Published 8 May 2009 · Main Posts the Starbucks logo and Greg Sheridan Jeff Sparrow Critiquing Greg Sheridan loses its charm once you discover that, in the computer program that writes his columns, stupidity is a feature and not a bug. Today, however, we should make the effort, given that he pops up on Arts and Letters Daily. Did you know the woman in the Starbucks logo is Queen Esther of the Jews? Just part of a vast Israeli plot against Arab people. Greg Sheridan can tell you more … Sheridan’s piece is the usual boilerplate about how the Left hates Jews and so has aligned with Islamists in order to bring about a global caliphate headed by Noam Chomsky. Or something like that. Anyway, the bit on Starbuck goes like this. [O]n Al-Nas TV, another Egyptian cleric, Safwat Higazi, revealed the wholly fictitious scoop that the female figure in the Starbucks logo was really Queen Esther of the Jews. Silly old Muslims! What kind of insane death cult could be so worried about the logo of a coffee shop? Wait, what’s this? A Christian group based in San Diego found grounds for outrage over the new retro-style logo for Starbucks Coffee. The Resistance says the new image “has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute,” Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. “Need I say more? It’s extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks.” And what does the nuttiness of Mr Dice prove? Nothing, of course — but then neither does Sheridan’s column. Jeff Sparrow Jeff Sparrow is a Walkley Award-winning writer, broadcaster and former editor of Overland. More by Jeff Sparrow › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 28 March 20249 April 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.