The Game of Thrones is a book series a friend has been encouraging me to read, as well as encoruaging me to watch series/season 1 on DVD.
I have to add as a minor comentary that people who look at things like this seem to me to be the same crowd that find holy religious images on grilled cheese sandwiches and in the dirt on plate glass windows of buildings. Some peope have way too much time on their hands. If you have to squint that hard, it's not really there.
More to the point is that there was no intent or effort expended to do such a thing; this is a stupid faux controversy. Under the circumstances, I think it is a shame that HBO and the producers and staff of Game of Thrones didn't just tell people to get a life; imho, they should NOT have apologized for something they did not do. There is a significant difference in people trying to portray harm to someone in the public realm by, for example, shooting an image of them -- like the targets that imitated Trayvon Martin, or the shooting of a t-shirt of Barak Obama, or taking an effigy of George W. Bush, hung by a noose around its neck, and then setting it on fire. That was calculated, deliberate and malicious could reasonably be construed as celebrating violence being done to someone. We are talking about actual likenesses - photographs - and clearly labeled images, not sorta kinda maybe.
This was nothing like those instances. There was clearly no intent to portray or advocate harm to our former President. Had there been, I would happily join on the condemnation bandwagon here.
I had a heckuva time finding a similar profile photo of 'W' to the Game of Thrones image for comparison, until I came across this one:
This is a poor, very superficial likeness that one has to strain and squint to find. This is a case of someone working very hard to be offended.
Cross posted from Mikeb's blog, with permission of the author, our co-blogger Laci:
Since one of the interests of this blog is capital punishment...
According to this, it seems that the makers of Game of Thrones have apologised for showing a head on a spike that was similar to that of George Bush (AKA Dubya).
Looking at the picture, I'm not so sure about that. Maybe it's wishful thinking on somebody's part.
Personally, I think brutal punishments as deterrence are much better than an armed populace for keeping people on the straight and narrow. Sticking people in prison isn't as much of a punishment as a head on a pole, or putting someone on a gibbet.
I have to add as a minor comentary that people who look at things like this seem to me to be the same crowd that find holy religious images on grilled cheese sandwiches and in the dirt on plate glass windows of buildings. Some peope have way too much time on their hands. If you have to squint that hard, it's not really there.
More to the point is that there was no intent or effort expended to do such a thing; this is a stupid faux controversy. Under the circumstances, I think it is a shame that HBO and the producers and staff of Game of Thrones didn't just tell people to get a life; imho, they should NOT have apologized for something they did not do. There is a significant difference in people trying to portray harm to someone in the public realm by, for example, shooting an image of them -- like the targets that imitated Trayvon Martin, or the shooting of a t-shirt of Barak Obama, or taking an effigy of George W. Bush, hung by a noose around its neck, and then setting it on fire. That was calculated, deliberate and malicious could reasonably be construed as celebrating violence being done to someone. We are talking about actual likenesses - photographs - and clearly labeled images, not sorta kinda maybe.
This was nothing like those instances. There was clearly no intent to portray or advocate harm to our former President. Had there been, I would happily join on the condemnation bandwagon here.
I had a heckuva time finding a similar profile photo of 'W' to the Game of Thrones image for comparison, until I came across this one:
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| no, that isnt it; just a very rude political satire somewhat justified to poke fun, given some of the many gaffes in public speaking made by ''Dubya' |
 |
| More of the same political satire - rude, insulting, and highly disrespectful, even uncivil but still clearly not advocating harming much less killing anyone |
 |
| Not quite the same angle of profile. the nose is slightly different, the length of the filtrum/upper lip seems different, and the line of the cheek, from the side of the nose midway down to the jowels of the cheek are subtly different, as is the jawline, and we cannot see the forehead for comparison |
This is a poor, very superficial likeness that one has to strain and squint to find. This is a case of someone working very hard to be offended.
Cross posted from Mikeb's blog, with permission of the author, our co-blogger Laci:
Since one of the interests of this blog is capital punishment...
According to this, it seems that the makers of Game of Thrones have apologised for showing a head on a spike that was similar to that of George Bush (AKA Dubya).
Looking at the picture, I'm not so sure about that. Maybe it's wishful thinking on somebody's part.
Personally, I think brutal punishments as deterrence are much better than an armed populace for keeping people on the straight and narrow. Sticking people in prison isn't as much of a punishment as a head on a pole, or putting someone on a gibbet.
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