Sometimes a Scarf is just a Scarf

Ok, I thought I had pretty much gotten to the point where I could stop being surprised by the bullshit spewing forth from the right wing opinionocrats. Gotta tip my hat to Blanca DeBree for using her rapier wit to once again prove that no matter how stupid something is, there are people who will propose it and others who will run with the idea.

Apparently Dunkin Donuts has pulled an ad featuring FoodTV star Rachel Ray because the paisley patterned black and white silk scarf she is wearing was mistaken by Michelle Malkin and others for a keffiyeh of the sort we all saw Yassir Arafat wearing.

Malkin says on her website: “So it was with some dismay that I learned last week that Dunkin Donuts’ spokeswoman Rachael Ray, the ubiquitous TV hostess, posed for one of the company’s ads in what appeared to be a black-and-white keffiyeh.” (Emphasis added.)

For someone who doesn’t mind supporting a president who “appears to be” guilty of lying to the American people about both WMDs in Iraq and his golf habits, and an administration that has employed people who “appear to be” in Contempt of Congress her reaction to a perfectly normal fashion accessory strikes me as hypocritical.

Michelle Malkin has clearly expressed that she “Stands with Israel” yet I can’t find any of her blog posts condemning Israelis for wearing keffiyeh’s designed with Israeli motif’s and colors.

I am surprised that her outrage at what she calls “hate couture” has not spilled over into suggesting that her blogominions express their opinions on the matter to Steven Spielberg while his new Indiana Jones film is in theaters. At the very least they should be demanding that Lucas and Spielberg fire up their computers and alter the later portions of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade during which Sean Connery dons a keffiyeh. That kind of subtle support for terrorists and terrorist sympathizers makes it harder to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

A Paisley pattern, like that used on Rachel Ray’s scarf – here in the real world, is a droplet-shaped vegetal motif of Indo-Aryan origin, similar to half of the Yin yang symbol, or the leaf of the Indian bodhi tree.

After 9/11 American Sikh’s, of Indian extraction, were attacked and even killed. On Sept. 15, 2001, Balbir Singh Sodh was killed in front of his gas station in a suburb of Phoenix, Ariz. His killer believed he was avenging the September 11 terrorist attacks by killing a Muslim. It seems that when people are angry or frightened by terrorism they can’t be bothered to take the time to learn the difference between Muslims – as if it would have been “better” had the murder victim been Muslim – and other non-Judeo Christian faiths.

Dunkin Donuts, said in a statement: “In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial.”