Fresh Loaf

I had CNN on mute the other morning and saw something out of the corner of my eye about President Barack Obama speaking at Cairo University in Egypt about muslin.

I was only half paying attention, but it seemed like he went on for, like, a whole hour about how the U.S. has no quarrel with muslin in general, but only with violent muslin radicals who want to destroy America’s traditions — by which I assume he meant denim. I guess he did the speech in Cairo because Egypt is one of the world’s largest growers of cotton and is therefore a hotbed of muslin extremism.

I sure hope the muslin world isn’t too cloth-eared to accept Obama’s benevolent overture.

If you think the muslin/Muslim pun in the first three paragraphs is stupid, I don’t blame you. Rereading it now, I haven’t quite cottoned to it myself.

OK, I promise I’ll stop.

But punning muslin and Muslim is only slightly sillier than politicians and journalists suggesting over and over that the “Muslim world” constitutes a coherent grouping of people.

“Muslim world” is about as nonspecific as one can get. Targeting a speech to the “Muslim world” is like walking up to a podium and saying, “Greetings, Earthlings,” or “Welcome, my fellow vertebrates.”

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Looking for the transcript of Obama’s Cairo speech, I noticed the main image on the front page of WhiteHouse.gov:

There’s nothing objectionable about a nice photo of the president visiting world landmarks. On the contrary, it’s good for Americans to have their leaders depicted showing interest in non-American things. 

But of all the photos taken by the White House photographer at Giza yesterday, the one they chose to make the lead photo on WhiteHouse.gov depicts Obama’s head above and between the Great Sphinx of Giza and the Pyramid of Khafre.

I hated it when Bush dressed up in war-hero drag and I hate it that this White House thinks it’s a good idea to depict Obama as a casual-Friday King of the Nile.

Luckily for you, Mr. President, I’m in a generous mood. I’m willing to forgive this faux-pas if the health care reform you sign includes a public option.

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