I think that's what they call the form of cloth that Deuteronomy says has death as an appropriate punishment.
Now do you understand the cartoonist's clever joke?
It is fascinating watching the dance between Chomsky and Chavez - both are essentially clowns and only the former realizes it. He'd be ungrateful to avoid the fellow that has brought his anticapitalist fellow traveler such lovely cash, but on the other hand he can't afford to be upstaged. He'll smile and pretend but he's hoping desperately that Chavez just goes away, because one of his books in Chavez's hands is about as radioactive as an endorsement from Pee Wee Herman.