The creators of the HBO series "Game of Thrones" assured the world recently that it was purely non-political when a likeness of President George W. Bush's head was shown severed and mounted on a stick in the show.
"We just had to use whatever heads we had lying around," they said in a commentary, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Mm hmm. Right. Why would anybody dream such a thing was deliberate? The very idea.
Soooo, was it also non-political when filmmakers produced a movie -- "Death of a President" -- during the Bush administration which practically fantasized about the prospect of his being gunned down?
And is it strictly non-political that many self-styled tolerant liberals consider an Iraqi man something of a folk hero after he narrowly missed hitting Bush in the head when he slung his shoes at the president in Baghdad in 2008?
"It was reported today that the Iraqi journalist who threw the shoes at President Bush had his arm broken when security subdued him. And even worse, it was his shoe-throwing arm," quipped "comedian" Conan O'Brien shortly after the incident.
Yes, a many-splendored thing is that renowned liberal tolerance. Verily, it never ceases to surprise with its subtlety and complexity.