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 ...
free dixie,sw
Decades before the US.
Question: Why are you attacking almost half of the United States, for something that they also wanted to abolish only a few years later?
Given that the confederate constitution explicitly talks about expanding slavery into new territories, and that the secession Declarations of Causes are all overwhelmingly about protecting slave property, it hardly seems to be the case that they were wanting to abolish the peculiar institution "a few years later."
Pride about Dixie and what it stands for, is obviously something you will never know....The people of America's South are very proud of their history.
And I'm very proud of the history of my home state of Illinois, where my ancestors broke the prairie sod with their own sweat instead of that of slaves, who fought to preserve the union, and who gave America Abraham Lincoln (who, by the way, practiced law in my town when he was riding circuit).
But I guess you'll never understand that. Too bad.
Ah, just like the south. When you can't win an argument, you want to resort to violence.
I guess you're right. Look what those Georgians put on a flag:
And one more time, every one of them was drafted be a committee appointed by the individual state secession conventions, comprised of delegates to those conventions. They were debated by the entire convention, then approved unanimously in every case. Now, if you want to make the case that all the other acts of the secession conventions were "not official", have at it.
the war was about the southland's citizens seceding from a federal government, which they believed no longer was acting in their "best self interest".
Because they were afraid that their slaves would be freed.
fwiw, MS's own laureate, William Faulkner, used to say:
the past is not gone. it's not even past.
free dixie,sw
Me neither!
well i was taught if you live in a glass house not to throw stones.
Actually what Faulkner said was, "The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past.
I heartily agree with you. There is no civil discourse with some people as their entire life is built around hate. Their minds are so narrow that it can be spanned by a blade of grass.
This is coming from a man who a few months ago cited, as his (incorrect) source for the invention of heroin and aspirin, a German historical novel.
On all accounts...it is totally amazing. The talking heads of the Dem. Party & the hysterical MSM are just modern-day slave traders/terrorists/carpetbaggers. For it is now, so very easy to see how their cruelty to people began. I briefly researched a bit of the slave trade business, because it was all part of what needed to be known for my own purposes, years ago. Anyway, I couldn't understand why there was such a need for all the secrecy that was going on back then, but it quite clear now. And Massachusettes...and Rhode Island...those people outta be hung in the court of shame! Shame, shame, shame on all of them for forcing this BS to continue...
You despise the C.S.A. and that my dear sir, is where our paths must part. For you have that mindset that is quite intolerable to me...
I had originally thought you to be a bit more mature than to try and corner me like is being done. And you perhaps are, but just find it much more to your satisfaction to be immature when the notion strikes. Whatever! That's not my problem. So, guess what? Until you decide to behave like a mature, responsible human being-don't talk to me...
free dixie,sw
SOME of the people on these WBTS threads are as filled with HATE,INTOLERENCE of the beliefs of others, PREJUDICE & BIGOTRY as anyone i ever had the DIS-pleasure of meeting in 3rd world countries. (and i've met more than a few NUTS & HATERS,overseas.)
SELF-righteousness is also rampant among the lunatic fringe of the DAMNyankee coven of REVISIONISTS & south-HATERS.
free dixie,sw
there is nobody more filled with HATE & PREJUDICE than the 10-15% of northerners, who are DAMNyankees.
free dixie,sw
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