The office of the presidency deserves some respect

Even if the president IS George W. Bush, possibly the worst president ever, the office of the presidency itself deserves some respect.

So, the fact that a journalist threw two shoes at W during a press conference deserves some condemnation.

Looking a bit further, though, I see this was an Iraqi journalist (shoe size 10) and there may have been some symbolism:

"Correspondents said the attack was symbolic. Iraqis threw shoes and used them to beat Saddam Hussein's statue after his overthrow."

And then there is the small matter than hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in various ways since the US invasion, millions are in exile, and we've been caught on film using torture -- without any military higher-ups being sentenced.

Mr Maliki, Iraqi television journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi stood up and shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," before hurling a shoe at Mr Bush which narrowly missed him.

Showing the soles of shoes to someone is a sign of contempt in Arab culture.

With his second shoe, which the president also managed to dodge, Mr Zaidi said: "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq."