For years, we Americans have had the threat of "shoe bombs" made clear

[specimenfred1984]

and yet, a guy throws 2 shoes at the president and nobody acts as if there is even a chance they are bombs. Doesn't that strike anyone as being odd as hell?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. There was a discussion yesterday

about how he was able to launch both shoes before being taken down. Hope was expressed that the Obama SS detail would be more on the ball.

[yardwork]

2. Yes, it bothers me. We have to take our shoes off at the airport.

Why was someone able to throw not one but TWO objects at the president before secret service stopped him? Very strange.

[stillcool]

3. What I find really odd...

is that Iraqi's still behave like Iraqi's in Iraq. Haven't we bombed these customs out of them yet?

Dec 06, 2005
Iraq Parliamentary Elections: Allawi Gets The Boot

If you recall, Najaf is the home base of Moktada al-Sadr, now a coalition partner in the main Shi'ite electoral slate, the United Iraqi Alliance. Also, Najaf was the scene of a military standoff in August 2004 between U.S. troops and al-Sadr's militia. As the Prime Minister at the time, Allawi, a secular Shi'ite (and ex-C.I.A. operative) stood solidly behind the U.S. effort.


It may have been because he interrupted a funeral. (In the third shot from the top, you can see a casket being led out the entrance with Allawi's contingent just beyond.) The yellow circles in the next two shots are not thought bubbles. They are evidentiary circles drawn to point out how Allawi and company were run off in a hail of shoes.

I guess Allawi's Ba'athist past doesn't make him the most popular guy in more religious Shi'ite strongholds. Many cultures have unique rituals of social denunciation. In Iraq, as I'm told, the throwing of shoes is the single worst insult that a person can make.
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2005/12/iraq_parliament.html

[TwilightGardener]

4. My husband heard that SS wasn't even in the room. This guy should

have been approached as soon as he stood up with something in his hand--he should have been on the floor before that second shoe, at the very least. Scary.