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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 ...
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Then we'd have the Stars and Bars.
Alien visitors in the night perhaps?
Indeed. Teh Nazis only enslaved innocent people for six years or so. *Pikers* compared to the South!
First of all, the majority of Southerners did not hold slaves. More than that, the war was not about slavery at all, and unlike the union, the Confederacy had no problem commissioning officers who were of African descent, and then having them command units made up of people who were of African descent.
But more important then this, is the fact that the Republican Party is now reliant on the Southland for it's victories. Think about this one before the South-bashing commences.
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| I wish I was in the land of cotton, Old times there are not forgotten, Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land! In Dixie land where I was born in, Early on a frosty mornin', Look away, look away, look away, Dixie land! |
Enslaving your fellow man? Read up on the state Consititutions of the Confederates. It was quite clear what they represented.
Plus, it gets better:
http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2006/06/more_bad_judgem.html#more
"I just spoke with Alex Panchenko, the person who posted this item on eBay. Panchenko called to tell me that he had spoken with Salizhan Sharipov today and that Sharipov knew absolutely nothing about these flags. Panchenko told me that his source for these flags was a third party and not Sharipov. As such he is now convinced that these flags are not what they were presented as being and that they are forgeries.
"Moreover, Panchenko told me that he was unaware of the controversy that surrounds this flag in the U.S. until he consulted a history book. He told me that had he known what this flag represents to some people he would never have posted it on eBay in the first place or even consider selling it at all. Panchenko is now making certain that everyone knows that this was the result of an honest mistake and is trying to get eBay to pull the item off of its website."
So, you were made proud by not only a shameful symbol from America's past (that a foreigner was able to figure out witha few moments research), but also by fraud.
I think sane Americans would be more concerned with the waste of money the government throws at space 'exploration' than what sort of flag the politically correct have a vendetta against. Privatize space exploration 100%. Almost anything the government can do, private industry can do cheaper, more efficiently, and safer.
NASA, wasting taxpayer dollars since 1958
You seem to desire to insult Southerners.
Why do it on an anonymous website? No satisfaction there..
Why not hunt up a good healthy Southern boy and tell him face to face. That's what a man would do.
God bless Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and the Grand Army of the Republic.
That being said, the PC-stuff around the flag is just silly. If some peckerwood astronaut wants to sell the St. Andrew's Cross, its his right.
> First of all, the majority of Southerners did not hold slaves.
And neither did the majority of Germans in the Nazi era.
> the war was not about slavery at all
Utter hogwash. Take a read of the Alabama state constitution of 1861:
http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/constitutions/1861/1861ord1_20.html
Do a search on the word "slave." See how many times it comes up.
* Be it ordained by the people of the State of Alabama in Convention assembled , That an ordinance adopted by the people of this State, in Convention at Huntsville, on the second day of August, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, disclaiming forever all right to the waste or unappropriated lands lying withing this State, is hereby repealed; but 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.
A "Southern Slaveholding Confederacy." Ponder that a while.
> the Republican Party is now reliant on the Southland for it's victories.
Ah. Moral reletivism, then, is it? What's wrong is only wrong when it doesn't hurt your political party for it to be wrong?
> You seem to desire to insult Southerners.
Nope. Only those insulting Southerners who thing that enslaving their fellows was a noble cause to kill for.
> Your hyperbole is worthy of Farrakhan.
*What* hyperbole? Is it, or is it not true that the South enslaved far more people for far longer than the Nazis did? *Perhaps* the Soviet Commies did more for longer. Does that make you proud, that the South might be a smidgeon better off in that respect that the USSR?
> I strongly suspect that approximately six million Jews would have chosen the oppression of the South, rather than that of the Nazis.
Then that makes it alright, I guess.
I'll take a guess the eBay items were not THE Confederate flag, which few would recognize if they tripped over it. The Battle Flag (see the Dukes of Hazard car) is all most know and that represents the army of Robert E Lee.
Personally I think the Battle Flag it's pretty and requires no apology or shame.
Your ignorance is showing.....
Those of us who grew up in the South, know better.
Today, as a Conservative, you are fighting for the exact same things, that the people in the South did 150 years ago.
The Federal government has abused it's powers under the Constitution and we must restore our citizen rights once again.
We shouldn't be holding up a tyrant like Lincoln as a hero. Certainly shouldn't hold up a war criminal like Sherman as one either.
"Just remember that the majority of your countrymen have NO RESPECT for the cause your ancestors fought for."
That's not the case in the states that fought for the South. And in those states they could care less what the so-called majority respects.
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