Shoe-throwin’ trend not such a bad idea
December 15th, 2008 by joe
Look, it’s kind of a shame they had to break this out on GW Bush, because Bush is a decent guy, but all things considered I think it might be a positive contribution to global political culture.
Somewhere between the namby-pamby bow-tied Western punditry, and blazing carbines, there has to be an outlet for speech with a bit of bite to it but still within the mores of civilized society.
Leave it to one crazy A-rab to show us a better way.
I just think, during all those Loudoun County Board of Supervisors meetings last year, when there was so little being accomplished and so much BS emanating from the dais, rather than sitting there on the benches biting our tongues … how satisfying it would have been if we could have had a small bag of footwear with which to pelt them. I’m not talking Doc Martens - this is the suburbs after all - maybe just some kids Keds would have been nice to have. So when one Supervisor or the other announced another plan to “study” approaches to illegal immigration, we could have all clapped politely and rained baby sneakers down on them. Nothing violent, just a sprinkle of little canvas sneakers on their noggins to get the point across.
I, for one, will be saving our old shoes in a box in the garage. The box will be labeled “Love Letters.” And I plan to hit the Goodwill now and then to cull the nasty shoe repository of singles and woebegone pairs - items no one wants anyway, but which could be put to good use sending messages to our elected officials.
Therefore I call on all of you to keep a bag of old shoes in your car, and when you happen upon a disgarded piece of footwear on the sidewalk please, for the environment, save it from the landfill. There will be plenty of opportunities, many of them impromptu, to toss a handful of Buster Browns at an elected official or other blathering public personality.
I foresee a calmer, gentler era in which public conflicts are settled not by shouting and noise and fisticuffs, but by the showering of shoes on the heads of our opponents, the muffled “plunk, plunk, plunk” of footwear rapping them about the heads and shoulders.
I envision public meetings and political conventions at which the body politic arrives lugging lumpy brown grocery bags, forlorn, perhaps, brows furrowed as a result of economic or social pressures, but unbowed, ready to throw a handful of shoes at the hint of a disrespectful or dissatisfying word. I have personally had to take a step back from politics, but when I return, I tell you now, I am bringing the shoes.
This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Culture, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 15th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Sorry Joe,
Gotta call you on this one. No good can come from a pattern such as this. While it is perfectly respectable and honorable to disagree with a politician, the instant we cross over to dis-respecting the office itself, we open ourselves up to a situation where some ticked off foreigner finds it perfectly acceptible to assault OUR PRESIDENT. I don’t care if that President is Bush or Obama. He’s OUR GUY. NOBODY assaults OUR GUY.
We have no one to blame but ourselves. Go to google. Enter the phrase “bush should”. Tell me you aren’t appalled at the “die, shot, hanged” hits you see. Over 33 Million on die alone. Anybody want to take a bet as to the results in about 18 months on the “Obama should” results?
When we disagree with the office holder to the point that we denigrate the office, we open ourselves up to the kind of childish, dangerous shenanigans we saw this week. Most people off this continent don’t understand Americans. Heck, many living in the country don’t seem to understand Americans all that well. Just look at Hollywood and Avenue of the Americas in NYC.
Sorry Joe, they didn’t toss shoes at the man, they assaulted the office. That is unforgivable and must NEVER be repeated, no matter who’s in what office.
herndongeezer
December 15th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Point taken. Though I would still like to reserve the option of throwing shoes at our Board of Supervisors.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:31 am
I don’t disagree with Herndongeezer’s points. It would be nice, however, if we all practiced what we preach. One of my first negative experiences with the American political scene happened way back in 1960. Nixon came to town in the midst of his campaign to dedicate officially a local civic structure. He came down the street in an open car. I watched as a local Dem state official handed out fresh eggs to his buddies, who then proceeded to splatter them on Nixon as he passed. No need to recount the public disrespect which we have developed in this country since that time. We could set a better example ourselves.
That said, there is a silver lining in just about anything. I took a second look at the shoe throwing incident from quite another angle and came to the conclusion that it puts a stamp of approval in a way on what Bush has done in Iraq. It seems to reflect a radical sea change in the individual Iraqi political psyche. Can you imagine that press guy trying such a stunt on his own volition if it was Saddam Hussein on the podium with a foreign dignitary? In short order, the press guy would have been dangled from a high building by just his package and then allowed to take a wingless nose dive to earth. My how things change in this world! Could be that was the kind of spin Bush was trying to put on the incident, although, as usual, he didn’t do it very well.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:39 am
“Can you imagine that press guy trying such a stunt on his own volition if it was Saddam Hussein on the podium with a foreign dignitary?”
Yes, I can, and that’s EXACTLY the first thought that I had.
December 16th, 2008 at 8:55 am
While I am against foreign scum throwing shoes at my president, be he Obama or Bush, I think Americans should through shoes, fruits, squishy vegetables, rabid cats and the odd kitchen sink at their own politicians.
Our political class has taken on airs. They act like they are nobility. When in fact they are public servants. Historically servants are publicly flogged when they lie to those they serve (that is us in this case). Historically they are executed when they steal from their masters (that’s us again).
When the servants are disrespectful of their masters and betters they would spend time in the stocks. While in the stocks passers-by would proceed to throw various and sundry items at the miscreants.
The way I see it we need about 435 + 100 + 2 scaffolds built on the mall. I am sure the American public will met out the apropos punishment to our off-the-reservation political class.
December 16th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Keep it up and we will have legislation dictating we can only buy One Pair of shoes a month in order to control the outbreak of shoe throwing.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Stoner,
Such blatently draconian legislation will lead to an uprising of the masses. A million shoe march! Arm and arm and lace in lace we will march/stumble down Constitution Ave. singing “We Shall Overcome!”
I for one am ready to start a black market business in shoes. Between the my daughter, and wife I have a ready made trove on hand and will begin selling pumps, sneakers boots and sliipers at $250 a sole.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Jacob, I have a 22 pound cat that could probably take out any adult male if thrown properly. He’s not rabid but he can get really mean.
BTW, Bush has excellent reflexes, and his quip of “All I can report is a Size 10″ was fantastic.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:29 am
C-mac,
I recommend strongly that this feline be taken to the next Loudon BOS cricus and launched at the first one of the members of that loathsome body to utter a banal stupiditity. This should take all of five minutes at most.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
jacob,
“I am sure the American public will met out the apropos punishment to our off-the-reservation political class.”
Practicing the Bush Doctrine here, I like it..
December 16th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
22 lbs? Meeeow!
December 16th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I’m with herndongeezer on this. It does disrespect the office and the nation,
Back when, we had the civil rights movement. That was a good thing. And we came to resolve and showed the world that legitament protests have value and good ends. Then we had the radicals with civil unrest (riots, bombings and war protests of the 60’s and 70’s). That was a bad thing in the sense that this nation caved to a radical rule. It has only gone downhill from there. We brought this on ourselves by allowing it to happen. The world sees us as weak and thinks that the citizenry hates our nation. Ask any politician who tramples on America. Ask any news media who does the same. It is one thing to protest the injustices of the government (specifically those individuals in political power who need to be called to the carpet) and it is another to trash this country as a whole. How do you expect the rest of the world to react. The UN wants us to dissolve our sovereignty and come in-line with the rest of the socialist world. Bolton acted correctly but that time is now gone.
Remember the Soviet Union? With all its faults and all its lies, you would never see bad press from Pravda knocking the nation….even if it should have. This is the only country we have and even with all the idiocy that goes on here, I wouldn’t trade it for any other. I think that those who would should leave. We would be better off for it. We need to punish those that tear this country down with whatever available law-abiding means. America ain’t perfect but it is far better than any alternative I have seen. We should not allow the disgracing of our highest office or our nation. It sets presidence that we cannot soon recover from. Not a sermon, just a thought!
December 16th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Three stooges throwing pies at Bush, pretty funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua05RTaDE8o
December 16th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
The 22 pounds cat’s name is Dean Martin, he is the head of a cat pack here in my neighborhood.
As Blago would say “Don’t F**k with Dean Martin the cat.”
December 16th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
ACT, don’t get me wrong, I’d like to have seen someone walk up to the journalist, pull out a .45 and shoot him in the head. I don’t care who does the shooting, just as long as the guy is shot.
I’m still hoping he gets shot, or at least tortured real horrorshow for a while.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
ACT, Joe,
I am not for shooting the shoe throwing imbecile. A good beating, sure. But death?!?
Look, rioting is an American tradition. We had riots in the 1840’s, a few rebellions before that, that involved guns, shooting home and crop burnings etc. We survived. Not allowing protest against the dolts in office is a bad thing.
Considering how pathetically immature Arab culture is this is about the best we can hope for. Who knows, in 200 years they might get around to penning their equivalent of the magna carta and then something that reads ‘We hold these truths to be self evident …’
This is a culture that is currently very primitive. They are racially prejudiced in a way that is far more extreme that we realize or imagine. They are fighting a war that we called ‘the 30 years.’
That they understood algebra once upon a time is nice, that was ~800 years ago. They never recovered from the mongol invasion. The Ottoman and Seljuk conquests did help Arab culture either. This is a group that suffers from a major inferiority complex.
Killing one of the ones that throws shoes is to kill one of the more evolved specimens.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Good observations, Jacob. I still say the guy should be shot, but I feel I understand him better now and maybe he should just be shot in the leg.
December 17th, 2008 at 2:29 am
I’m glad this guy set a precedent. I have a pair of heels that have Barney Frank’s name on them.
President Bush handled this so well. I just loved his comback (I think he even gave the guy the benefit of the doubt on the “size 10″ thing) and he’s REALLY fast on his feet.
This “journalist” deserves the fat lip (and broken bones) I’m sure he got.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:53 am
As Austin Powers said to Random Task after being hit in the forehead by the shoe that RT thew at him, “Who throws a shoe? Honestly!”
http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/who-throws-a-shoe/
December 17th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Jacob,
Unlike Joe, I don’t want him killed for throwing a shoe. Maybe flogged raw, cut and salt in the wound, electric shock but only for the degradation and contempt to a state leader and that office. Being as Iraq is still “primative” and the Republican Guard/Hussein-lovers are still within the government, I feel secure in the unspoken knowledge that this disrespectful twerp is being dealt with appropriately and without American intervention or interfearence.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Hilarious post, Joe.