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 ...
> Who on this forum is "worshipping at the altar of slaveowners"?
See post 23: "I will always be loyal to Dixie and what it represented."
> Who on this forum wants to re-create a "feudal society of landed aristocrats"? Who on this forum wants to enslave their fellow human beings?
Non-sequiturs. Please don't argue like a DUmmies.
"Nope. Only those insulting Southerners who thing that enslaving their fellows was a noble cause to kill for."
....which judging from your posts is every southerner who doesn't reflexively condemn the confederacy.....which is pretty much every southerner.
EVERY good southerner is a patriotic American. You want to argue confederacy = nazi. You're just wrong, and idiotically so....so much so that trying reason with you is futile.
As much as people like you can't stand it, southerners are as good or better Americans than anywhere else in this country. That they do not recoil from a symbol of the confederacy like you would prefer pisses you off. So what. We're Americans - get over it......if you are an American then the confederacy is part of your history, whether you recoil from it or not.
Slaves bought and sold under the American flag for nearly 90 years. Slaves baught and sold under the Confederate flag for four years ... yep, you have it right. The Emancipation Proclamation freed all of the slaves in the Union Slave states too right? Yep... the war was all about slavery alright.
I'm surprised the Confederate-haters have time to bother with the battleflag. I figured they'd be too busy marching to support the Gitmo prisoners or illegal aliens or one of their other pet projects.
I really didn't think you had an answer.
Why don't you go crawl back under the rock from whence you slithered. I, like the previous poster, invite you to go up to a good ol' Southern Boy and start insulting him about the South. He'll promptly teach you some much needed manners.
The war should have been avoided. As one of my heroes said after losing an election by refusing to play to the extremes of either side, "I'd rather be right than be president."
"the navigable waters of this State shall remain forever highways, free to the citizens of this State, and of such States as may unite with the State of Alabama in a Southern Slaveholding Confederacy."
Damned history hasn't been changed to whitewash what the South actually secceded for yet.
So now you're saying that people who were affluent in antebellum should have been forced into slavery post-war. Now, besides saying that my ancestors should have been put in shackles post-war, you're espousing a belief that Fidel Castron would be proud of. So it makes sense that the Radical Reconstruction governments acted in a Communistic fashion.
Good point. And I'm sure plenty will show up soon enough.
We have a winner!
It only took 15 posts before the first Confederacy = Nazism post.
Ok, Larry the Cable guy is nothing more than a character that a comedian (who plays him) invented to make money. It is not an accurate reflection of the Southern white male, nor is it at all a reflection of the kind of Southern whites who maintain pride in their heritage. Larry the Cable guy is just a stereotype who plays to misinformed ideas held by Northerners regarding the Southland.
> So now you're saying that people who were affluent in antebellum should have been forced into slavery post-war.
Actually, no. It was called "Sarcasm," which I guess they don't teach in the South. But if you think that the idea of your ancestors being shackled and enslaved is a bad idea, why does the idea of some *other* people being shackled and enslaved not matter as much to you? What makes your ancestors better than some random strangers?
You are so damned PC-institutionalized on this issue that you probably lean left when you walk.
"The war should have been avoided."
You are right about that. The South miscalculated badly, there.
So tell us your opinion of slaveholder George Washington.
Sorry, but you have failed to understand history.
However, today we have an even more vile form of slavery that uses illegal aliens. At least slaves were provided a home and food.
Today, we import poor Mexicans to perform the exact same jobs that Southern slaves did 150 years ago. However, these modern day "slaves" are not provided even the basics of food and shelter.
Since they are not citizens, minimum wage laws do not apply. If they dare to complain, then they will be arrested.
Now what was that about Southern slavery 150 years ago?
What the hell are YOU doing today to help these modern day slaves?
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