I always like airports at Christmas time, when families reunite, and the air is thick with shoes.

(in regards to Bush’s secret trip to Iraq)
“The goal: keep Bush and his entourage safe on the trip to Iraq. Surprise is a favorite tactic of the Secret Service in a war zone.”

So they just reported that their particular goal was to keep him SAFE? And that they use SURPRISE TO DO THIS?

#facepalm

A while ago there was a group of cab drivers protesting a measure city hall was getting set to pass in Edmonton Alberta. I stopped to get one of the cabbies to explain the issue to me, and caught a lovely staged moment in which a group of (I guess Arab) cabbies brought out a coffin with some suitable text on it to make it clear it represented burying the legislation (not, say, the mayor), and then took off their shoes and whaled on the coffin with the soles. It looked like fun.

I do hope everyone realizes this event coverage was heavily edited. In actual fact, Bush grabbed a small child and held him up as a shield after the first shoe was hurled.

So I am unsurprised shoe-throwing is such a sign of contempt.

I would imagine the custom originated in a time when most people’s shoes would have camel poop on them.

…I wonder if a similar thing happened in Victorian England?

Not like here in the west, where it’s a gesture of affection.

Really? I’m pretty sure he was saying, “Thank you for visiting our country and building such a large embassy! Here, take my shoes as a gift so you don’t hurt your feet as you walk through the rubble on your way out.”

This does raise a question: what is profane in America? Swishing someone’s toothbrush in the toilet and putting it back?

i dont think i could dodge the first one..

In the choice between complaining about what happened or taking steps to fix it, I would prefer to look for a way to fix it. But feel free to keep on complaining. Maybe one day your words will even motivate you to action.

Let me rephrase: what is “unclean” in America?

You stink palm him. Small price to pay for the smiting of one’s enemies.

If an American threw a shoe at Bush in the US, it would obviously be seen as impolite — and probably a bit strange. But it doesn’t carry the same obvious depth of cultural meaning with it as it does in this context. I think news organizations are right to point out that shoe-throwing has some additional history and meaning in this part of the world.

In actual fact, Bush grabbed a small child and held him up as a shield after the first shoe was hurled.

For those unfamiliar with Western mores, grabbing a small child is tolerated only when the grabber is a serving or prospective politician intent on securing a photo opportunity, whereas in any other context it is likely to result in an arrest for child abuse.

In other words, I don’t disagree with the idea of explaining that shoes, particularly soles, have special symbolic weight in Arab culture. But I do think that even well-meaning Westerners have a tendency to “anthropologize” (if you will) Middle Eastern culture, making it seem more alien and different from us than it actually is.

The thing is, the headlines I’ve seen, particularly in this post, do the former, not the latter. I’ve seen little to no exoticization of this subject. The headlines above are entirely explanitory and based in fact. The Whopper Virgins commercials? Now there’s exoticization. I agree that there is a lot of exoticization in American culture, it stems from our xenophobia and exceptionalism, but this is not an example of.

“Meow, meow, gobble, gobble.”

I wonder what they’ll do to that guy: summary execution or a medal?