So everyone's talking about how we need to get rid of all the WTC and plane hijacking and terrorism and bad mail references from popular media. We won't see George's fiancee get poisoned from licking wedding invitation envelopes, Homer won't order klav kalash and crab juice, Wesley Snipes won't kick ass in the sky, Dustin Hoffman won't save a small California town from the "Friends" monkey. And I'm sure there's tons more things that are being yanked from TV and cable and movie theatres as you read this.

Personally (and don't tell me you didn't see this coming), I (again) think people are overreacting. Remember all the TWA hijackings in the mid-1980s where Americans were executed by Arabic terrorists? There were made-for-TV movies about those within months of the actual events. And the hypocrisy of taking out certain scenes or episodes is made worse by the fact that all these current events that are actually happening and aren't a figment of some writer's imagination are being broadcasted to the masses every night on network news, where anyone of any age who can operate a remote control can tune in.

It seems, however, that people have their pressure points when giving up their favorite TV shows, and I think we just need to exercise those points and say, "Look, if that's permissible, so is the Simpsons-go-to-New-York episode of 'The Simpsons.'" As the co-executive producer of Fox's new show "24" said, "There's a lot of sick people in the world, and people still watch 'ER.'" And as Alicia Silverstone said in Clueless, "Until mankind is peaceful enough not to have violence on the news, there's no point in taking it out of shows that need it for entertainment value."