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 Sharipov’s 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 ...
One has to wonder if he was sober when he wrote this.
Atlanta .... the Yankees created a Sharp (Sharps rifles?) shooter Corp early on , and one of their objectives was to target and kill CSA officers , who were conveniently marked
by beautiful gold braid on sleeve and cap . Had the CSA not been such wonderful gentlemen , and except for the rare occasion when the shot was just too good to pass up , they did not specifically target Union officers. Had they , there may have been no Sherman , no Grant and a host of others , and the South would have won. I suggest that Southern honor and chivalry may have been a large part of their own undoing.
Except that my comments had basis in fact and were supported by evidence. Chuck's were just made up.
As would every single southern leader of the time.
Fair enough. Please post some comments from Lee or Jackson or Davis or any other southern leader that show their views were different than Lincoln's or that they would not be considered racists by today's standards. Can you do that?
It's from his autobiography so I've no doubt he was. Why, do you disagree with it? Are you dismissing something based on your opinion alone?
Except for generals like McPherson or Sykes or Reynolds you mean. But you may be correct, the confederates usually shot their own generals.
lies
Isn't it well documented that Grant was an alcoholic?
You're referring to the Berdan Brigade.
A country that had to have a firm in New York City print its currency could accomplish that? Somehow, I don't think so.
I'm no Southern basher, but the Confederacy never had a chance. Its government structure was tailor made for chaos, and I'm sure the Confederate Congress would still be arguing over some bill brought up in 1870.
As a Yankee who tried to get his second son named "Joshua Chamberlain [last name redacted]" I say you should be good and proud of your heritage. A few dumb ideas does not overwhelm the great gallantry of Southern troops, or any of the other items on the long list of good things about the South.
I should have gotten one of their blood chits (the one that says you should give the heroic pilot a mint julep) while they were still available.
Comparison between those two flags is without exception the blather of PC morons. And I say that as a man who wanted to give his son the first and middle names "Joshua Chamberlain."
that's what a suicidal man would do.
To quote General Sherman, "Save me your bottled piety."
Sorry, but you folks can't have it both ways. You can't say the majority of Southerners didn't own slaves and then call Sherman a war criminal for endong the bloodiest conflict in our history by going after the slaveholders directly.
How many more tens of thousands of men should we have poured down a hole to save General Sherman from your derision? Be proud of the nobility and skill of Jackson, Lee and Johnston if you want, and justifiably so, but I will continue to be proud that Illinois farmboys followed Sherman into the heart of the hornet's nest and put a stake through the heart of a tyranny.
and the first shots were fired by....
Hey, John Kerry...provide some evidence that Sherman ordered the rape of young girls and the brutalization of old men.
What? That the confederacy shot McPherson, Sykes and Reynolds? Or that the shot Jackson, Johnston, and wounded Longstreet?
It is documented that Grant had a drinking problem during his adult life. It's also documented that he controlled it for most of his adult life, too.
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