1 Boring Old Man

am⋅biv⋅a⋅lence   /æmˈbɪvÉ™lÉ™ns/ –noun

1. uncertainty or fluctuation, esp. when caused by inability to make a choice or by a simultaneous desire to say or do two opposite or conflicting things. 2. Psychology. the coexistence within an individual of positive and negative feelings toward the same person, object, or action, simultaneously drawing him or her in opposite directions.

As I saw this played repeatedly yesterday, I felt ambivalence. It wasn’t about George W. Bush. People have earned the right to be angry at him. I sure am. My ambivalence was different. There was something else about this "shoe throwing" incident that bothered me.

When I watched the tape this morning, it happened right after he’s said something about the success of his so-called Surge, and I wanted to throw a shoe at him myself. That was one side of my ambivalent feeling – "Throw the shoe! Throw them both! We’ve heard enough talk about your silly Surge! That was for you and your legacy obsession, you jerk!"

But then I got back to the other side of what I was feeling. This public display of contempt, "the ultimate insult in Arab culture" as they say on television over and over, is the same sentiment expressed by Osama Bin Laden’s attack on New York – killing thousands of Americans.

lex ta⋅li⋅o⋅nis /lÉ›ks  tæliˈoÊŠnɪs/ –noun

the principle or law of retaliation that a punishment inflicted should correspond in degree and kind to the offense of the wrongdoer, as an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; retributive justice.

The Talion Law is part of most ancient law [eg the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, 1760 B.C.E.], and still lives on in the American death penalty. It remains central in Islamic Law. And in Freud’s view of the Unconscious Mind – it lives in all of us. It is well represented in theTorah and the Bible’s Old Testament:

^{Exodus 21:22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.}

^{Leviticus 24:17 And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.
18 And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast.
19 And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him;
20 Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.
21 And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.}

^{Deuteronomy 19:16 If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong;
17 Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days;
18 And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother;
19 Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
20 And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
21 And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.}

^{Matthew 5:38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.}