Latte With Your Controversy?

Okay, I guess it does look like a kaffiyeh.

This is a photo of Rachael Ray, host of the Food Network's 30 Minute Meals, as well as a daytime talk show. She's been pitching Dunkin' Donuts for a while now, and in this shot she's supposed to be showing you how nice it is to drink an iced latte while walking in the park. Or whatever.

The scarf around her neck attracted the attention of some bloggers, including Michelle Malkin. Here's Michelle, as quoted by Portfolio.com:

The kaffiyeh, Malkin wrote in a column posted online last Friday, "has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons."

For the record, I think Michelle Malkin's great. She's intelligent, hot, and seems to have a pretty good sense of humor when she's not talking to Democrats. On this kaffiyeh deal, I guess I can meet her halfway.

Most of what she said above is true. Yasser Arafat did make the kaffiyeh part of Palestinian vogue, and it is commonly worn by guys that say they want to behead people and then do just that. Then again, thousands of other people wear them to keep the sun off their neck. I don't know what Dunkin' Donuts was after. For their part, they say that the material is paisley, and any resemblance to a kaffiyeh is coincidence. Just to make sure the issue went away, Dunkin' Donuts pulled the ad.

Dunkin' Donuts might not have seen the similarity, but I'm sure the ad designer did. "Resistance kaffiyehs" have become a growing fashion trend. They're not up there with the Che t-shirts yet, but they are turning up more often.

There's two ways you can look at it. One is to be offended, freak out, and worry yourself to death. The other is to be satisfied that at least you know who you're talking to. When buddies of mine used to wear the Che t-shirts, I knew they were drunk, feeling rebellious, and reading too much Camus and Sartre. My buddies didn't have a clue who Che Guevara was. When I told them he was from Argentina, they never believed me. "He's Cuban, loser! Viva Che! Free the people! Down with capitalism! Hand me that beer."

When my friends got older, they dropped the t-shirts and moved on with their lives. Another friend of mine, however, still wears one. That is how I know that, good buddy or not, he's a goofball.