People I’d Like to Throw My Shoes At
Dec 14th, 2008 by dave
From today’s CNN:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A man identified as an Iraqi journalist threw shoes at — but missed — President Bush during a news conference Sunday evening in Baghdad, where Bush was making a farewell visit…
…Bush ducked, and the shoes, flung one at a time, sailed past his head during the news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in his palace in the heavily fortified Green Zone.
The shoe-thrower — identified as Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist with Egypt-based al-Baghdadia television network — could be heard yelling in Arabic: “This is a farewell … you dog!”
While pinned on the ground by security personnel, he screamed: “You killed the Iraqis!”
Al-Zaidi was dragged away. While al-Zaidi was still screaming in another room, Bush said: “That was a size 10 shoe he threw at me, you may want to know.”
Hurling shoes at someone, or sitting so that the bottom of a shoe faces another person, is considered an insult among Muslims.
Besides Bush, for invading Iraq on false pretenses, I’d like to throw my shoes at:
Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney: The real architects of the Iraq war.
The senior management teams of GM, Ford and Chrysler: For being greedy, stupid and arrogant simultaneously. The government, however, wants to throw money at them. Bad idea.
Speaking of our government, it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: I would need several truckloads of shoes to throw at a majority of our politicians right now for being stupid, greedy, arrogant, ignorant, and just plain self-serving jerks. Where is the leadership? Where is the wisdom? Where is the courage to stand up and tell people that life is full of downturns and disappointments, and that it shouldn’t be our government’s job to constantly reach into Santa’s bag and distribute goodies to the populace, especially whenever they’re close to election time?
The Republican political advisors and Republican National Committee heads: For being just stupid, mostly. They couldn’t get Abraham Lincoln, were he alive, elected today.
The heads of the banking and investment companies, with very few exceptions: For creating “funny money” mortgage-backed securities and other investment vehicles that all depended on the supposedly ever-increasing value of real estate. They then deserve a second round of shoes to the head for then encouraging math-challenged people with no common sense into ridiculous mortgages to expand the market even further.
On a similar note, the people who let themselves be talked into 110% mortgages, or other bizarre ways of allowing them to buy a house without even small change in their bank accounts. These folks deserve two shoes thrown at them, then another shoe, worn on the foot, directly upside their thick heads. What in the world were they thinking, anyway? Or were they thinking? What happened to the need to scrimp and save enough for a down payment, showing self-denial and a solid commitment to buying a house?
Ah well, the list could go on endlessly. We’re a world just full of people who’ve made incredibly bad decisions, aren’t we?
Lastly, I’d like all of the so-called Islamic terrorists, who think that murder and mayhem are somehow condoned by God or Allah, to be grouped into a nice, tight bunch, and then have one very, very large shoe stomp them all out!
OK, done with today’s rant. Thanks for playing…please come again.