Posted on 06/14/2006 5:58:12 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
Confederate flags flown aboard the international space station and seemingly signed by a NASA astronaut showed up last week on the online auction site eBay.
The original eBay listing indicated that the 4-by-6-inch flags were brought aboard the space station by Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov in 2004, and an accompanying photo showed a sample flag that seemed to bear Sharipovs signature as well as that of Leroy Chiao, his NASA colleague on the station. Yet another photo showed several of the rebel flags floating in a space station module.
The item was pulled from the auction on Monday by the seller, Alex Panchenko of USSR-Russian Air-Space Collectibles Inc. in Los Angeles and on Tuesday, Panchenko told MSNBC.com that he removed the items from sale because he had concluded the flag and the authentication documents were forgeries.
However, Robert Pearlman, editor and founder of CollectSpace, said he believes the flags are authentic.
The picture taken of the flags aboard the station says a lot, he said. It would be difficult to fake, given the style and I couldn't see the motivation to do so. The onboard-the-ISS stamp, added Pearlman, is not known to have been counterfeited anywhere."
The disappearance of the flags followed a round of criticism over the weekend from former space scientist Keith Cowing, publisher of NASA Watch, an independent Web log. He cited the Confederate flags as an example of bad judgment on the ISS.
You'd think that someone on the U.S. side of the ISS program would have expressed some concern about flying a symbol on the ISS that many Americans associate with slavery, Cowing wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
seriously.. if you have a problem about slavery, then you may want to actually read a bit more history... and some current events. Back then, slaves were used, not only in the US, but around the world. The US was not the first, nor the last, country to use slaves. And all slaves are/were not black.
Slavery persists to this day, although not as openly, in many asian countries. in the middle east, the contracts used with the TCNs might as well be slavery. working conditions in China would many would compare with slavery.
personally, if the sight of the rebel flag pisses off the liberals, i'm all for it... since just about everything they do pisses me off. if it upsets some blacks, well, sorry about that. I'm a Scot. If we can handle the sight of the union jack, you can handle the rebel flag.
there are HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of southrons who fear the central government.
to quote Thomas Jefferson:
"When the people fears the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."
correct then, correct now!
free dixie,sw
in point of fact, the percentage of slave-owners was about EQUAL in BOTH the north & south. the percentage was about 5-6% of the population.
neither region's hands are clean of the stain of chattel slavery!
free dixie,sw
or are you just being a LITTLE TROLL???
free dixie,sw
Actually my cousin is my son's aunt and she's younger then my two oldest.
But that is beside the point.
Who invented the PC mentality?
Democrats
Who wins whenever a conservative call be called a bigot or a racist for flying the Confederate flag?
Democrats
Who will use the issue of the confederacy and states rights to undermind any republican campaign?
Democrats
See where I am going with these, it's not really hard to follow, all you have to do is ask yourself who wins when conservatives are blasted for even discussing the issues surrounding the civil war and the Confederate flag.
If your answer is the democrats then you see my point.
How is my favorite lil ball of hate these days, still claiming everyone that doesn't argee with you is a "troll" I see.
You are the prefect example of how a democrat underground troll would align themselves with these types of threads.
The WAay you POST an(D) your CoNTiNUed blathering from someone that is supposed to be a Republican party official and an very well educated scholar, only serves to bring shame upon conservatives in general and freeper in particular. You and I both know you are capable of reasoned responses, even eloquent arguments but you persist in this internet personna of a half wit armed with a keyboard.
Frankly it's old, you should post better.
in point of fact, it was the PREMEDITATED plan of the DAMNyankee high command & "lincoln's merry band of thugs, criminals & crooked politicians" to assault/rape/rob/MURDER both helpless CSA POWs and UNarmed civilians by the TENS of THOUSANDS! (over 15,000 helpless POWs were MURDERED at Point Lookout DEATH camp, alone.)
those MOST likely to be victimized were "persons of colour" (both slave & free),Asians, Latinos,Roman Catholics, Jews,AmerIndians, the "poorest of the poor whites" & what lincoln called "muddy-coloured people" (mixed-bloods, like ME for instance!). lincoln, the TYRANT & WAR CRIMINAL both hated & feared "persons of colour". FACT!
FEW of the landed (read: slave-owning!) elites were victimized by the "filth that flowed down from the north". furthermore, MANY slave-owners were given WRITTEN promises by senior union officers that their "right to keep slaves" would be protected PERMANENTLY, if they would collaborate with the union army. FACT!
free dixie,sw
Closer to 2,300.
But in all the inverviews I've read I cannot remember a single interviewee every saying that they wished they were still a slave.
Alzheimers? A former slave 'wishing' for the good ol days was posted to you previously here.
And again here.
Doesn't that say something about the institution and it's effect on the slaves themselves?
Sure, that life under the Confederates was better than that under yankee reconstruction.
your posts are filled with nonsense, REVISIONIST drivel & IGNORANCE of the historical facts. the vast majority of your posts are UNinformed personal opinion, which you try to deceive the readers into regarding as factual, absent proof.
PITY that you don't seem to know that you've been lied to and made a fool of.
free dixie,sw
Well SCALAWAG, I know that every time you post it's a foolish pack of lies.
Don't remember a slew of kind words about the invasion force either, during or after the War. What does that say about them?
Slavery was ended in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachussetts, and Rhode Island without any of those states launching a deadly war to protect it.
Nice screed, but irrelevant. The flag of the United States is not a flag of a nation that was formed for the exprtess purpose of maintaining slavery. teh Confederate battle flag is not only a flag of a nation formed for the express purpsoe of maintaining slavery... it was for a military that launched an aggressive war against the United States.
> I'm a Scot. If we can handle the sight of the union jack, you can handle the rebel flag.
Is the Union Jack the flag of a failed nation that was beaten and done away with? No. It's the flag of an extant nation.
A closer analog would be to ask a Korean "comfort woman" her opinion of an Imperial Japanese "rising sun" flag.
I stand corrected.
Sure, that life under the Confederates was better than that under yankee reconstruction.
For .01% of them at least. For 99.99 percent life under reconstruction was better than life under slavery. Assuming your quotes were in context, of course.
Ah, I see. So how much were these export tariffs and how could they be legal when Article I, Section 9, Clause 5 clearly states, "No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State?"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.