Bill O'Reilly writes: "Defenders of the political Internet sewer say freedom of speech is the issue. But that's a canard. Hate speech is hate speech . . ." He misses the point. Tolerating hate speech is part of the price we pay for free speech. He also says, "A few years ago, people who spewed hatred in public were ostracized." As compared to today? I think that, if anything, the opposite is true. We've become hypersensitive to any offhand remark that might possibly be construed as "hateful" or "offensive" -- witness the recent flaps involving Isaiah Washington, Michael Richards, Don Imus, et al. If Mr. O'Reilly were to write a piece criticizing Barack Obama for having as much substance as cotton candy, he'd probably be accused of racism for mentioning cotton in connection with a black man!