BY DEFINITION, if you throw a shoe at someone -- two, rather -- and you don't spend the rest of your live shut in a dungeon with your testicles badly burnt by electrodes, but you survive to tell the tale, that person can't be a tyrant, can he?

The Spanish press is, of course, having a field day. The footage was shown over and over on TV, even 7 or 8 times in a single newscast while the anchor was saying "we can't stop playing it" (Telecinco, a couple of days ago). And as another example, this was in the front page of La Vanguardia, Barcelona's main -- and supposedly center-right -- newspaper: "The Hero Who Hurled His Shoes at Bush." No italization or quote marks around "hero" no siree bob.