Letters.

--Theodore Dalrymple's article ("The People's Queen," July 1) ususes the term "liberal intelligentsia" several times. That's not just an oxymoron, it's an insult to ordinary conservatives.

In her book When Character Was King, Peggy Noonan wrote that Ronald Reagan disliked "high-IQ dimwits." That is what the "liberal intelligentsia" are. Why don't you call them that?

William F. Miller

Corpus Christi, Tex.

--I am surprised that Dr. Dalrymple would speak of the British momonarchy's being "doomed" as an event contemplated and yet to be achieved.

A monarch who must -- as Britain's must -- sign into law her own death warrant if enacted and sent to her by the House of Commons, is already dead and only awaits a decent burial.

Kalman I. Nulman

New York, N.Y.

-- John Miller's call to establish immediate U.S. "hegemonic cocontrol" of space ("Our 'Next Manifest Destiny,'" July 15) undermines his otherwise important message.

His proposed strategy for "police blockades" of all spaceports, where Washington would act as a global armed gatekeeper ("shooting down" any satellite payload that does not give notice of its mission), is a politically suicidal vision, cutting clean against the freedom-of-space vision that has energized this country since the dawn of the space age.

Even suggesting such a strategy gives arms-control advocates, and those in Congress who are already skeptical, grounds for further stalling of progress in critical military space activities.

Steven Lambakis

National Institute for Public Policy

Fairfax, Va.

--One would hope that your magazine would recognize that diet-related didiseases do not strike only liberals. Plenty of conservatives get sick and die from diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer. Yet ostriches like Jonah Goldberg ("The Anti-Big Mac Attack," July 15) wage childish attacks on those seeking to improve the health of all Americans, regardless of political stripe.

For the marketplace to work efficiently, consumers need to be informed. We've got that with packaged foods: In 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act.

Now, considering that Americans get one-third of their food from outside the home, restaurants need to provide similar information.

Surely Mr. Goldberg would not want diners to choose foods only on the basis of marketing departments' adjectives when 600-calorie cups of coffee and 3,000-calorie appetizers are wreaking so much havoc in the obesity department.

Michael F. Jacobson, Executive Director

Ctr. for Science in the Public Interest

Washington, D.C.

--To assist Mr. Goldberg (and other Americans) to meet the federal gogovernment's new guidelines for what constitutes a healthy weight, maybe we should try the following:

Create a special force known as the "Corpulent/Obese Patrol Staff" (COPS), and, using search warrants, make surprise raids on homes where rotund people have been seen entering and leaving. If found sprawled on a sofa, scarfing down pizza, chips, etc., they could be cited, convicted, and sentenced to serve a period of time at the nearest health-and-fitness club.

Daniel D. Jury

Mount Joy, Pa.

-- A cartoon in the Help! section of our July 1 issue, dealing with RoRobert Mueller and the FBI, should have been credited. It was drawn by Steve Breen of the San Diego Union-Tribune, and distributed by the Copley News Service.