Let them eat cake

One of the silliest stories of the month involves a man who tried to make a point after Walmart turned down his request for a specialty cake with Confederate flag frosting. Thus rebuffed, the Louisiana man requested an alternate design, black with Arabic lettering, apparently without informing the store rep that the design was based on a battle flag of the self-styled Islamic State (i.e. ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, etc.). The cake was duly baked and delivered and the customer made a YouTube video to point out the apparent double standard: a much-beloved symbol of regional heritage was unacceptable to Walmart, itself a product of the South, yet a terrorist banner representing killers of Americans was OK. Walmart has since explained that no one at the local store realized what the customer was asking for, and that they'll bake no such cakes in the future. Well, the man has had his little joke, but what's the moral of the story? I suppose we can agree that Walmart has gone slightly too far in refusing to handle any more Confederate-themed merchandise. We can want the rebel battle flag purged from our public squares, but if people want to identify themselves to passers-by and partygoers as parochial bigots, why should we make it more difficult for the rest of us to recognize them? I think Walmart should feel free to make Confederate cakes on request, and Islamic State cakes as well. In either case, of course, it might be a good idea to keep track of who's ordering them and let the government know.

For all I know, genuine IS sympathizers might find a battle-flag cake blasphemous -- they may even find decorated cakes in general blasphemous -- but screw 'em.