Kenneth Neill's Take: "If the Shoe Fits, Throw It!"
Has there ever been a public figure more deserving of humiliation than George W. Bush?
by Kenneth NeillArticle Tools
"This is a farewell kiss, dog," shouted Al Baghdadia television reporter Muntadar al-Zaidi, while hurling his brogands Sunday in the general direction of America's worst-ever President.
A relatively harmless gesture, yes, but a sweet one for millions of Iraqis, not to mention for hundreds of millions of other residents of Planet Earth who, for nearly a decade now, have yearned for a non-violent means of expressing their intense displeasure at the United States for America's having been governed by a mindless incompetent for eight ugly years.
But now that our long national nightmare of neocon nonsense is within weeks of ending, perhaps it's time to congratulate Mr. Muntadar for setting the tone for the George W. Bush post-presidency.
Ah, and such a time that will be! With the complete sang-froid of the idiot non-savant that he is, always has been, and always shall be, The Decider joked about Muntadar's shoe being a Size 10, unaware, perhaps, that (a) size doesn't matter, and (b) the die has been cast, and that he now has a special kind of foot-fetish future ahead of himself on the hustings.
Remember the president's famous “replenish the ol’ coffers” line in Thomas Draper's 2007 Dead Certain bio? Well, happily, Mr. Bush will now have more to put in that treasure chest than just dollars. Maybe he can cut a deal with Nike.
I suspect the Secret Service has a difficult task ahead of itself, one way or the other, as our Immediate Past President hits the road determined to make some real bucks. For wherever he goes on the post-presidential speaking-tour circuit, George W. Bush will have to duck for his supper as well as sing for it. Will his speaking tours require event organizers to tell attendees that they can only turn up at Bush-retrospective events if they come barefooted?
It's no fun, but if and when you get hit between the eyes with a shoe, you hardly can call yourself a victim of armed assault. Yes, you'll have a bigger shiner than if you were hit similarly with a cream pie, but the effect is more or less identical. The intent of the perps, in both cases, is to humiliate the recipient of their missiles, not injure them. The person "pied" or "shoed" is in no way maimed or incapacitated – rather, trivialized.
And has there ever been a public figure in American life more deserving of trivialization than George W. Bush? Has anyone ever been more worthy of complete humiliation on the public stage?
I think not. I do hope there's a Herbert Hoover family reunion somewhere this holiday season, so that the descendants of our ill-fated 31st President can celebrate his escape from the moldy basement where the reputation of the "worst President of all-time" historically gets put to rest. Someone should tell them to turn off the lights, and move upstairs, before the celebration gets out of hand.
Poor W. There are an awful lot of shoes in his future.
Kenneth Neill is the founding publisher of The Memphis Flyer.
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I never thought I'd imagine a parallel between Herbert Hoover and the 1972 Dolphins, but sure enough, there it is.
Mr. Muntadar , nice only one thing...You didn't get it in his mouth. You missed that huge mouth of his.
I don’t know if I’m more angry or appalled at this author’s blatant disrespect for the office of the President. Whether you like George W. Bush or not, condoning such an act of total irreverence to such an esteemed position is not only irresponsible but it is unpatriotic. I’m in no way a fan of Barak Obama, however, I can guarantee you if it were him dodging the size 10 I would still be outraged at the person who threw it. If you want to blame someone for this country’s problems, blame people like yourself who have forgotten what respecting others truly means, because that is in fact at the heart and soul of our nation's demise.
I hope they bronze the shoes and feature them in Bush's Presidential library. It'd be nice to show them to my grandkids someday and tell them how an unelected President threw billions of dollars of smart bombs at another country and all he got in return was a pair of loafers.
Doc, I respect the man, not the office. I do not bow to any king. The office of president is not automatically worthy of respect. If the president sullies his position of respect, he should lose that respect and become an object of ridicule - as a lesson to future presidents.
Our nation's demise? We've survived 8 years of neo-conservative incompetence and warmongering, I'd say things are looking up.
What a fitting final tribute to the most worst President in the history of the United States. The imagery of his ducking is the perfect ending to a montage that will be galvanized in the national collective mind along with "Mission Accomplished" and "Your Doing a Heckuva Job, Brownie". This bastard will be the most despises President of all. He makes Herbert Hoover look benevolent. Is The Flyer planning a "Our Long National Nightmare of the Reign of Bush is Over" party anywhere?
Irreverent? Esteemed? Unpatriotic? Docmartin needs to quit confusing democracy with idol worship. A country with a leader that can't be ridiculed, is a dictatorship.
Irreverent: disrespecting a man who represents an entire country. Esteemed: the highest held position in the U.S. government. Unpatriotic: supporting the childish actions of a foreign peon who disrespects the man who represents your country. You shouldn't worship the president, and he should be criticized for certain, but to make light of something so dishonorable is pitiful. And you want to talk dictatorship? I'd say socialist policies are definitely a step in that direction. And finally, Demise: we live in a time where people let radical ideals overshadow respect for others, both liberal and conservative alike; and we are going to keep spiraling down unless some people take the time to think and come back to reality. I can't imagine the greatest generation to ever live (the WWII generation) standing for something like this... let alone supporting and poking fun at it. Yet here we sit, a nation full of people with open hands demand respect before thinking twice about giving it first...
Yes, and let us not forget that the shoe thrower has most likely since been tortured for his actions.
That's one thing he was throwing his shoe at. If sanctioning torture isn't worthy of being pegged by a shoe, nothing is. It wasn't the shoe thrower who disrespected the office of president, it was the president himself who did that. He brought it on himself and should not be allowed to duck behind "respect the office of president" to avoid everything thrown his way.
Luckily, he won't have the office to hide behind much longer.
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