eighteen months for a shoe

Now that an Iraqi judge has given Muntadher al-Zaidi a three-year sentence for throwing two shoes at Dubya last December, the world waits with bated breath to learn what punishment will be handed out to the Iranians who threw one shoe and a hat at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the other day. Eighteen months for the one shoe and a pardon for the hat? Or, like Iran's nuclear bomb program, will the incident be deemed not to exist?

We know, of course, what Mr al-Zaidi's fate would have been had he thrown his shoes at Saddam Hussein, though most of us would rather not think about it. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford