It seems I missed a grave case of losing touch on reality by Fox News cronies earlier this week:

Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men.

Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott.

‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column.

‘‘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.’’

The company at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it’d be easier just to yank the ad.

Said the suits 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.’’

(In case you’re wondering, the stylist who selected the offending scarf was not Gretta Enterprises boss Gretchen Monahan, who appears on Ray’s TV show as a style consultant.)

For her part, Malkin was pleased with Dunkin’s response: ‘‘It’s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists.”

[Source]

It’s a joke, no? It must be. I can be naive from time to time.

A keffiyah as a symbol of terrorism? In which case, faux-cowboy boots shall be forever exiled from my secret fashion agenda due to their blatant right-wing, loopier-than-a-slinky link to the current President.

They could be dangerous - one day I would be coinking around town, the next I could be expostulating inanities such as: “I can press when there needs to be pressed; I can hold hands when there needs to be—hold hands.” (when asked how he can contribute to the Middle East peace process, Washington, D.C., 4 January this year) and mindlessly obliterating the most ancient and sacred countries on earth.

I mean, really.

[Via: Tololy and Boing Boing]