Let’s not ever turn into Michelle Malkin, mmm-kay? She got Dunkin’ Donuts to pull an ad…because she didn’t like the scarf the model was wearing, and decided it was pro-Islamic.
It was paisley.
Typical dhimmi traitor in jihadist-appeasing garb
It’s not like the model was saying “Death to America” or “This iced coffee is perfect for cooling me down after a suicide bombing” or even, “Christians, shut up!” She’s not even in traditional Islamic dress — you can see her face, and a bit of her chest. But she is wearing a scarf, and as we all know, good Americans wear only traditional American clothes, which do not include scarves.
Scalzi and Plait have noted the lunacy. Of course, no one has yet noticed the truly insidious part of the story — this Palestinian kaffiyeh nonsense is a red herring. Paisley. Didn’t they live through the 60s? Have we already forgotten? Are we just going to overlook the significance until suddenly we find ourselves in bell bottoms and headbands with the scent of patchouli wafting through the air?
That ain’t paisley.
Is that Natalie Wood?
Just more “paisley:”
http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2008/world/kaffiyeh/index.html
Such objections to scarves does not apply to Rethuglicans. Note that McCain’s daughter was seen wearing a scarf similar to Rachael Ray’s scarf.
This is how we trap unamerican traitors. We can ask them who won the World Series, or we can expose the fact that they can’t recognize Audrey Hepburn.
Sorry to change the topic, but I did not think I would see the day. Really I did not, but apparently there is a Swiss outfit that wants to build a creationist amusement park near Heidelberg.
http://www.welt.de/wissenschaft/article2046773/Kreationisten_wollen_Freizeitpark_in_Deutschland.html
That ain’t the real point.
But fine, I’ll feed your obsession of triviality: This is paisley
Can’t Muslims wear paisley scarves?
Seriously, I don’t know if a paisley scarf is or is not accepted wear among Muslim women.
And jsn, I don’t think the photo was given to show what was worn in the ad.
Well, it’s all silly, but to be fair, ads are generally silly things.
Glen Davidson
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Yeah. I went off on the wing-nuts about this a few days ago. Then put up a short visual post about Meghan McCain – Terrorist Sympathizer because she’s also wearing a black-and-white scarf in one of those McCain “family pictures” press-ops.
Personally, I think the whole thing is stupid.
And while I’m not a big fan of Rachel Ray as she sounds too much like a young Marge Schotz. I do buy her cookbooks though because finding solid recipes for tasty meals in a short-time is tough. And while on most nights I’m happy to spend the time crafting a wonderful meal, I can’t always spend the time.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who mocked the wing-nuts.
The more insidious aspect is that the woman is a tad darker than your average WASP. Had the scarf been on Nicole Kidman, I seriously doubt that Michelle would have complained.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Isn’t it? Sure seems to be the main point of PZ’s post. Ah, yes. When your errors are pointed out, suddenly the point is “trivial.” Got it.
That point was always trivial.
The real point, however, is Republican obsession with trivialities, as if the cultural significance of one usage has any meaning when transplanted elsewhere.
But then, people like you never have any real issues to discuss, do you?
PZ might have missed the mark on what the scarf IS, but he didn’t miss the point and his misidentification of the scarf is not the point, nor does it trivialize his point.
His point is that Rachel Ray is not wearing the kind of scarf that MM is accusing her of wearing. That it isn’t paisley doesn’t change this fact.
And where exactly were these clothing police when Prince Harry was wearing his Nazi uniform? Oh, wait, that was just a lark…
You mean like how you people went on at length about the alleged cross in Mike Huckabee’s Christmas campaign ad? Those kinds of trivialities?
Maybe Michelle Malkin needs a tall cuppa Himan Plu Cento http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2y_GwKzxck (9 second mark)
Oh look, it’s jsn, the idiot troll. Does it get anything right, ever?
Nope.
It now has permission to go back to Its usual lurking spot in the girl’s restroom. Go, It. Go.
Way off topic, but there’s an eagle cam here and the parent is on the nest: http://wavelit.com/index.php?view=EagleNestLive1
right now.
In Afghanistan, especially in the early days, US special forces routinely wore kafias.
No donuts for them.
Michelle Malkin is an idiot, of course, but I’m really disappointed in Dunkin Donuts for thinking anyone would listen to Michelle Malkin.
ccording to Wikipedia, Audrey Hepburn was Dutch/English, born in Belgium. But no less a Hollywood icon.
That’s just really really really funny. Rachel Ray, that annoying bitch. “Jihadi Chic.” Mm. I love it.
Everyone knows that all true Americans wear only pigskin leather and American flags. If you wear anything else you’re a terrorist sympathizer.
What the heck is all this about Rachel Ray? That looks like Audrey Hepburn to me. Did I miss something?
Did I forget to note that Malkin is a blithering idiot? I did? Dang.
Oh, never mind. Must remember to look at links before commenting idiotically.
Still, that ad supporting terrorism? That’s a whole truckload of dumb right there.
@#8
I think Muslim women can wear what they like, as long as it’s “modest”. Cue being assaulted in the street for transgressing some (male)religious nut’s definition of “modest”.
Paisley is so-called because it was woven on the Jacquard looms in the Scottish town of that name; more cheaply than the original scarves were available from India (Oh, the irony). The pattern was (IIRC) 17th/18th century from Kashmir, woven under the Mughals, so probably worn then by Muslim women.
That’s what they’ve got their knickers in a knot about? Geez, I thought she was at least wearing it on her head like a hijab or something. I can imagine my Canadian-American Jewish MIL wearing something like that — she loves black/white/red combos. Who knew she wanted the terrorists to win? I guess DD should photoshop the scarf into a Stars & Stripes print.
Scarves, flag lapel pins — poltical discourse reduced to the most trivial details of fashion. Utter idiocy.
jsn (#16) whined,
Explain how the cross in Huckabee’s ad had the same “cultural significance in one usage when transplanted elsewhere.” and then you can group them together.
Otherwise, they’re not the same kind of triviality.
Unless, do you need me to explain the difference to you?
Aggie, it was Rachel in the Dunkin Donuts ad.
Even if it was a kaffiyeh (which it clearly wasn’t), this would still be ridiculously stupid. It’s not all that uncommon for Westerners and non-Muslims to wear kaffiyehs as scarves. It doesn’t mean they support terrorists. It just means they find kaffiyehs functional and/or aesthetically pleasing.
Thanks DaveH, good to know.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
There was an article in the NY Times last year about these as a fad – “Where Some See Fashion, Others See Politics”:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E3DC1E3FF932A25751C0A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
(Sorry for the strange link – I hope it works.)
I will laugh long and loud the next time (and every time thereafter) I hear Malkin bitch and whine about “political correctness”. What a moron.
So what if she was wearing a scarf? What if she was wearing a burka? How is that supporting terrorism? I forgot, all Arabs and dark skinned people are terrorists. /sarcasm
BoxerShorts (#31) quipped,
NO! It means they obviously have an ideological bent that must be circumvented!
Like, people who wear Castro hats. Dictators in training, I tell ya.
I’m still waiting for Malkin to sign the picture of a Japanese internment camp that Max Blumenthal has for her.
http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2007/03/michelle_malkin.html
(.)(.)
Speaking of fashion kerfuffles and support of terrorism, I remember reading that a young girl going to a Catholic school (presumably Irish Catholic) in the US was at the receiving end of a great deal of grief from her fellow students for innocently wearing an orange ribbon in her hair.
PZ, I wish that you hadn’t disclosed the identity of the photo so early in the comments. It would have been interesting to see how many others would misidentify the exquisite Audrey, but, I may be wrong, perhaps it’s really Holly Golightly.
Well, thanks to Malkin, I have some shopping to do today. First over to Dunkin’ Donuts for some breakfast and to tell them that I love the new Rachel Ray online commercials. Then to the bookstore to buy one of Rachel Ray’s cookbooks. I’m not really a fan, but I’m sure there are some things in there the kids will love. Then to the mall to pick one of those lovely jihad-ist scarves Ray is wearing. My daughter would love one. Then, if I’m inspired, I will come home an email a thank you to Malkin for her idiocy…
I can’t believe anybody has the time to complain about stuff like this.
For being a “melting pot” we certaintly seem to have a lot of people that object to any form of multiculturalism.
Not that wearing a paisly, checkered, or any kind of scarf is at all a sign of multiculturalism.
Malkin’s complaint makes no sense from any angle.
So what if it was an Islamic style scarf? Whatever that would be, I’m sure most Americans wouldn’t even recognise it as such.
The news article I read yesterday said it was paisley.
I think the point of pulling the ad was not that she was wearing anything that would be identified as “terrorist garb” but that she was wearing what looked like a Man’s Scarf and thus insulting their sartorial privileges. Sort of like women daring to Wear Trousers in the bad old days.
At least that’s how I read it: as a sort of political uber-correctness.
Call Dunkin Donuts and let them know how you feel: 800-859-5339
They are getting a LOT of calls about this. The person I talked to said it is coming in about 50/50. We need to up the ante.
Be polite!!!
I made the point that by responding to MM’s ridiculous statements they made this a much larger issue than it needed to be. They should have just ignored it. There would have been a brief flurry of breast-beating by the righteously inclined, and then the “blonde de jure” would have shown up on FOX or CNN and the issue would have just gone away.
God, that article made my brain hurt. Typical right-wing doublethink; Malkin basically claims the scarf is an old, powerless symbol, and condemns it being shown in a DD ad in basically the same breath. If anything, she should be besides herself with joy that the damn thing is shown in such a trivial context; instead she complains loudly, gets the ad withdrawn, and in doing so acknowledges and reinforces its symbolic power.
Because, damnit, if Palestinian-style scarves are nothing more than fashion acessories these days, that’s apparently just plain unacceptable.
The mind reels.
Oh fuck, am I ever gonna scream bloody murder next time I see someone on TV or in a magazine wearing a crucifix or a cross.
Thanks, Michelle, for throwing the door wide open for complaints against religious accessories of any kind.
Paisley? What’s paisley? It sounds like food! I’m hungry!
The true test of patriotic purity would be in Rhode Island ( my adoptive and adopted state), as we have more Dunkin Donuts per square mile ( or foot or square capita) than ANY other state.
Well, the problem may be: “Yumm-OOh” is clearly not English, not American, Semitic ( Oprah-influenced ), possibly French, simply troubling and seditious.
Meanwhile I am unable to use a headscarf to keep the hair out of my face without someone accusing me of being some kind of religious fanatic, although over here in England they are just as likely to think you are a fundie Xtian as a Muslim. Maybe a scarf with the ‘A’ logo would be useful?
What this important political issue calls for is an internet poll!
Ugh! Then have to be subjected to ‘soft rock’ again? I can’t take Al Stewart or America or Kansas!
If you think that MM et al are hilarious, try Debbie “I can’t find my name on YouTube even with a Google search” Schlussel and her lap dogs think about the subject. At one point Debbie pointed out that Jews used to wear those things but it wasn’t the same because they were just articles of clothing then, not a terrorist symbol. Not that they are now, at least to anyone with an IQ over 65.
Some of the comments here have me wondering something though. If Rachel Ray had worn a flag pin on her scarf, would that have negated the terrorist angle to it in the mouth breathing Fox viewership circles? Would that have made it a symbol of American imperialism in the middle east? So many possibilities…
Can’t you see? Paisley > Ian Paisley > Irish > IRA > Terrace!
Coincidence…or conspiracy? You be the judge, I just report the facts.
Would things be any different if Rachel had Ian Paisley around her neck?
The customers of this online store would be surprised to find out that they were politically supporting anti-American terrorists. Given their politics, I wonder if they would tell Michelle Malkin what they think of her paranoid fantasies. I should hope so.
http://tinyurl.com/5rp7fl
In the US military and among warrior wannabees and simple backpackers in US deserts, it has a recognized practical value (duh! – that’s why they wear them in the Near East…) as well as a certain swaggering connotation. The British soldiers have worn them for while, also.
I am all for pulling the ad. Not because of the scarf, but because of that incredibly nerve-grating twit, Rachael Ray.
Is that the Rachel Ray ad in your link? That is not paisley, it is sometimes called an Afghan scarf, and Yassar Arafat, among others sported it.
It is (or was a few years ago) also a very fashionable shawl/scarf in Europe (of course those were in the days that the Afghan Mujahadeen were the good guys fighting the evil Russian commies – oh how times change).
The model is clearly NOT using it with any sort of Islamic implications, she has not even covered her hair.
I guess Queen Elizabeth II must be a Muslim in disguise as has seems to have a fondness for paisley scarves. The idea that the head of the Anglican Church is a secretly a Muslim is more than my brain can deal with! I guess when she visited the US a couple of years ago Dubya was lucky she did not decide to blow herself up when standing alongside him.
I’m going to have to give up my silk aviator’s scarf since Manfred Von Richtofen wore a similar one and I wouldn’t want anybody to think I support the Kaiser.
Dammit, people! If we let them control our fashion, then the terrorists win!
and I guess we can’t edit things here?
Looked at the other link with a better pic and realise it IS paisley.
Ahh well, the bit about the Muslim extremists being the good guys once upon a time still holds *shrug*
Yup. Audrey Hepburn:
Charade
jsn, read the article next time:
You fail.
@LCR #41
Don’t forget to stop by the courthouse to change your middle name to “Hussein” to complete your muslimification.
I’m all for pulling the ad too. The scarf – clearly muslim, there’s no bible or cross ANYWHERE in the shot, not even an American flag. Dunkin Donuts is clearly an anti-American outfit interested in prosecuting its war against xtian America. Any company brashly displaying this kind of religious intolerance should be put out of business.
It is odd that the backdrop behind her is a shot of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem. Salem happens to be the site of the last DD on the West Coast, but it closed in March of this year.
Dunkin’ Donuts… the irony is made fresh every day…
I never cease to be amazed at how stupid people can be. It makes my brain hurt.
I like their coffee and donuts, though.
If Audrey is the face of Islamic extremism, then Death to the Infidels!
This kind of reminds me of the stupid and sadly recurrent flap about Procter and Gamble’s alleged Satanic logo.
Kaffiyehs were a popular fashion accessory in the early 1990s. I’m sure mine is packed away with the rest of my scarves somewhere. Maybe even Michelle Malkin has one.
Wait I think you are on to something. Salem is also the name of a town in Massachusetts. That same town where there were a number of trials of residents. Trials that proved them to be..
WITCHES!
Rachael Ray is a Witch!
Burn Her!
Well, Rachel Ray is the spawn of the devil anyway, or at least Anthony Bourdain tells me she is, and if you can’t trust the word of an ex-addict foul mouthed chef, then I just don’t want to be a Republican.
Too bad Saturday Night Live is done for the season. New-girl Casey Wilson does a spot-on Rachael Ray; I have to imagine they could have had fun with this.
WITCHES!
Rachael Ray is a Witch!
Burn Her!
Only if she weighs the same as a duck.
Damn, I was going to make a polldaddy poll or something that we could throw up somewhere, but you need a login.
but the responses were going to be like:
no it was just fine, … and Michelle Malkin is nuts
no the ad was fine, people are just seeing communists in their soup
etc
Me too. But pandering to intolerance is just as bad as intolerance itself.
Phil Plait is right: DD should have said, “Malkin is freaking nuts. It’s a scarf.”
If you think that MM et al are hilarious, try Debbie “I can’t find my name on YouTube even with a Google search” Schlussel and her lap dogs think about the subject.
“the scarf of death”!
“part of the uniform of terror”!
“the garb of death and destruction and emptiness”!
(Thanks to, IIRC, Ichthyic for the link.)
I made the point that by responding to MM’s ridiculous statements they made this a much larger issue than it needed to be. They should have just ignored it.
Mick, I just called to convey my disappointments too. I added that by giving in to people like Michelle Malkin, Dunkin’ Donuts was validating her bigotry and ignorance.
I expect this kind of thing from Malkin. But Dunkin Donuts? Well, supposing I ever want stale donuts and bad coffee, I’ll have to get them from somewhere else now.
I’ve never heard of this Malkin woman before and from this introduction don’t care if I ever come across her again. Such ignorance!
Isn’t she aware (as Matt Penfold also points out) of the fact that the woman who is head of the Church of England wears a headscarf on her days off from wearing the crown? It keeps her infeasibly stiff hair in place while she’s walking the corgis.
How this Malkin woman will cope when the winter fashions hit the stores will be interesting. I expect lots of gibbering and twitching when she realises Dolce & Gabanna have used the Queen as a style icon for their entire winter collection!
http://ita.dolcegabbana.it/sfilatadeg07/sfilata.asp?sec=woman
It’s unfortunate that I never go to Dunkin’ Donuts or I could join the boycott.
Only if she weighs the same as a duck.
Who are you who are so wise in the ways of Science?
If somebody hit this already: sorry for the repeat.
MM and friends were plugging Dunkin Donuts because they have a right wing immigration policy. The the ad appeared. It was an opportunity to flex some muscle so DD was called out on the ad. They blinked.
It had nothing to do with scarves or kaffiyehs; it was all about power. Michelle said “poop” and donuts said: “how high?”
… and once again people prove what total idiots they are. Are the paranoid right wing such a****les that they do not even shy away from showing it on national TV And oh the idiocy of Dunkin Donuts…. I think I need to stop teaching that case in my management foundation class- or perhaps I can make it a “how organizations cave in to pressure from outside…” The lunacy…
Paisley is an INDIAN design.And I don’t think that is paisley… unless they call anything non geometric and squiggly paisley these days. And the way RR is wearing the scarf is no way like Yassar Arafat sporting it… Oh my gosh…. are such scarfs available in the mall? Where cna I get some.
I just looked at the ad. I have a table cloth that looks just like that that scarf. I guess I need to arrest myself for supporting terrorism.
Paisley … dang. Who knew it had so much history?
The replacement advertisement is even worse!
http://sneerreview.blogspot.com/2008/05/dunkin-wingnuts.html
No, you’ll be brought up on charges of funding terrorism… your table is the real terrorist here.
Still, you disgust me. Enjoy your stay in Gitmo.
*sigh* Audrey Hepburn. *sigh*
As someone alluded to yesterday, it’s too bad we are judging people by clothing rather than the ‘contents of their character.’ Michelle Malkin would still be a moron, Rachael Rae, merely a cooking diva. I was so hoping that when the clothing manufactureversy was addressed on NBC’s Today Show this morning, some intrepid news host might bring up Martin Luther King’s novel idea. I was disappointed but not at all surprised. The watch-puppies of the media on guard as ever- lest they say something offensive to someone somewhere about anything.
“Still, you disgust me. Enjoy your stay in Gitmo.”
I will make a start by beating myself up, sticking my head face up under the shower and the shutting myself in the airing cupboard.
Kseniya:
You’re right, of course, but I still have to admit to a grudging respect for her animators. They’ve achieved a level of realism that Rockstar et al can only dream of. I mean, look at the attention to detail. The flecks of spittle spraying from her mouth. The eyes whirling in opposite directions. The eerie, apoplectic shrieking at shadows. The veins in her temple, pulsing with rage. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was a batshit insane human, rather than a cartoon.
Hmmmm. You know I don’t even know who Rachel Ray is?
Should I be ashamed?
I have a lot of catching up to do when we move back to the good ole US of A.
In the meantime I’ll have to stock up on those scarves, there all the rage in the Netherlands at the moment.
I will make a start by beating myself up, sticking my head face up under the shower and the shutting myself in the airing cupboard.
Instead of the cupboard, a more realistic preparation will be to build yourself a little cardboard bed in your garage and sleep in it with the garage door open. Make sure you keep the light on, or for best results, get a spotlight. Get a buddy to come mock you in the middle of the night. After a week or so of that you’ll be ready for Gitmo.
This from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keffiyeh#Symbol_of_Palestinian_solidarity.3F
“For some years, the wearing of the keffiyeh has been almost ubiquitous amongst British soldiers, who now, almost exclusively, refer to them as shemaghs”
I guess the British Army is now to be considered an Arabic terrorist organisation.
I’m all for boycotting Dunkin Donuts (there actually are a few over here, including in the glittering new Berlin Hauptbahnhof) over the kaffiyeh, because my teenagers tell me it’s an emo thang and hence beneath contempt.
When I wore one in the 1980s, mind you, it was an anarchist/Autonomen thang. Which is, like, totally different.
“Instead of the cupboard, a more realistic preparation will be to build yourself a little cardboard bed in your garage and sleep in it with the garage door open. Make sure you keep the light on, or for best results, get a spotlight. Get a buddy to come mock you in the middle of the night. After a week or so of that you’ll be ready for Gitmo.”
I start training tomorrow. I keep hay and straw in my garage though. I take it I cannot use those to sleep on.
Gads, have to confess and turn myself in to three stooges. err Homeland Security, I wore a kaffiyeh in Iraq and Afghanistan, as recently as last November. Most soldiers and civs there wear them, I had no idea we were all supporting terrorists and Islamic Fundamentalism. I thought it was keep dust out of eyes and nose and mouth and because they look tres kewl. As further proof of my “sins”, bought pashminas for all my female friends while in Afghanistan. Oh, the fires of hell are stoked for me now. If I could call myself an atheist, I guess I would be ok, but ‘he who shall not be named’ in two other threads told me that I should not use the term. Not wanting to complicate my “sins” even more, will bow to the cosmology of it all and just take my punishment.
Ciao, fedayeen brothers
Timothy @#81 said:
Perfectly understandable – you’ve got your own chain of coffeeshops up here in Canada to run! :)
Or, you could just move to Wisconsin. After the winter we just had, the fact that Gitmo is tropical, makes it kind of appealing.
Fantasy Death Match:
Paisley vs. Argyle!
Epikt:
Heh. :-)
Although she was before my time, I always thought Audrey Hepburn was rather hot.
Ms. Ray came into a restaurant I bartended at a few years ago to film for $40 a day. Hot, but annoying.
Remember those Dunkin Donuts Munchkin commercials from either the late 80’s or early 90’s? The ones with Pygmies + Dwarfs?
I’m now imagining all of them wearing keffiyehs and shouting, “Death to America! Death to the infidel!” while brandishing American and Russian made automatic rifles above their heads. Maybe they could behead a Krispy Krapp donut, or something.
I start training tomorrow. I keep hay and straw in my garage though. I take it I cannot use those to sleep on.
Cardboard is what’s gonna give you the proper training experience, but I think straw will be ok as long as it’s thin straw and the floor of your garage is made of concrete or something similarly hard and annoying. You can use your jacket or something for a pillow. That’s ok.
If I had to have a Paisley around my neck, I’d definitely go for Brad. Holy thundering bovines! Can that boy spank a Tele, or what?
(He ought to lose the hat, though. Maybe an eponymous scarf, instead?)
My gift to you all:
Concentrated Extract of Annoying
Enjoy…
Nal at #2:
That’s not Natalie Wood, it’s Audrey Hepburn, I’m pretty sure from “Charade,” with Cary Grant. Check it out next time you see it on Turner Classi Movies.
Damn, PZ, does the fact that a reader doesn’t recognize her make you feel as old as I do?
Bloody hell. On my one and ony visit to your country, flying from Seattle (conferencing) to Newark the plane was full of tweenies who had been at summer camp. ALL the girls were wearing head scarves. The hypocrisy is incredible.
To make it worse the kid sitting beside me spent the whole trip telling the nice old lady beside him all about his boring life. Now I have an iPod, I needed one then.
If owning a fringed scarf makes you a terrorist, I must be six or eight different kinds of terrorist. (I don’t own a houndstoothy scarf, alas.) I even own — gasp — a couple of hijab pins for keeping the things in place without tying them in a neck-constricting knot! Call the RCMP! I’ll be vacationing in a Syrian prison in no time, no doubt.
For the record I have seen both Muslim and Hindu women here in the UK wearing paisley patterned clothing, not just scarves. Also for the record I was born just down the road from Paisley.
Does anybody else ever wonder why conservatives hate freedom?
I have to admit that I don’t really know who Rachel Ray is either.
Now, is it Rachel Rae: Denture Wearer, or Rachel Wray: the Original Ann Darrow?
Well, I don’t understand how the Shriners get away with it. Have you seen some of those outfits? Terrists, the lot of them!!
Brownian, she is neither! She is country music star Rachael Rae Vyrus!
Yasser Arafat has on occasion been known to wear pants.
Osoma Bin Ladin on occasion has been known to wear pants.
Saddam Hussein on occasion has been known to wear pants.
Adolf Hitler on occasion had been known to wear pants.
Farc fighters on occasion have been known to wear pants.
Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed Al-Nasser on occasion has been known to wear pants.
Ayman al-Zawahiri on occasion has been known to wear pants.
And of course….
PZ Myers on occasion has been known to wear pants.
Why does PZ hate America?
Right wing immigration policies, caving to the lunatic fringe, hiring Rachel Ray as a spokesperson? Maybe it’s time to abandon DD and started getting donuts from Tim Horton’s … even if it means crossing the 49th parallel for a few minutes — remember to bring your passport.
remember to bring your passport
Naw, just say “R-r-roll up the r-r-rim to win!” to the border guard. They’ll let you through.
Umilik@ #6
Re Creation Museum in Germany
(Sorry – this answer is also off topic!)
I notice the way creationism is treated in the German press – die Welt is not exactly a left wing rag – categorized under “pseudoscience”, and related stories have titles like “The Bizarre Beliefs of the Creationists”.
You mean like how you people went on at length about the alleged cross in Mike Huckabee’s Christmas campaign ad? Those kinds of trivialities?
Posted by: jsn | May 29, 2008 11:11 AM
There was nothing “alleged” about it. The shot was placed there deliberately. Maybe you should take the advice my wife has given me: take up knitting and make yourself a “Sexy Turkey Hat”.
I thought he punked Sandra Lee, the host of “Semi-Homemade” not Rachel Ray. He also punked Sandra Deen.
He may have punked Rachel Ray, but I haven’t read that.
Meghan McCain is hot! Why was I not informed of this?
Sadly, No! has been covering this scarf silliness. LittleGreenFootballs has been as bad as Malkin.
I hereby declare Epikt@92 to be the Thread Winner.
That ‘attack of the flying penis’ on the Scalzi link is pretty cocky…
The whole thing is patently ridiculous, however….
Many Palestinians are now actually annoyed because it’s lost its power, it’s lost its impact.
Isn’t that a good thing? C’mon Americans–keffiyehs for everyone! It’s the least you can do to combat terrorism! That, and drink DD coffee. (Many of us New Englanders have it running through our veins…)
Maybe they could behead a Krispy Krapp donut, or something.
This made me think of “Food Fight,” a must-see:
http://www.touristpictures.com/foodfight/index.htm
Why does DD care about what this whoever says? Conventional thinking would have it that controversial ads are good ads …
“Personally, I think the whole thing is stupid.”
Not to offend but I really think the more correct term is: Silly.
We are in the middle of two wars that are gutting the US economy. There is a chance this idiot of a president may cause a third by bombing Iran. Oil prices are causing damage. There is a world-wide food shortage with a bee die-off that threaten most f it. Major suffering in Myanmar and China… Etcetera, etcetera.
There are all sorts of really important things going on around us here.
And the best this talking head can manage by way of news or pertinent commentary is to note that Rachel Rays scarf vaguely reminds them of something they once saw an Arab wear.
And corporate culture is so very vacuous and image obsessed and reflexively complaint to this talking heads remark that they immediately withdrawal the ad.
Yes, I think silly is more accurate.
An interesting idea from a strategic standpoint. What would bring them more attention, ignoring MM or getting the press to give the ad more attention by pulling it?
All this reminds of the last words of Isadora Duncan: “It’s all fun and games until someone’s scarf gets wrapped up in the axle of the Buggatti…”
I think ridiculously fucking sad is better than “silly” as a descriptor. Or maybe just ridiculously fucked.
Suffering in China? People are dying by the truckload. And this ass hat is talking about clothing. And he probably calls himself a Christian, right? Wasn’t Jesus all about helping the down trodden, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and such? No, we’re about Real Christian Values here in the USA. We’ll spend our time worrying about scarves.
Silly doesn’t begin to cover it.
For maximum attention, I guess they should pull it, and then have a ‘change of heart’ and relaunch it as attention starts to wander.
Dammit jsn. Stop using my ID, fuckwit. I’ve been posting nhere for months trying to bring a little levity to the mix. You are a trolling douchebag. Come up with a new ID, asswipe.
-The Authentic Jsn.
Moses @#121:”I thought he punked Sandra Lee, the host of “Semi-Homemade” not Rachel Ray. He also punked Sandra Deen.
He may have punked Rachel Ray, but I haven’t read that.”
Oh yeah, he destroyed Sandra Lee.
His comments about Rachel Ray were to the effect of her being a crushing juggernaut of mediocrity, or words to that effect.
An actual use for Michelle Malkin:
If you have a teenage boy or middle-age husband obsessed with sex, make him watch:
I guarantee he won’t be thinking about sex with a woman anytime soon.
If he is sexually obsessed with men, try a random Ayn Coulter clip instead.
For the truly Polymorphous Perverse, check out the American Enterprise Institute/Eagle Forum’s Bukkakke 2007 Championship video for both of ’em in tongue-lashing pundit action: with Fascinating Womanhood’s Helen Andelin as celebrity referee (GGMILF looking hot as always in kneepads, helmet & holy underwear) and your host Senator Larry Craig (I’m Not Gay!) just watching (I Said,), for the hot (I’m) chicks (Not) like Ayn & Michelle (Gay!), not at the thousands of hard (I’m) erect (Not), spurting (Gay!) penises (I said!, I’m Not Gay! I just have a wide stance!).
Special guest appearances by Ted Haggard as “The Fluffer” and Jeff Gannon as “The Mainstream Media”.
–
PS. The scarf in the ad looks close enough to a paisley pattern for me. Not a checkerboard. It is obvious that there is nothing remotely approaching a keffiyeh in the ad. As is typical of Michelle Malkin’s mouth, only lies & idiocy come out.
.
No wonder my husband’s aunt, the NUN, was pulled over at the airport security checkpoint as “random female” and given the full search. It was the scarf we gave her for Christmas (she’s the kind who looks good in them, so she wears them)!
Is it really paisley? If it is, then it’s a paisley that’s deployed to look *exactly like a keffiyeh* from a distance, because that scarf looks *exactly* like the keffiyeh that’s sitting at home in my wardrobe right now.
I mean, the rabble-rousers are feckwits all the same for making a stink over a piece of clothing that has been completely stripped of its political significance – but let’s not be equally absurd by denying that the thing isn’t at least supposed to very closely resemble the currently-stylish keffiyeh.
Oh, and Kitty@#80, that’s one of the most hideous fashion collections I’ve ever seen. Words can’t describe my horror.
Ben–It’s a scarf. It has a paisley design, with some fringe. This style of scarf has gone in and out of fashion for decades. My mother had one in the 60s. I had one in the 80s.
Most fashion items will be similar to numerous other items, and not even by looking too closely.
OMFSM! Women wearing long black dresses are emulating the clothing of Muslim women, because Muslim women wear long black dresses! Never mind that there’s a vast difference between a Western designer’s black evening gown with a leather and stainless-steel-buckled bustier and silk skirt with a slit up the side versus what your average Iranian woman can wear to the market. But they’re both long black dresses, one of them is evil, so that makes both of them evil!
That’s the argument Malkin is making, and it’s, typically for her, utterly ridiculous and hysterical. I don’t like to call other women the latter, but she’s consistently hysterical.
a lurker #116
“Osoma Bin Ladin on occasion has been known to wear pants.
Saddam Hussein on occasion has been known to wear pants.
Adolf Hitler on occasion had been known to wear pants”
Right!
Down with the pants!
#45:
You know that Palestinian-style is an anagram for paisley-latte-inns, don’t you? So clearly the scarf-wearing coffee-sipping B&B-staying effete liberal elite are supporting Hamas anagrammatically, whether through ignorance or conspiracy.
How anyone could take that schizophrenic Malkin bitch seriously is beyond me.
it’s a hunk of cloth worn around the neck.
Now, if Rachel Ray were wearing a Red A pin on her scarf . . .
Let’s not ever turn into Michelle Malkin, mmm-kay?
In the interest of scientific curiosity, just how much meth, E, and crack would that take?
How can people be so.. dumb? I wish Dunkin Donuts released the ad anyway and simply released a statement saying exactly how their executives felt – that Michelle is a moron and completely and utterly wrong in her beliefs. They can say, “Dunkin donuts does not in any way support terrorism…”
… read that last sentence a second time and let the absurdity of this situation sink in.
Kind of hypocritical and ironic that Malkin would be all over this when she is seen in this photo with one herself. It’s only okay when right wingers do it I suppose? Hypocrites!
http://static.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/malkinkeffiyah.jpg
Ummm… how is that pronounced? It looks sorta like something Dunkin Donuts is famous for.
Кофе!
I wanted to see what other bloggers were saying about this, and the opinion is pretty uniform out there. But I also found this:
Is eating Ben and Jerry ethical?
Apparently, one of President Bush’s staff had this to say:
I think this whole right-wing movement is suffering a nervous breakdown. There are people who take Savage, Malkin, Limbaugh, et al at face value, and after a while, it all just simmers into an amalgam of melted brain stems… And you then get stuff like this.
Quick, someone get W’s finger off the button. We need sane people in charge, now.
That doesn’t even make sense. I mean, the photographers were probably just thinking– “you know what? This plain gray t-shirt isn’t visually interesting enough. We ought to add something. Necklace? Eh. Scarf? Cool, let’s try that.” It’s a little depressing that, for one thing, there are people paranoid enough to overlook such a simple possibility, and for another, that these people are given national television air time, and are taken seriously enough to get the ad pulled.
So, here’s another observation. I recently went on a school day trip to New York City. It was early April, and I saw quite a few women wearing scarves similar to the one in the ad. I even bought one. Another girl from the art club did, too. We’re not terrorists. Which brings up the possibility– maybe it’s just another example of the right trying to demonize the artsy-liberal-urban-latte drinker group again, even if it’s just for wearing something that seems unusual to Fox’s audience. If not, the person who first came up with that paranoid idea might need some mental help, seriously.
Kseniya, re your query in #146, kuh-fee-uh, with the “fee” emphasized, is a common pronunciation. Slight variations depending on location and accent, but the above is understandable.
Ciao
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard all day. I’ve never heard of this Michelle Malkin before but I’m struggling to see how a garment worn by, oh, almost everybody in Egypt and by lots of British squaddies (as Kermit pointed out) can be a symbol of anything at all. I also think that Ms Malkin has missed the point of freedom and democracy if somebody making an advert can’t wear what they damn well please. I thought the people proscribing what women wore were the bad guys? It’s even dumber that the garment in question isn’t even a keffiyah.
I own two keffiyah’s actually – I bought one from a nice Bedouin lady in Egypt and the other from the British Army tank museum, that hotbed of radical islamic sympathisers.
This whole episode would be ridiculous even if the garment was a Keffiyeh. The Keffiyeh is a traditional sartorial item in middle-eastern culture, and it is only secondarily related to Palestinian terrorism. Saying that it’s inherently bad for the latter reason is like saying that wearing a beret is inherently bad because it’s come to be associated with Che Guevera and Latin American communism.
For some reason Americans revel in their ignorance of other cultures, whatever it is is beyond me.
“For some reason Americans revel in their ignorance of other cultures, whatever it is is beyond me.”
Before anyone jumps on me for this, “some” should indeed be prefixed to “Americans” above.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/29/news/companies/dunkin_donuts.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes
Umm, maybe I’m missing something but the person in the ad looks more like a woman than a man, no? And her head is completely uncovered which isn’t exactly the norm for radical female Palestinian jihadistas either, now is it?
So who, exactly, is really the clueless one?
Ref. #107: “My gift to you all:Concentrated Extract of Annoying Enjoy…”
Thanks for that. Right Back At’cha!
Madam Malkin’s key point seems to have been that “Anti-American fashion designers abroad and at home have mainstreamed and adapted the scarves as generic pro-Palestinian jihad or anti-war statements.”
Note the logical OR. Being ‘anti-war’ is clearly being treated as morally equivalent to ‘pro-jihad’, from which one can infer that ‘war’ should have been either capitalised, marked ‘TM’, or rephrased as ‘crusade’, as referring specifically to America’s current crop of adventures.
There’s not much scarf-wearing where I live at the moment, but I’m pretty sure the keffiyeh was popular among young women in Sydney in the late 1980s (note the Australian reference in the linked article).
In the context of that kinder, gentler time, it would be more natural to say “generic pro-Palestinian intifada or anti-war statements” – when the intifada was about kids throwing pebbles and being shot in the head with plastic bullets, not suicide bombs or rockets made out of utility poles.
Mmmmmmm… Audrey. It must be 25 years or so since I fell for her. Along with Grace Kelly, my only adolescent infatuations that have stood the test of time.
As for the whole keffiya thing, I took the “it’s just a scarf” side at Phil’s, but thinking more about this the keffiya = terrorist theory does explain some things. For instance, obviously we now see the real reason Fish left Marillion: To further the Scottish Jihad
Dana @ #145: Thanks for the link! I’ll have to post that at Bad Astronomy if no one else has.
Malkin is right to warn us of potential terrorist sympathisers like Ray.
Here’s another shady group who clearly have such sympathies. Ummm…. the SAS.
http://www.rangerjoes.com/scarfshemagh-british-sas-p-1623.html
Audrey Hepburn had the most gorgeous eyes I’ve ever seen. Definitely an islamo-fascist.
Your analysis is good, John, but it’s possible the Malkin’s key point may actually have been, “Look at me! Look at me! I’m a complete imbecile! Pity me! Pity me!”
Naaahhh. Scratch that. She has yet to demonstrate that she possesses a level of rational self-awareness adequate to the task of producing that thought.
ooooof
That hurt.
The scarf Rachel Ray is wearing IS actually paisley. I have several in that pattern, some socks, and a couple of shawls from back in the 60’s. The shawls were very popular during Victorian times. As I recall the fabrics were shipped in patcholi wood boxes and reeked of it.
Just to spite that sow, I may dig the old eyesores out.
Shit, there’s oil in the Dunkin’ Donuts truck isn’t there?
PZ might have missed the mark on what the scarf IS
actually, I’m sure he was going by what the spokesman for Dunkin Donuts called it, which was explicity given as “paisely” if the fucking OCD nitwits like JSN would have bothered to look.
Look on the bright side: the stupid burns so intensely that Malkin stands to lose a lot of credibility and respect even among her conservative audience. They do, after all, have brains.
Even if the scarf was indeed to show sympathy for the Palestinian cause, it does not follow that one sympathizes with terrorist cults like Hamas. Take the folks at Electronic Intifada; they’re very pro-Palestinian, and they in fact deplore violence on BOTH sides:
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/faqs/340.shtml (see item no. 4)
There is a difference between opposing the violence of Jewish fanatics against Muslims and supporting the violence of Muslim fanatics against Jews.
“Clueless sporting of a jihadi chic keffiyeh”? “Distinctive hate couture”?
I –
I, um –
There isn’t – there can’t be – such a place as this “America” you all speak of. This is all a gigantic practical joke, the greatest piece of trolling and Poe-ing ever. A country where things like this happen just can’t exist.
After this piece of news, that has officially became the most plausible explanation.
Finland out.
In my youger days I used to wear headbands. Thought they were cool, back then in the 70s when I was eighteen.
Now I guess it would make me look like a suicide bomber.
If I got out my old photos and showed them around would I be denounced as a threat to western civilization?
I feel Pretty,
Oh so Pretty
so pretty and witty and
ALI AKBARRR !!!!!
When I was in high school (back in the early 80s), many kids used to wear keffiehs. It was definitely not a statement in favour of terrorism. It was an expression of support for the Palestinians : of course some of them where guilty of odious terrorist actions, but most of the others were (and are still) just a miserable population of civilians and refugees that can be gunned down at leisure, apparently. That some people might want to express support is not totally shocking.
And sometimes, it was just because it’s a cool-looking scarf.
Dunkin Donuts will give you a Red Sox poster, if you buy a breakfast combo. And when the Red Sox win, you can get a free medium iced coffee with one of their pizzas or da-dum-dum flatbread sandwiches.
Flatbread is Unamerican.
Red Sox are not Yankees.
Red is related to Pink.
I went to HoneyDew Donuts this morning, but that’s the end of my personal boycott.
Little Green Footballs piled on after Malkin tackled Ray. I thought it particularly unsportsmanlike of them.
I also wondered this: Why isn’t Malkin complaining about Little Green Footballs? Green is, after all, Mohammed’s favorite color, and one of the official colors of Islam. Doesn’t LGF’s unrepentant use of green raise Malkin’s hackles?
Are her neurons even attached to her hackles anymore?
Oh, and Malkin featured a doughnut iced in green, at her website.
Rachael Ray, on the other hand, featured a tribute to America’s fallen soldiers on her website, with a recipe for the picnic.
I think it’s all karma, and we’re getting this lunacy because Ken Ham’s existence causes a massive rip in the Force. It’s like a billion voices screaming in unison, “MMMMMMM! Doughnuts!”
Did you know that Islam is a major religion in Malkin’s home country? Why is she hiding that?
I gotta go.
Where was Malkin’s outrage when Laura Bush wore a headscarf during parts of her recent visit to the Middle East? Wasn’t THAT more of an “endorsement” of Islamic ideas than a stupid scarf worn AROUND THE NECK, NOT ON THE HEAD by a minor personality in an ad campaign?
Of course, we must remember that Malkin is quite insane. She still speaks in support of the illegal internment of American citizens of Japanese descent during WWII. Oh yea, Malkin is an Asian-American too. Sorta like an Asian version of “Uncle Tom”.
I called Dunkin Donuts corporate office yesterday and gave them an earfull for giving in to the wingnuts instead of taking the opportunity to point out that the scarf was NOT a keffiya nor was there any political message in the ads whatsoever. They’re selling coffee and donuts for God’s sake! Rather than giving in to Malkin and the rest of the wingnuts, they should have stood up for themselves and their many franchisees (many of whom are Muslim) against the nonsensical rantings of a person like Malkin who sees terrorists behind every tree and live in constant fear of their own shadow.
Taken from http://astrogeek01.livejournal.com/111483.html
Dear Dunkin’ Donuts:
It has come to my attention that you recently pulled an advertisement for your products featuring Rachael Ray because a scarf she was wearing looked similar to a traditional Arab headscarf and therefore was obviously a subtle encouragement to terrorists (since Arab = terrorist). (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7427206.stm) While canceling this advert may have addressed your initial oversight in this regard, I fear you have overlooked a far more obvious similarity between the terrorists and your advertisements – not just in this ad but in every one you have produced. While there have certainly been many examples of violent terrorists who wear the keffiyeh, many do not. However, to my knowledge, in modern history, *every* fundamentalist terrorist has shared one overt and visible symbol during their acts of aggression, and it is one that we see mirrored in every advertisement produced by your company as well as every employee that works for you:
They were not naked.
By using blatantly garmented actors, actresses, and employees, Dunkin’ Donuts is clearly providing encouragement to those parties seeking the destruction of the United States of America. This encouragement only emboldens our enemies to commit additional heinous acts of clothed aggression. While your advertisements do not overtly tie your organization to terrorists (as might happen if you featured an Arab actor in them), the symbolism nonetheless is clear.
I strongly urge Dunkin’ Donuts to recognize its error and remedy it as soon as possible by replacing its current advertisements and corporate dress code to eliminate all possible symbolic support for the terrorist by prohibiting garments of any kind to be associated with your product. So strong is my conviction on this point that I will no longer patronize any of your establishments until one of the following conditions has been met: Either 1) Dunkin’ Donuts has become synonymous with nudity, or 2) Dunkin’ Donuts displays enough backbone and common sense to ignore foolish, xenophobic, and ultimately racist arguments raised by isolated corners of society.
I look forward to your response on this matter.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME HERE
Re: #164
Couldn’t resist:
“The stupid that burns twice as bright burns half as long – and you have burned so very, very stupidly, Michelle.”
[ducks]
[Might have posted earlier, but just couldn’t tear my eyes from the Audrey Hepburn picture…]
Audrey Hepburn – Iconic 1950s Terrorist
It’s not really about the scarf, the real reason right-wingers went after Rachel Ray is for her championing of 30 minute meals. In most families, women do the majority of the cooking, so anything which reduces the amount of time necessary to cook a meal gives teh wimmins more free time, which leads to more free thought, which could undermine the patriarchal dominance structure so beloved of righties. Kneecapping Rachel Ray could help forestall a feminist uprising among soccer moms.
Ditto on thanks for the Audrey Hepburn picture, please serve us up a nice Louise Brooks in a future post.
@madarab:
LOL
that was worthy of The Onion.
More proof of the links between coffee and evil
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7427105.stm
Rachel Ray turned me into a newt.
Scooter, I think you meant to write: Allahu Akbar. (God is great.) which is not actually correct for the sentiment you’re trying to express. What you want is: Maag Baarg Amrika. (Death to America)
Oh, wait, Does knowing a bit about a different culture make me a terrorist? Crap, I had better go bury all my derbeeki music, my finger cymbals and the lovely scarf that my aunt sent for last chrisfsmmas.