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Confederate flags on space station draw ire
MSNBC ^ | 6/13/06 | James Oberg

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 ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: civilwar; confederateflag; dixie; iss; losers; nasa; neoconfederate; pcpatrol; rebs; rednecksinspaaaaaace; slavestates; z
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To: orionblamblam
i note that you are NOT attacking the SLAVERS from the NORTH! there were MANY & they made a "ton of money" on the backs of Africans from the very first days of the slave trade until its final (unlamented) end.

in point of fact, the elites in the NORTH favored a continuation of slavery, permanently, where it was PROFITABLE. that was ALL the elites cared about = $$$$$$$$$ & POWER.

there was a SMALL group of abolitionists in both north & south, who wanted slavery ended before the WBTS. they had only MINORITY support anywhere. as long as slavery remained PROFITABLE, the elites of the social/financial/big business world favored slavery.

those are the facts.

free dixie,sw

521 posted on 06/16/2006 2:26:35 PM PDT by stand watie ( Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God. -----T.Jefferson)
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To: orionblamblam

Actually, I think you're wrong on abortion. Most people want Roe v. Wade repealed, all that does is turn it back to the states. The federal government is no more qualified to issue an outright ban then it is to issue an outright mandate. It's a 10th amendment issue.

The only thing the South has in common with Boston is Catholics and historic architecture, other than that, two different places entirely, for one thing, Southerners by birth have more sense than Bostonians, though Boston is a wonderful town to visit. As for Reagan, Reagan became the great President he was because during his time in politics, the area he lived in was infatuated with Southern culture, which made sense considering the number of Southern immigrants living in Los Angeles at the time, and the fact that Western culture was shaped by Southerners. Illinois is just a side fact, sort of like Ike being born in Texas. I notice Reagan didn't return to Illinois.


522 posted on 06/16/2006 2:26:52 PM PDT by AzaleaCity5691 (6-6-06 A victory for reason)
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To: AzaleaCity5691

!!!!!!!!!!!


523 posted on 06/16/2006 2:32:16 PM PDT by stand watie ( Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God. -----T.Jefferson)
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

PC reporting is drawing my ire.


524 posted on 06/16/2006 2:32:56 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
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To: orionblamblam; x
As for Reagan, Reagan became the great President he was because during his time in politics, the area he lived in was infatuated with Southern culture, which made sense considering the number of Southern immigrants living in Los Angeles at the time, and the fact that Western culture was shaped by Southerners.

My God! Could it be we're seeing the beginning of stand watie lite?

525 posted on 06/16/2006 2:39:22 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: orionblamblam
nope same old "dictionary" definition for "volunteered".

in point of fact, Blacks could NOT be drafted. freemen COULD volunteer to serve. slaves could NOT serve in the forces as they were NOT ((obviously) free to take the Oath of Enlistment, though SOME (a few hundred) were contract laborers.

i KNOW it hurts you preconceived notions & anti-dixie PREJUDICES, but what i posted is FACT. furthermore the south had a FEW (it is estimated that the number was somewhere between 10-20)""other than white" officers" (they were elected by the members of the three, large, all-Black CSA units.), while the north had (surprise, surprise) NONE!

you really should read Blacks in Blue & Gray, by Professor H R Blackerby of Tuskegee University; you'd then LOOK smarter.

free dixie,sw

526 posted on 06/16/2006 2:43:07 PM PDT by stand watie ( Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God. -----T.Jefferson)
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To: stand watie
As I've pointed out, the fact that those Southern boys died for the wrong side doesn't diminish their bravery.

Sherman was a hero who saved tens of thousands of Southern boys from death and dismemberment in a hopeless cause. Anyone who believes otherwise is spouting bottled piety.

527 posted on 06/16/2006 2:48:37 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Try Jesus--If you don't like Him, satan will always take you back.)
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To: Mr. Silverback
sorry, but you are WRONG.

troops under the command of sherman, THOUSANDS of innocent civilians & helpless POWs were slaughtered for NO good reason. sherman was a WAR CRIMINAL. nothing more;nothing less.

free dixie,sw

528 posted on 06/16/2006 2:57:38 PM PDT by stand watie ( Resistance to tyrants is OBEDIENCE to God. -----T.Jefferson)
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To: stand watie
troops under the command of sherman, THOUSANDS of innocent civilians & helpless POWs were slaughtered for NO good reason. sherman was a WAR CRIMINAL. nothing more;nothing less.

Lies, pure and simple.

529 posted on 06/16/2006 2:58:44 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur

So what would you call the Eagles then, or the original music by the Doobie Brothers, Linda Ronstadt, can't forget the Bakersfield sound, and the fact that old Ronnie pardoned Merle Haggard. Before California was taken over by the fruits and nuts, it was a laid back place, just like the South, and during the 70s, much of the music that was popular in California became popular in the South and vice-versa.

Reagan spent much more of his life in California than he ever did in Illinois, and when he retired, he returned to Los Angeles. Are you going to honestly deny this? Spend enough time in a place, and you'll become part of it, no matter how much of your original home you still carry with you.


530 posted on 06/16/2006 3:02:07 PM PDT by AzaleaCity5691 (6-6-06 A victory for reason)
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To: stand watie
once more, SMART FReepers are lol AT you, scalawag.

don't you care that most folks here think that you are as clueless as "m.eSPINola"???


Really? and you can prove this how?

By sending me to some library you once visited to read a book the library doesn't have on file?

or by recounting an article from a yachting magazine from decades ago that even you can't remember title of?

I don't think you have the brains to prove what you have said, you certainly have never been able to prove anything you have said or have claimed in the past about your beloved democrats in the confederacy.

There's a reason why you are still allowed to post even though you have over thirty complaints against you by a single poster on this board. You are allowed to post here to hone our wit and whimsy on you. You're a braggart, a dolt, a cretin, a boob, a troll, a nitwit, a kook, a bonehead, a twit, a snit, an imbecile, but having said all those things about you you're most endearing purpose for this board is that you are as vehement about the confederacy as a neutered pet liberal is about Clinton.

Only this board doesn't allow pet liberals neutered or not.

Instead we get to mess with your head,
pet it
stroke it
and throw you a bone in the middle of the information super highway of Ideas and watch you run after it while dodging bigger thoughts then you'll ever be capable of.

If I wasn't so filled with my own importance in the world I'd almost feel pity for you.

You would have been better born an Indian slave in the old south and whipped soundly for your impertinence and lies then to be allowed to mingle with the polite society that has endured your mindless posts for years on this board.

Yeah I'm sure they are all laughing at me, the voices in your head told you so, didn't they?

Honestly the only reason I respond to you is because I am bored from waiting for the next thing dear to my heart, I could care less about you or your views on the old south but making you run around screaming like a kid that got his finger smashed in a door, about a south you never knew or saw, is rewarding as long as you are here, I can always be entertained by your mindless myopia and juvenile vitriol.
531 posted on 06/16/2006 3:02:08 PM PDT by usmcobra (A single rogue Marine, yeah that can happen, but a whole Unit, only a liberal would believe that BS)
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To: AzaleaCity5691
So what would you call the Eagles then...

Glenn Frey was born in Michigan, Bernie Leadon was born in Minnesota, Joe Walsh is from Witchita. Some southrn influence.

...the original music by the Doobie Brothers

Tom Johnston born in Visalia, California. Jeff Baxter was born in D.C.. Michael McDonald was born in St. Louis.

...Linda Ronstadt...

Born in Tuscon, Arizona.

So where is the southern influence again?

532 posted on 06/16/2006 3:13:39 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: stand watie; orionblamblam
you really should read Blacks in Blue & Gray, by Professor H R Blackerby of Tuskegee University; you'd then LOOK smarter.

You'd look smarter if you'd stop saying that Blackerby's initials were HR. They were HC. Nor was he a professor at Tuskegee. He was a publisher of pulp western magazines and comic books. And the book doesn't even come close to making the assertions that you claim it does.

533 posted on 06/16/2006 3:16:52 PM PDT by Heyworth
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To: Non-Sequitur

Country music is known as "Country-Western" in old school parlance. That means it was a music that was based on two traditions, Southern and Western. Last I checked, Tucson is in Arizona, and during the settlement of the west, many Southerners found there way into the Southwestern states. For all intents and purposes, St. Louis is both a Southern city and a Midwestern city. A large number of blues musicians resided in St. Louis, and the blues was a form of music first pioneered by Southern blacks. The blues is also the basis of rock n' roll. Also, DC was traditionally a Southern city.


534 posted on 06/16/2006 3:43:54 PM PDT by AzaleaCity5691 (6-6-06 A victory for reason)
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To: AzaleaCity5691

> Actually, I think you're wrong on abortion.

It is a separate debate, and one I suspect we wouldn't find a whole lot to argue about (and how boring would that be), but the abortion debate has people on *both* sides wanting Constitutional amendments. Heck, I'd *love* for the fedgov to come and bitchslap a few of the states... states that have ridiculous, un-constitutional gun laws, for instance.

> The only thing the South has in common with Boston is Catholics and historic architecture

And an un-earned sense of specialness and importance.

> I notice Reagan didn't return to Illinois.

Nor did he move to the South. Unless, of course, y'all want to claim D.C.


535 posted on 06/16/2006 4:35:37 PM PDT by orionblamblam (I'm interested in science and preventing its corruption, so here I am.)
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To: Heyworth
How proud you must be!

I'm hoping I'll find an ancestor in the 20th Maine (I'm from the Portland area originally) but I've never had the time to go digging.

536 posted on 06/16/2006 5:30:02 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Try Jesus--If you don't like Him, satan will always take you back.)
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To: Texas Mulerider
John Brown?

BZZZZZZTTTT! No, sorry, the raid on Harper's Ferry by a serial killing abolitionist nutcase has no more relevance to the Union cause than Eric Rudolph has to the pro-life movement. No, the answer was "Edmund Ruffin, for the Confederacy, at 4:30 am on 12 April, 1861."

537 posted on 06/16/2006 5:32:52 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Try Jesus--If you don't like Him, satan will always take you back.)
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To: Mr. Silverback
I've never had the time to go digging.

Luckily for me there was no digging involved. My great grandmother told me about them.

538 posted on 06/16/2006 5:35:30 PM PDT by Heyworth
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To: stand watie
NOT by Citadel cadets in Charleston, SC but by the DAMNyankee renegades in MO & Bleeding Kansas.

[chortle!] Yeah, sure. Let's see...

First electoral skullduggery: Pro-slavery Border Ruffians crossing from Missouri in the thousands to cast illegal votes for a pro-slavery Congresscritter. Only half of the ballots in the election were legally cast. In one location, only 20 votes out of over 600 were legal.

Second electoral skullduggery: Thousands of Border Ruffians cross over to vote illegally in the elections for the territorial legislature.

First attack: Pro-slavery renegades sack Lawrence, KS.

What John Brown did in response to the Lawrence raid was monstrous, but Brown was the Eric Rudolph of his day, a man responding to despicable actions with equally despicable violence.

539 posted on 06/16/2006 5:55:01 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Try Jesus--If you don't like Him, satan will always take you back.)
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To: stand watie
troops under the command of sherman, THOUSANDS of innocent civilians & helpless POWs were slaughtered for NO good reason. sherman was a WAR CRIMINAL. nothing more;nothing less.

More blather. The loss of civilian life was small, no abuses against civilians (such as rape or murder) were ordered by Sherman or were a matter of policy and certainly those deaths were equal to or less than the civilian deaths that would have occurred if the war had gone on for years. You'll find Sherman's orders are clear and have nothing to do with killing any civilians, much less thousands.

Neo-confederates such as yourself who wish to rewrite history must denigrate Sherman, because if he hadn't smacked Hood around like a little girl, you guys might have been dealing with President McClellan in March of 1865, instead of trying to hold Grant off. You hate him because he's the man who beat you, not because of how he did it.

By the way, why did Johnston give honor and friendship to a war criminal? (Here's a hint: He didn't, because Sherman wasn't one.)

Glory, glory hallelujah,
His truth is marching on!

For Joshua Chamberlain and John M. Schofield,
Mr. Silverback

540 posted on 06/16/2006 6:19:23 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Try Jesus--If you don't like Him, satan will always take you back.)
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