What really happened in Iraq the other day...

On the subject of the ridiculous, someone e-mailed this to me the other day. It might go in the daily Believe It or Not one day, but I feel it's something that you are uniquely qualified to address in the mean time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_smoke_enema

For a wikipedia article, there's a surprising amount of citation.

Haha, funny stuff. Even the Iraqi prez looks like a member of the Three Stooges.

Any credits for this? Pretty well done. The Stooges did some pretty amazing political satire in their day, so it only makes sense to extrapolate to the current slapstick material.

I have always found the Three Stooges to be a sort of guilty pleasure. They're not intellectual comedy, not really politically relevant, very definitely politically incorrect, violent and rude. But somehow, they're just damn funny.

Why a guilty pleasure? They're just damned funny. At least the ones with Curly and, to a lesser extent, Shemp.

http://bushbash.flashgressive.de/

pretty cool :)

Not so cool are the alledged reports that the offending journalist has been severely beaten whilst in custody; so badly beaten in fact, that he is currently unable to stand trial. I sincerely hope this is not true.

c

Also not cool is that the Iraqi Parliament is apparently tying itself to the reporter. Seriously, he assaulted a foreign head of state. Now I hate Bush as much as the next Bush-hater, but throwing a shoe during a press conference? Even Olbermann was saying that suppose it wasn't a shoe and suppose it wasn't Bush. Not so funny anymore.

Agreed. In fact, I find it rather disturbing that, just because they hate Bush so much, a lot of people seem to think that throwing a fairly heavy object at a foreign head of state is acceptable behavior and bemoan his being locked up I'm not saying the guy should be beaten or mistreated, but a stiff jail sentence is entirely appropriate.

Picture if something like this were to happen several months from now to President Obama. The same people would suddenly find it not so funny.

In fact, I find it rather disturbing that, just because they hate Bush so much, a lot of people seem to think that throwing a fairly heavy object at a foreign head of state is acceptable behavior and bemoan his being locked up

I would tend to agree with you, at least as far as saying that throwing a shoe at a foreign head of state is not acceptable behavior--rude at the very least--except for one thing: it wasn't just al-Zaidi who got arrested. Two reporters were also arrested simply for saying that al-Zaidi had done a courageous thing--not the right, acceptable, or polite thing, but a courageous thing. That being so, I have this to say about the incident: May Allah bless the throwing arm of Muntadar al-Zaidi. May his aim improve. May he pick a softer, more embarrassing missile such as a cream pie* next time.

How would I feel if it were Obama? Depends on what Obama had done in the mean time, I guess. If he had invaded two countries, one on the flimsiest of trumped-up evidence, killed millions, and gutted civil rights in his own country and abroad, what the heck. A shoe would be the least he deserved.

*Yes, I know that throwing a shoe at someone has particular significance as about the worst possible insult in Iraqi culture, but Bush is a US-American. A good reporter should research the culture of the person he's planning to insult first so as to make sure the insult is properly delivered. And a cream pie would be more embarrassing to a US-American.

Larry, Moe and Curly are the stooges. Shemp is okay, but Joe DeRita and Joe Besser you can keep.

Guilty pleasure because... Never watch the three stooges with your girlfriend. "you can't think this is funny!"

As for the act of tossing a shoe at George W, I can understand the sentiment, but I don't agree with the act just on the principle of the thing.

I take your shoe-thowing incident and raise you this:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4yG8buxb0lg