First of all, I heart Rachel Lucas. I just think her site is the funniest, most fabulously crass thing I have ever seen. But also, she manages to make it highly intelligent and insightful at the same time. (That is, when she’s not talking about dog poop and dead possums.)

Witness this entry about Cameron Diaz touring Peru while wearing a bag with a Chinese communist star on it and Mao Zedong’s famous slogan, “Serve the People.” Unbelievable.

R.L. is right – you really should have to have a degree to be famous. That’s just dumb. Not only because Ms. Diaz is completely unaware of the local history of that particular slogan, but more so because she thinks it’s cool to wear it at all. I don’t care if you’re in Wisconsin or Warsaw – people don’t just stroll down the street wearing a bag with a swastika on it (unless of course they are really trying to make that statement, which is a different matter entirely).

This pains me, in so many ways. Have we truly become so preoccupied with terrorists and Paris Hilton that we have already forgotten the lessons of the last century? Does no one remember how many people were killed by Communist parties all over the world? It reminds me of an article I read a few months ago saying that while there are plenty of movies dealing with the Nazis, there are relatively few about any of the various bloodthirsty Communist regimes.

Again, we need better history teachers. We must make sure our children do not forget these lessons. And to start with, we need to make those with a high public profile think twice before affronting an entire country by committing a major fashion blunder.

UPDATE: Well, she did apologize…