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December 19, 2008

Security Cartoon: Overly Specific Countermeasures

Posted on December 19, 2008 at 2:08 PM • 21 Comments

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Comments

Amusing indeed. But I have never understood why anyone would want to actually attend a Bush press conference. The only privilege that gets you is the outside chance of asking a question of your own. But he isn't going to answer any of the questions that are asked anyway! Instead, he is going to make a little speech on a subject of his own choosing - like all politicians.

The real fun is reading what he says, which can be done later over the Internet from another continent.

Posted by: Tom Welsh at December 19, 2008 2:58 PM

Now, that is funny!

In all fairness, I think the President handled the incident well. (Once my coworker across the hall reads that, I may be ducking his shoes!)

But that's a great comic. :)

Have a nice weekend!

Posted by: HJohn at December 19, 2008 3:12 PM

Let's not forget that if you replace President Bush with a Boeing 767 then this suddenly becomes 100% true-to-life.

Posted by: Michael Ash at December 19, 2008 3:13 PM

That was the funniest thing I have seen this week! It's the obvious counter-measure to take given the TSA's obsession with shoes.

Posted by: peri at December 19, 2008 3:15 PM

I don't know why this shoe thing is getting so much attention in the media. President Bush once had a live hand grenade lobbed at him during one of his appearances, and I don't remember seeing any significant media coverage of *that*.

Posted by: moo at December 19, 2008 3:35 PM

Actually, as soon as I saw the words "Overly Specific Countermeasures . . . At President Bush's press conferences", I knew what the cartoon would be about.

Posted by: Anonymous at December 19, 2008 3:37 PM

Actually, as soon as I saw the words "Overly Specific Countermeasures . . . At President Bush's press conferences", I knew what the cartoon would be about.

(sorry, didn't mean to be anonymous)

Posted by: jbl at December 19, 2008 3:38 PM

The difference was the grenade did not go off. The shoes on the other hand were already off ;-)

Posted by: Gary at December 19, 2008 3:39 PM

arrghh.. all i can think of it the SMELL

Posted by: Brenda at December 19, 2008 3:42 PM

For me, the funniest thing is that the media felt obliged to explain that throwing a shoe at someone is considered highly insulting in Iraq (as it it would not be highly insulting if it happened in the US, Europe, or anywhere else).

Posted by: Joe Buck at December 19, 2008 5:23 PM

@Joe Buck: in some countries, throwing a shoe at someone is part of the mating ritual, so don't judge too quickly ...

Posted by: Henry the Horse at December 19, 2008 6:15 PM

@Henry

Call me a nay-sayer, but you didn't hear that from the horse's mouth.

Posted by: Ed at December 19, 2008 7:03 PM

"In all fairness, I think the President handled the incident well."

Agreed. I wish he'd handle the aftermath as well, as well.

Posted by: Bruce Schneier at December 19, 2008 8:27 PM

"For me, the funniest thing is that the media felt obliged to explain that throwing a shoe at someone is considered highly insulting in Iraq (as it it would not be highly insulting if it happened in the US, Europe, or anywhere else)."

Yes, but -- to be fair -- shoes are a particular thing in parts of the world: more insulting than throwing something else of equal heft and size. Kind of like throwing rotten tomatoes would be in the U.S.: it's pretty icky being thrown in any culture, but in the U.S. there's extra metaphor.

Posted by: Bruce Schneier at December 19, 2008 8:29 PM

My first thought was, "That looks rather like my office."

In Japan, of course one always leaves one's shoes at the entranceway ("genkan") of a home, and home parties tend to look just like the cartoon. Not so well known is that some smaller and/or older offices do the same, and guests are given slippers at the door.

cjs@cynic.net

Posted by: Curt Sampson at December 21, 2008 12:23 AM

I think that some policymaker somewhere has a bit of a fetish...

As for the shoe incident, those lightning fast reactions on the part of President Bush were truly inspirational. I also think that his reaction may indicate that he's had inanimate objects thrown at him in the past.

Posted by: John Waters at December 22, 2008 4:03 AM

I'm not sure if ducking is the most presidential response. I'd almost rather see a John Wayne approach and shoot the guy before the other shoe drops.

Posted by: Cowboy at December 22, 2008 9:15 AM

@Varsity: "He handled it well only because he's clueless"

Nice personal insult. Truly an intellectual assessment on your part.

@John Waters: "As for the shoe incident, those lightning fast reactions on the part of President Bush were truly inspirational. I also think that his reaction may indicate that he's had inanimate objects thrown at him in the past."

Probably just reflexes. Most people would duck. I was impressed that he called off his protective detail and prevented it from becoming a bigger scene. He also made light of it, "I saw his sole." It has made for some good comics, like the one above which is funny, but some people just make too big of an issue out of it.

@Cowboy: "I'm not sure if ducking is the most presidential response. I'd almost rather see a John Wayne approach and shoot the guy before the other shoe drops."

Cute. Then again, could you imagine the media coverage and comics on that response? LOL

Merry Christmas, bloggers.

Posted by: HJohn at December 22, 2008 12:31 PM

Is it just me or does "Bush Shoe" and "Bushuru" sound too similar? Like father, like son .. sort of. (Bushuru: look it up if you don't remember).

Posted by: craig at December 22, 2008 9:12 PM

A funny sidestory to this is that the manufacturer of the shoes in question have seen sales of that particular model skyrocket from 40.000 in December last year to 370.000 this year, 19.000 of which are destined to the US.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/12/23/...

Posted by: Robin Eriksson at December 23, 2008 1:44 AM

The link to the graphic is dead, but the 404 error probably gives away too much detail from a security perspective:

ERROR
The requested URL could not be retrieved

While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/...

The following error was encountered:

Connection to 10.70.240.75 Failed

The system returned:

(111) Connection refused

The remote host or network may be down. Please try the request again.

Your cache administrator is root.
Generated Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:00:53 GMT by pilsener.ni.news.com.au (squid/2.6.STABLE6)

Posted by: Gerrit Bos at July 29, 2011 3:05 PM