Dear George,

In her latest indulgence in hatred, [ Letters to the Editor: Barbara Rich Puts It to Condoleeza Rice], Barbara Rich continues to exemplify the kind of person you would not want to be friends with.

She is prejudiced because she doesn't arrive at hate after an accounting of the facts. She starts with hate and works backwards. In her first sentence she says she can't eat rice anymore, white or brown, because it has the same name as Condoleeza Rice.

In fairness to Barbara, she has made a career out of hyperbolic emotion juxtaposed among a few truisms. When it's social satire, it's fun to read and thought-provoking. But when it touches on politics, it becomes propaganda in its purest form.

I'll never forget her editorial in The Observer about why the mispronunciation of one word causes her contempt for valley girls. This negative and destructive emotion because valley girls pronounce "actually" without a 't' sound. They say "ack-shool-lee". Barbara opined that they should prounce the 't'. Of course, there is no 't' sound in this word. 't' becomes 'ch'. If you don't believe me, try saying "ack-tool-lee". That article illustrated to me how easy it is to ascribe a stigma to a group of people based on a false premise. I wonder if Barbara's regular column in The Observer contributed to the paper's decline.

In her latest babble, she hears military marches, dirges and Taps when she thinks of Condi Rice playing the piano. When I think of the National Security Advisor playing the piano, the sexiest person ever to serve in that position, I hear quite a different tune.

National Review has more analysis of the hate mentality of the Left: On Loathing Bush: It's not about what he does.

Blair Hawkins (electronic mail, August 17, 2004)