Rich Lowry describes several close encounters of the stupid kind, with the deep thinkers who acted out their fantasies in Manhattan yesterday: More than 57 Varieties of Bush Hatred.

Here is a brief recounting of my interactions with various marchers. They shouldn’t necessarily be taken as representative. After each talk I had with someone my friend would say, “You know, there are reasonable people here too.” Maybe. But it wasn’t at all hard to find people who were not a great credit to the cause of peace and justice.

A kid was holding a sign, “Stop the war on youth, from here to Najaf.”

“So,” I asked, “do you support al Sadr?”

“I do as long as he’s resisting U.S. imperialism.”

“OK, so you support Islamic fundamentalism?”

“No,” he said, walking away.

“Well, he’s an Islamic fundamentalist,” I said.

He came back up to me, “Just because you support the youth doesn’t mean you side with an extremist.”

“Sadr is an Islamic extremist, he’s very clear about it.”

“It’s their mosque.”

“He seized the mosque by force!”

“You’re wrong,” he said. “He supports elections.”

“No, he doesn’t! He opposes elections.”

“Well,” he said, walking away again, “they are U.S.-supported elections. Of course he opposes U.S.-supported elections.”

Then, this goateed, cigarette-smoking little Chomsky walked off for good.