Lest we become callous to the pleasures of freedom we all share with one another in the world, we might reflect upon the plight of Muntadar al-Zaidi.  He's the Iraqi journalist who threw both of his shoes at President Bush in December 2008. 

al-Zaidi is a kind of hero.  Maybe not on the level of Hercules or Spider-Man, but al-Zaidi demonstrated an indomitable part of the human spirit to express itself to the world on the day he threw his shoes at 'W.' 

Muntadar al-Zaidi is still in jail.

He's been in jail for over a month for throwing shoes at the President of the United States of America.  He threw shoes in a country where a bomb flying at the President had better odds of happening.  al-Zaidi threw his shoes and apparently got his butt whipped pretty good.  It's unclear whether his bruises manifested before or after he got to jail.  So he's had his ass handed to him and he's spent over a month in lock up. 

Let the guy out already!

He's probably learned his lesson by now.  (I think the lesson might be: Don't mess with the Man!)  Muntadar al-Zaidi seems to have started a fashion trend though.  Hurling shoes at public officials is all the craze with the kids.  Badrya Darwish from the Kuwait Times notes two other occurences of public shoe throwing taking place at Cambridge and in the Egyptian parliament. 

It seems we have a couple of options here.  We can overeact and ban shoes from all public events, as suggested by Darwish; or we can crack down really hard on these offenders and show the enemy we won't stand for their tactics.  If we do things that way, we can forget that they are us.  This guy threw a shoe. 

The situation doesn't need a dissertation.

He threw a shoe and he shouldn't still be in jail.  If anything, they should keep him longer for not hitting Bush; however, to continue keeping him jailed for just throwing shoes is ridiculous.

Free Muntadar al-Zaidi!