Shoe Me Once, Shame On You. Shoe Me Twice... We Won't Get Shoed Again

I can't stop blogging!
I thought the post I just did about An American Carol would be my only one of the day, but this was too good to pass up. These last three posts have actually been a triptych (in honor of Benjamin Busch) documenting things that are so amazing they need no parody.

When I got home tonight and turned to CNN, I was treated to the information that an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at George Bush today (apparently "one of the ULTIMATE insults an Arab can make"... besides, you know, blowing you up).



Symbolic actions like this rarely hit the intended mark, in my view. A lot of times somebody making a big scene to call attention to a cause or belief will either interrupt or hinder something that's actually working towards their aim or put off supporters by the sheer callousness. But here, it's really pretty perfect, isn't it? It's not like it interrupted some peace talk that might be actually taking us somewhere - Ol' GW is just over in Iraq to give some face-time while he's counting down his last days. And I don't know how put off any Iraqis could be - even if shoe-throwing is the ULTIMATE insult - considering the even ULTIMATER insult of fucking up a war in their country.

Let's look at what CNN has to say:

The shoe-thrower -- identified as Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist with Egypt-based al-Baghdadia television network -- could be heard yelling in Arabic: "This is a farewell ... you dog!"

While pinned on the ground by security personnel, he screamed: "You killed the Iraqis!"

Al-Zaidi was dragged away. While al-Zaidi was still screaming in another room, Bush said: "That was a size 10 shoe he threw at me, you may want to know."

What a great response! "You killed Iraqis!" "Hey, that guy threw a pretty big shoe at me. That could have really hurt! Must have pretty big feet, heh heh."

"So what if the guy threw his shoe at me?" Bush told a reporter in response to a question about the incident.

Yeah, so what? People throw things at him all the time! Maybe nobody told him it was the ULTIMATE insult...

"Let me talk about the guy throwing his shoe. It's one way to gain attention. It's like going to a political rally and having people yell at you. It's like driving down the street and having people not gesturing with all five fingers. ...

"These journalists here were very apologetic. They ... said this doesn't represent the Iraqi people, but that's what happens in free societies where people try to draw attention to themselves."

I bet if they still had a dictatorship nobody would be embarrassing the country like that. Maybe those Taliban guys have a point...




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Just below on the CNN homepage: McCain Won't Say He'd Back Palin For President.

McCain was pressed on why he can't promise support for the woman who, just months ago, he named as the second best person to lead the nation.

"Have no doubt of my admiration and respect for her and my view of her viability, but at this stage, again ... my corpse is still warm, you know?" he replied.

Yes John, we know.

The Three W's

So I was trying to find trailers to watch for Oliver Stone's new historical clusterfuck, W. I can't say that I love Oliver Stone's films - Natural Born Killers was alright but Platoon is way overrated - but I'm definitely fascinated by his gall. He makes history films in broad strokes with little regard for reality. His attitude is even evident in his casting - James Cromwell is awesome but he is no George H.W. and Anthony Hopkins is a great actor, but he sure as hell isn't Richard Nixon. There's a surrealism in seeing famous actors playing even more famous historical figures. It takes a lot of balls, too, and I'm really curious about how/if it pays off at all.

In looking for the trailers on youtube I stumbled across even more strangeness. First, one of the official W. trailers:



Then someone's bizarre pet project full of spliced films, newsreels and soundbytes (and Zeppelin!). It's baffling to me why this was made, but even more interesting in the way that it works. There's no denying how cinematic George Bush's story is. (For the record, you only really need to watch the first 30-45 seconds of this to get the point, though the end is pretty good).



And lastly, and most importantly, I ran into this trailer for a completely different W. which I'll let speak for itself.



Which film would you rather watch? Fiction, non-fiction or whatever that last one is?


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On a similar note, did anyone else see McCain and Obama doing stand-up comedy and roasting each other at the Al Smith dinner??? Since when does this happen? Has the world gone mad?

It reminds me of this Onion article: World Leaders Gather to Roast Mahmoud Ahmadinejad