FIGHTS: Perry de Havilland noted recently that Christopher Hitchens' attacks on Noam Chomsky were lots worse than the recent Horowitz/Radosh one. Mostly because Hitchens was supposed to be on Chomsky's "team," but Hitch made Noam look like an ass in their on-line debate (Chomsky basically resorted to wishing Hitchens' points away. It was a slaughter.) Not only that, but the fact that this was an intrasquad scuffle sort of made Chomsky look even weaker, which may explain his status as a favorite blog-target. Hitchens really opened the floodgates for Chomsky-haters, I think, just by rendering him, in essence, speechless. Not that there's anything wrong with Chomsky loathing. My favorite bit: Matt Welch's Happy Birthday, Gnome! --if only for the title.