A new case of flying footwear has occurred. This time the Prime Minister of China was targeted during a speech at Cambridge University. The shoe landed a few feet from Premier Wen Jiabao to which he briefly paused and then said, “This despicable behavior cannot stand in the way of friendship between China and the UK.”

The repugnant shoe thrower was immediately dragged from the auditorium as he howled, “How can the university prostitute itself with this dictator?”

I guess people are going to have to start taking off their shoes at more places than just the airport if this keeps up.

Col. Ralph Peters has an excellent column in the NY Post today about the disgraceful shoe throwing journalist. Peters makes the point that shoes being thrown at the president in Iraq means we won. There is no other country in the Middle East in where such a free wheeling press conference would be tolerated. If such an act were to occur at a press conference in Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, or any other country in the region with the exception of Israel the shoe tosser would almost certainly lose his life –and his family might as well.

Peters goes on to point out that the only reason the so-called ‘journalist’ did what he did was because he knew he would get away with it. So the very democracy he curses and spits upon is what allowed him to disrespect our president and live to tell about it.

It’s also worth noting that the shoe thrower is a supporter of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his family has a poster of Che Guevara on their wall. So democracy is clearly something they don’t get. However, if the shoe throwing journalist would like to throw something at our troops when he gets out of jail I’m sure they can arrange a meeting for him with say — 72 virgins.

-Chris Jones