We are comfortable. You must be provoked.

Senior Roanoke Times editor Tommy Denton's Sunday column ("Distressing Wit and Idealism of Editorial Cartoons") is the usual combination of arrogance and disingenousness readers have come to expect from the RT. Denton responds to complaints that editorial cartoons run by the RT are too rude, confrontational and judgemental by saying these cartoons are "supposed to shove readers out of their comfort zone."

Fair enough, but regular readers of the RT will ask why is it that only Republicans and conservatives need to be so "shoved", since the RT only occasionally runs cartoons that provoke Democrats or liberals?

Perhaps the answer lies in how Denton ends his piece. "Alas, like beauty, a cartoon's meaning so often lies in the eye of the beholder." This follows a sentence in which Denton says he can't wait for the replies about a recent cartoon showing President Bush as a snake-handler.

Oh yeah, snake handler. We all disagree about what that means.