Comments on: And He Thought The Irish Reporter Was Tough

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:59:28 +0000

The limit on images was a spam related thing, but I noticed that you didn’t get “moderated”, so maybe that’s over too.

Yeah, I expect the “shoe” to follow the Shrubbery for a very long time, and if JEB runs for the Florida Senate, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to have people take some old flip-flops to his events.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:21:25 +0000

Oh... and speaking of games the incident has generated, you mean like this one? :D Sock and Awe Must be Christmas! LOL The gift that just keeps on giving... yeah!

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:02:36 +0000

Well, I just had to post this (and to test out your new hipparchia soporific) ;) Thanks to Logan Murphy at C&L.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:21:56 +0000

Patrols have been bombarded with shoes in Fallujah and other cities. People are out in the street, the parliament is becoming more about brawling than talking, a Saudi has offered $10 million for the shoes, rival cobblers are claiming to have made them – things are certainly stirred up and provincial elections are on the horizon.

There are, of course, a number of shoe throwing games already up on the ‘Net in multiple languages.

If the guy makes it out of the Iraqi “justice” system alive, he will have no trouble getting a job.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:37:50 +0000

Hmmmm. Maybe someone finally made Bushmoron understand what happened. From a BBC news report on YouTube, via C&L: Shoe Throwing Reporter's Brother Say He Has Been Severely Injured! It's also curious that nobody really seems to understand how serious and important the incident was. The Iraqi reporter has become a hero to many angry Iraqi's who were just waiting for an excuse to do something about their anger and frustrations. If in fact he has been mistreated and harmed, it could blow up in everyone's faces. If people thought Iraq was divided before, it has the potential with this single event to become a lot worse. It's also obvious that the Brit's (some of them anyway) are enjoying it. :)

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:42:23 +0000

I would really like to know if we are paying the salary of a White House “protocol officer”, because that has been a standard job for years, informing the President of the cultural norms of others to avoid embarrassing situations. If there is one, I want the salary re-paid, because this is the least culturally aware White House we have ever had, and that includes Andy Jackson, who was about as crude as any American who ever visited another country wearing plaid Bermuda shorts and a straw hat.

He really doesn’t understand that he was insulted.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:05:58 +0000

You are correct Bryan. Before each ME mission I undertook, we were given an awareness refresher course by two ME experts (one was a Turk, the other a Soudi). We were also told always to keep our feet flat on the ground. There was only one exception ever, when kneeling for prayers with head bowed facing East (and that exception was mainly for Westerners because we generally wore trousers that couldn’t be pulled over our feet to hide them as they could with their Thobe & Jubba robes etc. Though if we were in prayer and couldn’t hide our feet, we were expected to do so at the very back to minimize the risk of insult. Some people are very easily insulted. and Not all Imam’s (or fundi Muslims) approve of the exception.

They showed the incident on out evening news, and the Bushmoron was making jokes about it and genuinely didn’t seem to care. The guy is so awesomely ignorant and stupid it boggles the mind. Most of the news pundits here have been joking also, with things like “The Iraq press just gave G.W. Bush the boot”. etc. LOL

What’s that saying… No sense, no feelings? What a moron.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:59:43 +0000

I get a definite feeling you’re right, Andante. I don’t think he understands that feuds and wars have started over the action because it is considered so insulting.

They have to explain it, Steve, because they don’t understand it, and assume that everyone is just as ignorant as they and their President are.

In the Air Force “cultural awareness” pamphlet for the Middle East, they warned us not to cross our legs when sitting because we might expose the sole of a shoe “which is highly insulting in the Arabic culture”. I was in the Air Force in the 1960s and 70s. When the Air Force puts it in a pamphlet, it is not exactly a little known fact. It generally indicates more than one major incident as a result of the behavior.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:41:22 +0000

I know Josh Marshall’s name is not a welcome sight on this site, so I won’t link the post, but his quip was just too good to pass up:

Throwing a shoe at someone doesn’t signal respect in the Arab world the way it does in ours.

Right… why does the insulting nature of the gesture require explaining by all our pundits?

By: andante

andante — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:55:40 +0000

I doubt our sorry excuse for a president even realizes he has been insulted. He probably thinks the guy threw shes because he couldn`t bring flowers.