Monday, December 15, 2008

Slapstick

I'll confess I took a little un-Buddhist pleasure at the "Size 10" shoe attack that made a world-wide hit in the media and on the Internet yesterday. And I'll also agree that the recipient took it, apparently, with good humor. Although, when you think about it, this is the President of the United States, for God's sake, subjected to an insult whose implications he barely understood except as slapstick, pie-in-the-face comedy. It also seems a curious irony, doesn't it, that the assailant was thrown in jail for exercising one of his newly-found, Bush-facilitated freedoms. He had these ungrateful words for his liberator: "This is a farewell kiss, you dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." The miscreant, apparently, is not without support from those agitating for his release.

A friend, meanwhile, sent me a link to this other attack, which I think you'll enjoy just as much.

4 comments:

roger said...

here's an idea

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/12/shoes_for_christmas.php

*Donate a pair of shoes to the local charity of your choice.
*Send Bush a postcard, stating, "A pair of shoes has been donated to the needy in your name. This is a farewell kiss from the American people, you dog."

the other attack to which you link could be a metaphor for bush's behavior.

am i imagining that i read a tale of a zen master whacking a disciple with a stick to make some point? the point of the shoe thrower seems lost on bush, but not on the rest of us.

Anonymous said...

What Roger said!

Peter Clothier said...

The Zen master whacks with a stick to shock the nodding sitter back into awareness. Would that the flying shoe had achieved the same with Bush...

Anonymous said...

I don't think there will ever be a way to make Bush wake up.