Looking too hard for hidden meaning

Like most of you, I watched most of Sunday's Super Bowl. And like many of you, I had more interest in the creative commercials than I did in the action on the football field. But leave it to the ever-liberal New York Times to find a hidden message in the commercials concerning the war in Iraq.

That's right. The Times said they felt the war in Iraq was lingering just below the surface of many Super Bowl commercials. You would think they had better things to do.

The Times noted that many of the commercials featured cartoon-like violence. But what the Times ignores is that many past Super Bowl commercials have featured the very same exaggerated violence, just like cartoon characters. Don't they realize, it's for laughs, not some hidden disagreement with the war effort.

"Those who wish the last four years of history had never happened could find solace in several commercials that used the device of ending an awful tale by revealing it was only a dream," the Times told readers.

The Times took special note of a commercial by Prudential Insurance titled "What Can a Rock Do?" in reference to their company emblem, the Rock of Gibraltar. The New York Times wonder if every time the commercial mentioned "a rock," if they were really referring to "Iraq." That's a massive stretch even for a liberal. The Times then slyly says that perhaps viewers were reading more into the commercials than intended. Well, it seems to me that the New York Times was the only one reading more than intended in following with its strong opposition to war.

Many of the greatest Super Bowl commercials have featured cartoon violence. Slapstick always makes us laugh. If we laugh, we're happy. If we're happy, perhaps we'll remember and even buy the product promoted in the commercial. That's nothing new. But there's hidden meaning behind everything according to the fear-mongers of the Times.

It actually makes you wonder if we were seeing the same football game and the same commercials.