Any stripe extremist annoying

Man oh man, who'd have thought a guy in his 50s who still wears baseball caps and blue jeans and is obviously stuck in eternal adolescence could generate so much chaos.

No, not me — Michael Moore.

I wrote a column last week about Moore — the ultraliberal documentary filmmaker who openly criticizes and despises George W. Bush — coming to the campus of Utah Valley State College in ultraconservative Orem next month to give a speech. My commentary on this unusual confluence — sort of like Madonna dating one of the Osmonds — was meant to be more observational than judgmental.

I find it highly amusing that Moore would come to Utah County, that the place that edited "Titanic," that bans nudes from art exhibits and censored Toby Keith has invited Mr. Anti-establishment Conspiracy Theorist.

This is the place where 91 percent of the population belongs to the LDS Church, the religion Time magazine recently reported as the country's staunchest Republican-backing religious denomination, with 80 percent of its members supporting the Grand Old Party no matter what. This is the place bringing in the anti-Bush.

Who's next? Howard Stern? Gavin Newsom? Bryant Gumbel? Norm Chow?

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Then there's Moore's fee — $40,000 for one speech. That's a lot of money, especially for someone who's already made a movie about everything he's going to say — a movie you could rent for $2.

Not that people don't get amazing amounts of money for speaking. Former President Clinton, for instance, reportedly gets $50,000-plus per speech. On the Web site of conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity — one of the people being considered to come to UVSC as a counterweight to Moore — Hannity lists his fee as $100,000, two and a half times as much as Moore and twice as much as Clinton.

Which I find amazing. Because if I were inclined to pay Sean Hannity $100,000 for anything, which I'm not, it would be to not talk.

I feel the same, incidentally, about Michael Moore, and, for that matter, any and all extremists. A little ranting and raving goes a long way with me. Add in people who have to be right and it's about as much fun as having people yell at you in traffic.

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But that still doesn't mean I find anything inherently wrong with Michael Moore being invited to speak in Utah County, or Sean Hannity or Michael Reagan or Pope Paul or Gordon B. Hinckley.