Restating the Obvious

Too weird to ignore

I wasn't going to post anything about the presidential contest. After all, I live in Hawaii, where nobody's vote has ever had any effect on the outcome. But this is just too weird on too many levels to pass by.

Barack Obama passed out dress code orders to the reporters and photographers accompanying him around the Middle East.

Wha? Way outta line.

Second, the first order was “Do not wear green.”

The reason given was that green is the color of Hamas. Read the link, and you will find out -- if you don't already know -- that that is not correct.

However, green is the color of the prophet and, generally, of Islam. In fact, in “Freedom at Midnight,” about the partition of India, much is made of the appearance of the viceroy of India, Earl Mountbatten, and his wife at a huge outdoor rally of Indian Muslims -- soon to be Pakistanis.

Mountbatten's guards were seriously concerned that the mob would tear Mountbatten to pieces; there had already been plenty of that on both sides, and there was to be much more, with the execrable Gandhi cheering on the slaughter.

What happened, though, was not predicted. The Mountbattens wore green and, as the saying goes, the crowd went wild. This was taken as a signal that the viceroy, and perhaps the British government, were on the side of the Muslims. (Which says something about the political sophistication of the Muslims.)

For the record, although I find it hard to believe, the Mountbattens, who were famous fashion plates, wore green by happenstance.

Well.

Somebody high up in the Obama campaign doesn't know anything about Islam. That ought to be a minus, you'd think, these days.

On the other hand, it will be hard to slot this fiasco into the “Obama is a secret Muslim” rumors.

I blame Karl Rove.