I bite my thumb... just not at you

As much fun as people like to make fun of President Bush, a small part of you still has to admire his poise (or at least his reflexes).

President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq yesterday, and was given a rather... unusual welcome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RFH7C3vkK4&NR=1

An Iraqi journalist stood up at the beginning of the press conference and threw both his shoes at the president (apparently this is the Iraqi equivalent of giving somebody the finger). The President ducked both projectiles (there were no Secret Service around to take the ... loafer? for the president? That's not exactly in the job description I guess), and chuckled about it in his usual affable (some people call it moronic) manner after the rest of the journalists in the room took the upstart into the street and beat him senseless.

President Bush turned the potentially injurious scenario into a commentary on the political change that has happened in Iraq in the last several years. Can you imagine if that reporter had thrown shoes at Saddam Houssein? Instead of being escorted outside by his peers, he would have disappeared into a political prison, where he would be starved, beaten, tortured, and eventually executed.

Instead, he throws his shoes at the sitting president of the most powerful nation in the world... and he's missing a pair of shoes.

Isn't democracy wonderful? You can do all sorts of moronic things in the name of free speech!

...

That Was Most Refreshing...

The wife and I went out to dinner the other night. We were hanging out, talking, doing what married people do when they go out to dinner. A restaurant employee came up and said, quote:

"can I refresh your drink?"

First of all: I was drinking root beer. I don't know how much a styrofoam cup half-full of root beer needs "refreshing," but whatever. Second of all: you, sir, work at Chik-Fil-A, not the Phoenician. Are you afraid your customers are so hoity-toity that if you don't say some form of the word "refreshing" when referring to their beverage they might get upset?

As a matter of fact, my beverage is not refreshing enough, please refresh me. Bring me another, and make it a little more refreshing this time. I need something with a little more freshness in it. If you have something of a more recent vintage, that would be superb.

I would like to meet the person that walks into Chik-Fil-A with the expectation of that kind of service so I can punch him in the throat.

Refresh this you dolt.