Free Republic

SEATTLE - A Confederate monument in Capitol Hill's Lake View Cemetery is in the spotlight as a local group calls for its removal. For more than a century, Lake View Cemetery has been the final resting place for many of Seattle's pioneers. Only a short walk from one of the cemetery's most visited grave sites - that of Bruce Lee - a 14-foot granite monument memorializes Washington state's Confederate veterans and their families. "Just because it's a military memorial doesn't justify it," Charlette LaFevere says. "It's offensive." LeFevere is part of a small group calling on Seattle City leaders to...

Check out this absolutely amazing AUDIO of actual Confederate veterans singing "Bonnie Blue Flag." Note the accent of the lead singer. His accent seems to be Ulster Scots-Irish, not what we think of as a Southern accent. I guess that accent lingered on until at least the Civil War.Oh, and it was recently discovered via recordings, that what we think of as the Rebel Yell didn't sound a bit like the real thing.

I see that the Curator of African-American & Community History for the North Carolina Museum of History, Mr. Earl Ijames, is back in the news. Mr. Ijames was recently the keynote speaker at a new Confederate monument dedication in North Carolina. A news story quotes Mr. Ijames as saying: "We need to present a more balanced history," he said, adding that the black Confederate soldier has been lost to history. "They never got recognized, but we are starting to change that," Ijames said.

A Confederate heritage group says its free-speech rights were violated when a landowner removed a billboard promoting Southern history near the famed Darlington Raceway. The Sons of Confederate Veterans plans to demonstrate at the State House next month and buy radio advertisements to complain about losing its billboard on U.S. 52, about two miles from the racetrack. “This is the most chilling thing I’ve seen against freedom of speech,” spokesman Don Gordon said. The Sons of Confederate Veterans bought the billboard this spring in response to remarks by a NASCAR executive about the rebel flag. The billboard featured a Confederate...

Conflicts Of Interest I'm a little late this time around with my annual declaration of potential conflicts of interests. I do this every year because I think readers have a right to know where journalists are coming from. I admit that being a blue-collar guy who doesn't take $25,000 consulting fees like George Will, it's a bit easier for me than some of journalism's six-figure stars. When Will quoted tycoon Conrad Black in a column recently, he neglected to mention his financial arrangement with the man, which, when it was exposed, he said was none of your business. I respectfully...