Had I been President Bush, I would have picked up both shoes, thanked the guy for giving them to me, then sold them on E-bay and gave the money to charity!

steelman on December 25, 2008 at 1:04 PM

I do SO like the way you think.
__________

Yeesh.

tartan on December 25, 2008 at 6:12 PM

Took a shower, did some thinking, and realized how hypocritical it is for me to give my President advice that I myself find difficult to follow. I’m eating crow tonight for Christmas dinner.

In a muslim world, a man gets 15 years in prison for throwing a shoe. In a Christian world, our judicial system reflects the forgiveness with a sense of balance.

I should mention that I’m not knowledgeable about the relationship between law and religion in muslim countries. I was just really surprised to hear that the shoe thrower was facing 15 years according to the wsj article.

The entire incident is a youtube generation endorsement of the war, and how we can determine it’s success. It’s laughably obvious that this man would have had his own head handed back to him on a platter, to say nothing of his family, if he had done this to one of the foreign guests of Saddam. Why lose the opportunity to put that reality in ink?

By pardoning this man, Bush extends Christ to him. And gives this man and his muslim supporters something else to think about besides their own totally misguided anger. In a muslim world, a man gets 15 years in prison for throwing a shoe. In a Christian world, our judicial system reflects the forgiveness with a sense of balance. We don’t need to send someone away for throwing a shoe. It’s a petty act. We get that. They don’t. To them, it’s all about Ego, and being humiliated. Jesus was humiliated. He was also King. – “Forgive them Father, they know not what they do”. Luke 23:34

It’s good to see this here on Christmas Day. I’m struggling with my own Christianity today because of my seeming unwillingness to forgive on a personal issue. But Christ asks me to forgive 77 times. How do I celebrate His Birth today and reject what He has asked me to do? I struggle. Following Christ is easy except when it’s difficult.

I’m not big on forgiveness, I’m a firm believer in an eye for an eye. Hang this bastard from the neck until dead. The USSS should have put a few rounds into him at the press conference.

Mooseman on December 25, 2008 at 9:22 AM

WOW you have a different idea of an eye for an eye than most.

Think about it. Bush gets obeisance from a hero of the Muslim world. It doesn’t get any better.

Even better would be a penance in which a representative of Bush gets to throw two shoes at al-Zaidi [al-Zaidi gets to duck, and, if we are to be truly sporting, also gets a goalee to fend off the shoes].

The guy can always recant afterward, but, in recanting, he shows that he’s a liar, and that will certainly take his shine off.

So, with an apology, Bush is victorious, in a way that’s got to resonate in the Muslim world.

Creating a situation where Iraqis fought alongside Americans and not only defeated but humiliated al Qaeda was not a good thing?

lodge, you are a moron of the first order.

No.

I love easy questions.

I don’t think Bush looks half as ridiculous as the shoe thrower himself. I mean, come on…throwing shoes?? Who does that?

is their country, let them deal with it. We should show no further reaction to the stunt.

Why let him off and let the budding Arab politicians with democratic leanings have to endure such abuse By pardoning, we are saying it is acceptable.

Limpet6 on December 24, 2008 at 2:51 PM

I agree.

Bush should request that the charges be “dropped if possible, or else reduced to disorderly conduct or a low-grade assault, and the forceful and energetic manner of the arrest be considered when sentence is passed.” The perp sits in jail for a couple of weeks while his bruises heal up and he tries not to get awarded any new ones, Bush is a good guy, the rule of law is preserved, and when the perp gets out the media will be talking about something else, so the perp doesn’t get another platform.

Take a look at Robert Mugabe. Why aren’t you clamoring for us to go remove him?

lodge on December 24, 2008 at 3:48 PM

I never said invading Iraq was necessary to save the poor Iraqis from Saddam. I said it was because Saddam, and his crew, posed such a grave threat to us. I disagree, strongly, with Bush’s idea that self-rule with individual freedoms could work in the arab world, let alone the muslim arab world with major populations of 3 warring muslims groups packed together near some of the greatest power on Earth (the oi fields). If Bush turns out to have been correct, then the benefit reaped will be gigantic, so I give Bush the credit for making a long-odds bet that has a tremendous payout possibility – totally game-changing. But I think Iraq will descend into chaos, or worse, as soon as US pressure is sufficiently lessened. I hope I’m wrong.

From my view, one of the weakest parts of the Iraq War was not defending it on purely strategic grounds, with the idea of giving the Iraqis “democracy” (a very unfortunate concept to champion, as the US is built NOT to be a “democracy”, as I’m sure most here are well-aware) being secondary, if even that. But Bush decided to push the “democracy” point and began to try and justify the war on that account, which was wrong and confused the issue for the public.

The Iraqis showed how much trouble they were going to be, right at the beginning, when they chose a moronic Euro-style party-oriented parliamentary system instead of adopting the US Constitutional structure. They were building an entire government from scratch, and they chose an outdated, unstable, structure with the added disadvantage of having the largest powers of government being easily concentrated to the control of a very small group. At that point, it was clear that many, many people were not thinking clearly about this whole issue. At least that’s how things struck me. We’ll see how it all plays out. The next 2 years will pose serious tests of the structures built.

Say ‘Here’s your chance buddy…let’s go’.

Silliness aside…do you think he’d accept???

And who would you bet on??

I personally don’t think he would and if he did, Bush would stomp a mud hole in his ass.