Naomi Wolf is becoming everyone's favorite object of ridicule. And deservedly so. I saw this exchange on the Dennis Miller Show and knew that I was right in my decision never to pay attention to anything she says.

The other night, I came across the writer Naomi Wolf participating in a TV panel discussion about the Patriot Act. When one of her fellow guests, David Horowitz, turned in his chair to look at her, Wolf angrily broke off from the point she was making, to upbraid him.



"Don't try to shut me up!" she shouted. Horowitz looked at her, mystified. "What did I do?" he asked. "It's all in your body language!" Wolf said, indicating the movement he had just made in his chair.

"But Naomi," Horowitz replied in some confusion, "you told me during the last commercial break that I should turn and face you the next time you spoke. I was trying to do just that."

Before turning over, I remember thinking what a daft old brush Wolf was and how unfortunate it was that a humourless silly like her has come to be so widely regarded as the authentic voice of American feminism.

These sentiments cross my mind every couple of years or so, whenever Wolf comes out with another one of her pious blockbusters about the international conspiracy to stop women feeling good about themselves.

Experience has taught me that allowing myself to dwell on the subject of Wolf for too long is bad for my spirits. Usually, if I hum loudly to myself, I can make the wearying thought of her go away.