READER (AND KNOXVILLE EXPATRIATE) KEITH SPURGEON writes from New York with news of a Jon Stewart / Susan Sarandon faceoff over terrorism:

The activist actress urged Americans to try to learn what is behind the hate that leads to terrorist acts.

“When you have a guy who thinks the best act is to blow himself up, along with others, you have to ask, ‘What leads to that?'” she asked. “And is the response more violence? A cowboy shoot-’em-up?”

Stewart immediately retorted: “Getting us to understand that is like asking black people to understand why the Klan puts on pointy white hats.” He then called Sarandon a “pinko.”

Affectionately. We think.

Sarandon, however, pressed on: “America is the greatest country, with a tradition of dissent.” Still, Gore Vidal had trouble publishing leftist views in the current superpatriotic climate, she observed.

“He’s out walking around,” said Stewart. “He’s not in jail.”

Personally, whenever people use the terms “superpatriotic” and “cowboy” in discussing American policy, I figure they’ve just stepped out of a time-warp from 1969. Except that some people are the time warp: for them, it’ll always be 1969.

And why is it that among the entertainment crew it’s the comics who are disproportionately making sense on this stuff? Is it because they’re the only ones whose jobs allow them to tell the truth?