Confederate flags on space station draw ire

MSNBC ^ | 6/13/06 | James Oberg

[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.

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

Listen up! It is your overbearing and, you must come under my authority, attitude that has been fast propelling you out of my patience realm. You are not now, nor have you ever been an authority figure to me. So, a word of advice...If it is a long-held dream to become an authority figure, then you must first earn that respect. And you do not, make friends and influence people by seeing how many holes you can poke into any given stream of words-AT ANY POINT. And I further fail to see why I should have to point these things out to you, as this is adolescent behavior...

[Mr. Silverback]

OK, that's all I needed to know. You see an appeal to the ethics of our proud shared profession as me trying to boss you around. If my posts to you could be expressed in one sentence, it would be "Charges demand evidence." Meanwhile, yours (especially the last two) would boil down to a shrill "You're not the boss of me!"

I don't consider myself an authority anywhere but my own house, so I'll phrase this as a request: Please don't ever refer to yourself as a writer again. A person with your disregard for the ethics of the profession is not a writer, but a typist.

[Mr. Silverback]

Top ten states with largest Klan membership, in order:

Source?

[Mr. Silverback]

So did ya name your son Joshua? A fine name....

Nope, my wife wouldn't budge. Couldn't get Ethan Allen through either. :-)

But, he did get a pretty good name: Peter Christian.

[Mr. Silverback]

TENS OF THOUSANDS of WAR CRIMES against the most vulnerable of southerners, i.e. the racial minorities, the religious minorities,the "poorest of the poor" AND the helpless CSA prisoners of war, who were "in the especial care of the union army".

Citation please.

sherman, the destroyer, certainly FITS that mold (as he did NOTHING to halt the ATROCITIES committed against the helpless by his troops),

Citation please.

Also, did you advocate for Creighton Abrams to be court martialed for My Lai?

on the other hand, i have NOTHING but CONTEMPT for those who DENY the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of atrocities that WERE committed by the "criminal minority" of the union army.

Citation please.

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

There ya go. There is absolutely no need to add, Shrill. You are DELIBERATELY getting your digs in, when you were told to knock it off. So, you are now starting to take on the appearance of a propaganda expert who says, I shall make it appears as thought I am sincere, but I'll drop in my snyd remarks/adjectives at any point I choose, because I'm running the show. No, you are not running the show-So Get Over It!

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

And furthermore, we do not have a shared profession. So, don't go and post untrue things to me. That's a strike-out...

[Texas Mulerider]

Source?

Kenneth T. Jackson (Professor of History and Social Sciences, Columbia University),The Ku Klux Klan in the City. Oxford University Press, 1967.

[Mr. Silverback]

fwiw, what part of the NORTH was a "wonderland" of racial equality???

I'm not aware of any, but then I never claimed there were. I said that I had a problem with people who portrayed the antebellum South as something it wasn't. Learn to read.

imVho, as a member of "a minority group other than white", the MOST VICIOUS & INCIDIOUS racists in all of the continent are in "the oh,so POLITICALLY CORRECT northeast" & on "the left coast".

Great point. Agree completely. However, what the pustulous posturing of Northeast socialists has to do with the men from those states who fought over 140 years ago, or with Sherman and his Midwest farmboys, I have no bloody idea.

BTW, if Sherman did all that stuff you say, why did he and Johnston become good friends? Was Johnston willing to overlook tens of thousands of war crimes?

For Joshua Chamberlain and the Schofields,
Mr. Silverback

[Mr. Silverback]

A chilling sight I saw on film in Maine: Thousands of Klansmen in full regalia marching past the Blaine House (Maine's state house), white hooded dipsticks as far as the eye could see. [SHUDDER!]

[Mr. Silverback]

It's a lot of fun watching the two of them talk about you like you have a disease that the dovtors can't diagnose.

[Mr. Silverback]

And furthermore, we do not have a shared profession.

For the first time, you are 100% correct. I am a writer. You are a typist.

And while I am quite cool and dispassionate, you blowing your stack...all because someone asked you for a cite. End Transmission.

[Mr. Silverback]

Thank you.

[Mr. Silverback]

dovtors=doctors

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

Au revoir...

[Non-Sequitur]

Top ten states with largest Klan membership, in order...

Source?

[Non-Sequitur]

It's a lot of fun watching the two of them talk about you like you have a disease that the dovtors can't diagnose.

They ought to get married, they've so much in common.

[Non-Sequitur]

Kenneth T. Jackson (Professor of History and Social Sciences, Columbia University),The Ku Klux Klan in the City. Oxford University Press, 1967.

And you have some figures that aren't over 40 years old? What about current Klan memberships?

[Mr. Silverback]

A typist and a guy who gets his caps lock stuck frequently...there's a great match.

[Mr. Silverback]

And you have some figures that aren't over 40 years old? What about current Klan memberships?

Like it matters. I think the three of us have proved that we are above the stand watie style "The North is racist" debate.

And I can tell you there are definitely some hard core supremacists left in Indiana.