On Oct. 23, Charlie Brooker ended a Guardian column with this stunning lament about Bush's probable re-election:

The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr.—where are you now that we need you?

The paper later apologized and removed the column from its Web site.