I never imagined George Bush and I would be sharing war stories. This one was more in spirit than over spirits.

See, in the summer of 2007, I made my first trip to Israel. I was there on assignment, reporting on the reconstructive impact of American Jewish money in the year following the war with Hezbollah and also spending two days along the Gaza border. Between the border with Lebanon and the Negev, the group of journalists I was with made a stop in an Arab Israeli town where the Jewish Agency of the Joint -- I can't really remember -- supported a social services center.

The project didn't interest me much, but the surrounding poverty did. So I wandered off, roaming the neighborhood before stopping to watch a young boy and two girls play in the dirt.

When they noticed me, they shouted words I didn’t understand and took a few steps toward me. One of the kids was waving at me, holding some paper in their hand. This, I thought, was my invitation to go talk with these kids about their feelings about Jews. Not sure how I was going to accomplish that in Arabic, but I walked their way nonetheless.

The paper, it turned out, was money. I guess they thought that, based on my curly hair, I would drawn to a few bucks like a mouse to cheese. I tried to brush this affront off in the most embarrassing way—by engaging the children in some dialogue—at which point the little boy, maybe 8 years old, took off his sandal and held it up like he was going to swat me.

I recalled this experience two months ago, upon hearing that President Bush had had an even closer brush with the sole of an Arab shoe.

As a refresher: Bush was in Iraq to showcase recent security gains. While Bush was speaking at a press conference in the Green Zone, al-Zaidi, a young journalist, stood up, ripped off his right shoe and chucked it at the American president; his left shoe quickly followed, as did folk hero status for al-Zaidi. But so did jail time.

Al-Zaidi's trial, for assaulting a foreign dignitary, began Thursday. His defense: That Bush just made him so angry that he was overcome with rage.

"While he was talking I was looking at all his achievements," al-Zaidi said. "More than a million killed, the destruction and humiliation of mosques, violations against Iraqi women, attacking Iraqis every day and every hour. A whole people are saddened because of his policy, and he was talking with a smile on his face. So I reacted to this feeling by throwing my shoes. … It was spontaneous."

Bush was insulted a lot during his eight years in office. But being physically likened to the dirt beneath an Iraqi's foot had to rank among the worst. And unfortunately for the former president, he can't brush the attack off like I could: on curly hair and cultural prejudices.

Rabbi Robert Levine, author of What God Can Do for You Now, spent the past week guest-blogging on the Jewcy soap box.  He kicked off with some political commentary and a video of Sarah Palin in Saturday Night Live.  He reminisced over a childhood experience and what it taught him.  Then he moved back to the political realm with a post about your bubbie's ballot.  He drew some interesting comparisons between God, science, and the Big Bang.  And finally, Rabbi Levine took issue with atheism and its destructive power.  Can't get enough parshas from this urban rabbi?  Go buy his book!

Natalie Portman: has a shoe fetishNatalie Portman is known for being as socially conscious as she is gorgeous, so it's no surprise that the Israeli-born actress has launched her own line of vegan shoes. In an entertaining interview with the London Times, Portman recently talked about what drove her into the business of footwear. "I’ve been getting stuff from Target, which is de facto vegan because it’s so cheap. But I did need some shoes that weren’t made of canvas or plastic." High maintenance!

Portman apparently designed the line of limited edition shoes herself, and according to various reports, anywhere from 5% to all profits are going to the Nature Conservancy. The cruelty-free kicks are being sold through New York boutique te casan for around $250 a pair.

Portman's latest film, The Other Boleyn Girl, hits theaters this Friday and stars fellow-Jew Scarlett Johannson.

 

 

 

You read Meghan O’Rourke, Slate’s cultural empress, with the sort of heightened interest reserved for those who’ve got game. She’s good. She’s young. And she’s aware of both.

Nicholson in Crocs: Jack knows bestI was shocked, then, when I swung by Slate this afternoon and saw her byline gracing the lead story whose headline (“What a Croc! The peculiar popularity of a truly heinous shoe.”) bespoke an article of trifling idiocy. But not reading Meg would be like turning away from someone undressing in front of an open window – heinous or hot, the person is always interesting.

What we get is a morass of priggishness, albeit well-researched priggishness, on Crocs -- the greatest single innovation in the history of footwear.

At the heart of Meg’s story is what one blogger calls the “Croc conundrum:” that is, “Crocs make you look absurd, but they can change your life.” In her final analysis, the shoes’ “absurdity” outweigh the continual low-grade ecstasy they introduce into one’s life. And thus, O'Rourke pegs Crocs as but another passing fad.

Meg, you’re crazy!!!

So called fads and laughable fashions almost always outlast their critics (Meg’s probably counting the minutes when the decade-spanning body mutilation movement - piercing, tattooing, et al – comes to a stop. And sneakers! I’m sure Meg’s been shorting Nike since her days at Yale).

America Beware: Only pinkos don't like CrocsMost importantly, when you wear Crocs, it feels like you're walking around on marshmallows. Marshmallows, Meg!

How pathetic it is to perpetuate the tyranny of stiff, uncomfortable footwear, this unchanging dictatorship of unnecessary formality. The senselessness of it might force one to find a deeper, more abiding reason for such a particular madness that would squeeze America back into their marshmallow-less shoes: is she a “defender of fashion,” as she says, or a defender of a repressive social structure that only allows college kids and the politically marginalized (i.e anyone voting for Nader) to acquire a bit of podiatric heaven?

So get up now and buy your first pair of Crocs. You have nothing to lose but your chains!