EEEEK! THEY'RE TAKING OVER!

Beware, America! Breitbart wants you to know that the sharia takeover of America has already begun -- in Vermont!

VERMONT RESTAURANT REMOVES BACON SIGN DUE TO MUSLIM OPPOSITION AND SAFETY CONCERNS

Local Winooski, Vermont restaurant Sneakers Bistro has removed a sign that read, "Yield Sneakers Bacon" citing opposition from a Muslim community member and safety concerns.

The sign was put up as part of a city program that allows businesses to post an advertisement in an area where they have helped maintain city flowerbeds. The sign that read "Yield Sneakers Bacon" was removed after a woman, identifying herself as a Muslim, posted in an online community forum, stating she was personally offended by the sign....

Saturday morning the restaurant posted to Facebook, "We are here to serve people BREAKFAST, not politics. We removed the sign that was located on public property as a gesture of respect for our diverse community. There were also concerns raised about safety(emphasis added). Removing it was not a difficult decision. We still love bacon. We still love eggs. Please have the political conversation elsewhere." ...

That boldface emphasis is in the original Breitbart post. I speak fairly fluent Wingnut, so let me explain what that means to every right-winger who reads it: Evil violent beheading Muslims want to kill us all unless we agree to convert to Islam and live as slaves in their oppressive global caliphate! Sneakers is the canary in the coal mine! The owners of Sneakers knew they were going to be first -- and we're all going to be next!!!!1!1!"

Er, no. I don't think that was the point of the "safety" reference. Here's a photo of the sign in question:



It looks very similar to a real Yield sign. It's diamond-shaped and yellow. As is noted in the local news report cited by Breitbart, the sign was posted at an actual intersection in what's called the Winooski Circle -- a traffic circle that happens to have the highest rate of crashes in Vermont.

So, um, I think that's what Sneakers meant with that reference to "safety."

Regarding the cultural sensitivity issue: I live in New York City, where the halal food trucks park near restaurants serving bacon-and-egg diner breakfasts, Certified Berkshire Heritage Pork preparations, and everything in between. It's all live-and-let-live, more or less (except for the restaurateurs not liking the food-truck competition). But hey, if the owner of a private business in Winooski, Vermont, freely chooses to stop advertising bacon (while still selling it), it's none of my business, is it?

I wonder what deep concerns the Breitbartniks would express regarding the "modesty committees" in ultra-Orthodox parts of Brooklyn. They assess shopkeepers' window displays, and shopkeepers usually agree to the changes they ask for:

The Brooklyn shopkeeper was already home for the night when her phone rang: a man who said he was from a neighborhood "modesty committee" was concerned that the mannequins in her store's window, used to display women's clothing, might inadvertently arouse passing men and boys.

"The man said, 'Do the neighborhood a favor and take it out of the window,'" the store's manager recalled. "'We're trying to safeguard our community.'"

In many neighborhoods, a store owner might shrug off such a call. But on Lee Avenue, the commercial spine of Hasidic Williamsburg, the warning carried an implied threat -- comply with community standards or be shunned. It is a potent threat in a neighborhood where shadowy, sometimes self-appointed modesty squads use social and economic leverage to enforce conformity.

The owner wrestled with the request for a day or two, but decided to follow it. "We can sell it without mannequins, so we might as well do what the public wants," the owner told the manager, who asked not to be identified because of fear of reprisals for talking....

"They operate like the Mafia," said Rabbi Allan Nadler, director of the Jewish studies program at Drew University in Madison, N.J....

"They walk into a store and say it would be a shame if your window was broken or you lost your clientele," he said. "They might tell the father of a girl who wears a skirt that's too short and he's, say, a store owner: 'If you ever want to sell a pair of shoes, speak to your daughter.'" ...

I'm kidding, of course. I'm sure the Breitbart folks would think this is perfectly understandable.

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UPDATE: Yeah, yeah, yeah -- Yield signs are triangular, as is noted in comments. But does your driving brain know that? Your driving brain knows that there are yellow four-sided road signs -- does it see one with the word "Yield" and automatically reject it as a sign worth noting? I don't think the brain is that subtle. I think the brain reacts to it, at least initially, as a sign.