One man’s terrorist is another’s celebrity chef

Rachel Ray – she’s everywhere, even here in New Zealand we get to see her cooking up a storm on daytime TV. The way that she can grate cheese onto nachos, and to think to add tomatoes to a salad – genius. A little while ago I heard that she was actually endorsing Dunkin Doughnuts – now that goes beyond sell-out in my books, this is like NASCAR sticker-shock sell out sort of stuff. There is enough refined sugar in a doughnut to put an Olympian onto a Type 2 coma. This is the sort of rubbish that is killing the next generation and she is best palls with their mama’s. Pretty bad if you ask me. But all of a sudden I find myself strangely supportive of Ms. Ray – perhaps it was when she was accused of being an Islamic fundamentalist. Not Rachel, NO! Maybe Martha, but not Rach! Checkout this add and see the whole story – this, by the way is the first time that Fox News has featured on my blog, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not…



Those of you who have traveled to the Middle East know that this sort of scarf is a standard sort of article of clothing. Think of it like a sweatshirt, a baseball cap or trousers – not some sort of symbolic uniform. The ignorance is truly astonishing - the fact that people in the 21st century can be that judgemental just over a scarf is one of the most saddening things I’ve heard in a long time. It wasn’t even an authentic keffiyeh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keffiyeh) but just some paisley scarf borrowed from the make-up girl.

Don’t let fools like this drive a wedge between us all – the one thing that I always tell people is that the more you travel and the more people you meet from around the world, the more you realize not how different we all are, but how the similar we are. Everyone wants peace, security, a happy family, a place to live and the chance to laugh. While we may look different, speak a different language, live in a different homeland - we aren’t that different from each other. Seeing what we have in common is what will bring peace - so you wear you scarf Rachel, and if you offend some right-wing, jingoistic, ignorant assholes I’m right there with you, doughnuts and all.

Make doughnuts, not war.
Scott