Out (censored) spot!

There’s just time today to briefly explain cartoonist Christopher Weyant’s allusion to a Shakespearean tragedy, Macbeth.

Weyant is referring to a famous line uttered by Lady Macbeth, who has urged her husband to kill the king of Scotland so that Macbeth may seize the throne. Lady Macbeth doesn’t take part in the actual regicide (the killing of a king). During a sleepwalking scene, however, her guilt leads her to imagine that she has the king’s blood on her hands. She cries, “Out, damned spot!”

The phrase has since become synonymous with the idea of guilt.

Some of Mitt Romney's detractors seem to want to make his time with Bain Capital a stain on his character -- and the bane of his existence.

Charles Kean and his wife as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, in costumes aiming to be historically accurate (1858)
Caption and photo courtesy of Wikipedia