Monday, December 15, 2008

Shoe-capades

In case you hadn't heard, an Iraqi reporter chucked his wing tips at Dubya. In Arab cultures this ain't exactly a form of friendly greeting. I get that the dude is pissed and has much to be upset about, it isn't like we have left his country in better shape.

I admit that I giggled, somewhat profusely, when I first heard of the shoe throwing. I mean come on, if anyone deserves a good bean on the head it is Bush. The problem comes when we consider what good such a display does. Most of us just want to forget that Bush is still "in charge" and move on to the next chapter. (According to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 79% of us won't be missing Bush come January 21, 2009. Additionally, the same poll shows that people aren't even coping to voting for the man anymore. Welcome, gentle readers to a little bit of revisionist theatre.)

So dude with the size 10 dogs has reminded us that Bush is still in charge. Great, thanks and merry Christmas to you too. Second, he has actually created some sympathy for Dubya, something I can never quite cotton to. Although it does seem a bit late in the game to be staging petulant protests if you ask me. Seven years into the quagmire that has become Iraq, part of me would expect the Iraqis to simply be immune to it all at this point, but I suppose one never gets immune to occupation. Sadly, this was one time that Bush managed to not only not look like an idiot, but didn't sound like one entirely either. Now that doesn't make my morning oatmeal sit well at all.

Finally, I guess it all just seemed like an act of desperation, and unfortunately I think we as Americans need to be gearing up for a lot more of those in our future. My good friend and fellow blogger on life matters, Creative Kerfuffle, posted today about the general malaise that seems to be gripping us from sea to shining sea. I agree, things have been perkier. And with ugly incidents like what happened this morning in my hometown becoming more and more common as people's desperation and poverty collide, it is highly unlikely that people's moods are going to improve any time soon. And yet, the Pollyanna in me just won't die. (God knows I have tried to knife that snarky little bitch on
numerous occasions.)

So gentle reader, you may be asking, Broad how do you stay sunny side up? Well, I like to look to that paragon of rationality, Scarlett O'Hara in times like this, whose credo could be summed up as—you do what you have to do to survive and when it all gets to be too much you just say, "I'll think about that tomorrow, after all tomorrow is another day" and you pray that the next day dawns with a solution.

But you never, never throw your shoes.



5 comments:

creative kerfuffle said...

nice post : ) love the thing about killing that bitch pollyanna. and dude, you know i'm not a style maven but those shoes are fugly ; )

Rev Wes Isley said...

I guess you know that the throwing of the shoes is quite an insult in Iraq. It's like the middle finger. I seem to recall shoes were thrown when the statue of Saddam came down.

Personally, this made my morning. With all the revisions of Bush's tenure that are already underway, it was nice to be reminded of the good ol' days.

Nice Manolos by the way.

And can you believe the shooting at Old Navy? Crazy.

broad minded said...

Wes - yes it is a BIG insult and was done to Saddam's statue as well.

so far as the shoes, I don't know if they are the exact replicas of ones from SATC but they are very similar.

Anonymous said...

This is a fabulous post (I'll have to keep in mind the Scarlet O'Hara attitude when mine starts to dwindle, and lately, it seems to be dwindling more and more!). Have to say when good ole Robin Meade reported on the shoe-throwing incident yesterday morning, O'Brien was shouting at me to watch like we were seeing a rocket launched into space for the first time! What a great way to start the day.

broad minded said...

it is the little things that often bring us the most joy . . .