If you enjoy the journalistic genre of unintentional self-parody, there's a true classic available in today's Wall Street Journal: an op-ed by right-wing thriller author Andrew Klavan arguing that the new box office smash Batman movie, "The Dark Knight," is actually "at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war." Why?

Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.

Klavan goes on at considerable, turgid length in this vein. Read Michael Cohen's account if your heart can't stand the belly-laughs associated with ploughing through the original. But I'm sure the Batman movie's producers are happy they've raked in so much money before moviegoers realized they were participating in a referendum on the Bush administration with every popcorn purchase.