Posted on 10/10/2006 11:40:17 AM PDT by Texas2step
To let the Federal Government and all liberal/Commie butt sniffers know that "We the People" reserve our God given right of freedom of speech, and that we reserve the right/duty to rebel when the Government becomes abusive of our inalienable rights "among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Founders would expect no less of us.
Well, I suppose something along those lines might have been my fourth or fifth guess. "Yankee Go Home!," "States' Rights!" and "I Hate N*****s!" tend to be the top three, the order and probability of each option being influenced by the bigger picture.
Next time I see a CBF, maybe I should consider any of those four messages is possible. But, that's just because you took the time to explain yours.
Interestingly enough, if I can believe what I read on wikipedia, it appears calling it the "battle flag" is similarly incorrect.
How about that.
Explain how calling the Confederate battle flag the battle flag is incorrect according to the wikipedia article. I see no such writing there. However, calling the battle flag the Stars and Bars is ABSOLUTELY incorrect.
As I read it, the wikipedia article states the CBF is square. The rectangular flag is the Confederate Navy Jack.
Have you seen the flags the KKK marched under in the 1920's? Time to get a grip on reality old man! The "Yankee Go Home" bit I can understand because of the smarmy-assed, know-it-all attitude that Northerners that I've ran into here display. State's Rights - if you study the debates that went on before the ratification of the Constitution you would see that the States did have more rights than the Fed.
Maybe you can get the queers to adopt the confederate flag. Then it'll be protected by the PC police.
Back at you. Current reality doesn't necessarily have much in common with historical truth or accuracy. This ain't the 1920s. Like it or not, certain ideas become popular, regardless of whether they're based on truth.
For example, consider the pronunciation of the word, "nuclear." So many people have botched it up over the years—including, more recently and famously, our esteemed President—that Merriam-Webster's dictionaries list "nook-yu-ler" as an alternate (and acceptable) pronunciation.
Now, just as some of us like to p*ss and moan about how our beloved CBF (and Navy Jack) doesn't mean what some damn [yankees | liberals | n*****s | anybodyelses] think it means, I could sit here and rail on the President and everyone else who says "nucular," and talk about how utterly stupid they sound.
Likewise, I could sit here and p*ss and moan about how "gay" used to be a perfectly acceptable word to describe the feeling one has when he or she is feeling particularly good, and how the queers and their sympathizers stole the word for their own dastardly reasons. And I could sit here and say, "Damn, Billy Bob, I feel real gay today!" and 'to hell' with anyone who hears it and thinks I mean something else by it.
BUT, all the railing and p*ssing and moaning won't change the fact that things ARE the way they ARE and there's not a damn thing you or I can do to change it.
The fact is, I'm a firm believer in everything you said your Confederate flag stands for. But, I'm also in touch with reality enough to know that, when I want to convey that message, flying a Confederate flag is rarely an effective way to do it; in fact, unless I'm surrounded by good ol' Southern white boys, it's a damn poor way of getting that message across.
Since I usually find myself far outside of that particular demographic group, I shouldn't and wouldn't be at all surprised if many or most people who see me flying that flag would get a totally different and WRONG message about me and what I stand for. If I didn't give a damn, I'd fly the flag and say 'to hell with anyone who doesn't know what I mean by it.'
From where I sit (not totally surrounded by good ol' boys)—and from where NASCAR sits (on the national stage)—the choice is very simple. It's clearly a choice of (A) getting my message across or (B) flying that flag (and chance sending the wrong message). I choose 'A'. Those in a similar situation who choose 'B' need to understand that's the choice they made, and quit bellyaching about reality when they're the ones in denial of reality.
The "Yankee Go Home" bit I can understand because of the smarmy-assed, know-it-all attitude that Northerners that I've ran into here display.
I could say the same about some pig-headed, Neanderthal Southerners. But, I'm not one to condemn entire groups of people (like some pig-headed, Neanderthal Southerners do). ;O)
State's Rights - if you study the debates that went on before the ratification of the Constitution you would see that the States did have more rights than the Fed.
No sh*t? Again, I'm a firm believer in the Constitution and States' Rights. But that has nothing at all to do with the point I've been trying to make here.
As far as current "reality" goes - most of these losers don't have the "stones" or spine to live free. They are too content letting some college educated, turd elitist tell them what is good for them. No brain, just mush in their tiny little heads.
This has nothing at all to do with being sensitive toward anyone else. Rather, it has everything to do with communicating our message, and whether we care to do it effectively or not.
I think that I communicate my message well enough thank you very much. I just wish that I could have a giant bumper sticker, or sign that says "I determine my own destiny, and speech, my thoughts, my apparel, my friends, my associates, what flag I fly, my living conditions, how it looks, what it smells like, etc...etc...etc. If others are too ignorant to get to know me first before passing judgement, then they are the ones with the problem - NOT I. I am a peacable man until pushed.
"Passing judgement"? When you see a rainbow or a Mexican flag on someone's car, do you pass judgment?
Shoot coyotes? And arrest the other indocumentados?
In all things "hmmmmm", Google is NOT your friend (they play favorites, they save and sell searches, they suck), but metasearching is:
From Wetzel's blurb for his book Runnin' Rebel about basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, found online at
http://www.talesofthegame.com/site/1567191/product/1-59670-018-1
Author Dan Wetzel is a national sports columnist for Yahoo! Sports. The award-winning sportswriter, author, and screenwriter has covered all levels of basketball, as well as college football, the NFL, Major League Baseball, and the NHL. He was an editor and writer at Basketball Times for five years and has won numerous national writing awards. He has also been featured in several editions of The Best American Sports Writing and is the co-author of the critically-acclaimed investigative book Sole Influence. Wetzel graduated with a political science degree from the University of Massachusetts. [Emphasis added.]
Need I say more? Massapuketts snot, come down here to tell us our damn business.
Get on back to Hyannisport, jerk! Go pick a fight with your Southie neighbors, then tell us how things went!
The rectangular flag was used by the Confederate Navy as you say, but also by the Southeastern Department (flown by state troops serving at home), by the Army of Tennessee, and by units in the Trans-Mississippi Department like the one preserved by its color-bearer after Jo Shelby took his command into Mexican exile rather than surrender. (He sank his colors in the Rio Grande, but one color-bearer went back and retrieved his. It survived and is now a vexillological document, and -- like most Texas Confederate flags -- an unsurrendered Confederate color.)
The original Army of Tennessee flag had 12 or 13 large, six-pointed stars (because the officer appointed to see to it knew his European heraldry conventions) and was 1:2 oblong, later shortened to "about" 4:6, 3:5, and similar proportions, and given five-pointed stars. This flag, with 13 stars, is the one we know today as "the Confederate Battle Flag".
Lee's Army of Northern Virginia carried a square flag with 12 stars, the stars being bunched slightly toward the crux of the saltire and the ends of the arms left unadorned.
In the West generally, the flag was almost always oblong, but the colors of the flag were sometimes shown reversed, with no white fimbration to the saltire/St. Andrew's Cross; this was the rule in Taylor's Corps, which served in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Polk's Corps, until the last year of the war, flew a blue battle flag, sky-blue at first and dark blue later, with a red St. George's Cross (Polk was an Episcopal bishop before the war). The flag's cross was at first without fimbration and decorated with 13 large, five-pointed stars and so carried in 1861-2. The stars were slightly smaller and reduced to 11 on the later dark-blue version carried in 1863-4 (two stars being deleted from the vertical arms to regularize the spacing), and a white fimbration was also added to the cross; the whole effect was a little like an Icelandic flag with equal arms and white stars on the arms. I'd like to have one of those flags myself, but they're rare and available only from (understandably expensive) re-enactment outfitters.
"But personally, [if I saw it at a track], I would go home," she said. "I try not to encounter people who display the flag in the back of their truck. My personal feeling is it is an affront to me."
OK, so she's educated and understands the semiotics. She's educated and she understands the history. She understands "diversity". She understands "X" hats and NOI bow ties and all about "FUBU". So what's the problem?
Maybe she just can't stand "those people". Maybe she just doesn't like crackers. As in, bigoted. As in, "diverse" doesn't mean what it means, but only what she says it means.
Makes you wonder, how many Audie Murphys and Alvin Yorks and Chester Nimitzes the South has to contribute, before these selfrighteous SOB's back off.
But actually, it's all about contemporary politics, which has been, whether people realize it or not, all about peeling off Midwesterners from the Republican coalition by holding up "bad" Southerners and yelling "BOOOOOOOOGerboogerboogerbooger!"
The Mark Foley thing, sprung right before the election, is a variation on the same idea.
For the 'Rats, it's all about demoralizing Republican voters by dragging in anything they think will work, while trying to spike up the black, 90%-straight-ticket Democratic vote, by talking up "those people" -- meaning rednecks -- and talking about "saving the people" -- meaning black people, who are supposedly going to be bundled into gas chambers any day now by Denny Hastert and Newt Gingrich.
Yeah, I call them either Homosexual, or Mexican. That IS what they are! Things are what they are, and I call a "spade a spade" (no ethnic reference intended), I don't like using demeaning terms AND that is a personal preference. Using ethnic slurs tends to show how shallow and small minded the user is. I don't need anyone to tell me that it is "offensive" - ESPECIALLY SOME POLITICAL HACK! When it comes right down to it, people should worry more about getting society on track as far as drug abuse, crime and/or teenage pregnancy goes. They should worry less about what flag someone flies, and more about how much they are contributing to this country as a "citizen". Thanks to the Liberal turds society has become too skewed towards "its offensive" or "its dangerous to all living things" and "war is baaaaaaaad, we should all be hugging each other". They really need to all go hug a tree!
Well then, it seems like you presume to know what message they intended to communicate with the rainbow or Mexican flag displayed on their vehicle.
So, when others presume to know what your symbol means, they are "too ignorant to get to know [you] first before passing judgement," and "they are the ones with the problem."
But, when you see their symbol and judge them without getting to know them, it's okay. You're not "ignorant," you're qualified to make the call.
No offense but, that looks like a double standard from here.
Okay, let me get my hermetically sealed bubble with the grey suit that is PC "non-offensive to anybody" out and run around. Geez talk about nickle and diming a subject to death. If you aren't a lawyer, perhaps you should consider a career change. As for me, I'll just carry on. As Thomas Jefferson stated "What do I care what they practice, if it neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg" (or something to that effect). By the way, most cars that I've seen waving a Mexican flag have Hispanics in them. Rainbow flags are displayed by Liberals, or gays and you can usually tell by the other bumper stickers they have, like "War kills people" or "Respect Mother Earth" or "Buck Fush" or "Kerry/Edwards". How do I know this, because we have a huge liberal community not too far away from where I live. We call it "The Peoples Republic of Boulder".
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.