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The University of the S**th by Gail Jarvis Political correctness has gained such a strong hold on the minds of college administrators that many rush head-over-heels into unwise decisions, often acting as though possessed by mass hysteria. Let me present an example to illustrate how utterly bizarre their behavior has become. The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, is a unique little liberal arts college, founded in 1858 by the Episcopal dioceses of ten Southern states. In 1941, alumnus and poet William Alexander Percy, uncle of novelist Walker Percy, wrote this about the University in his autobiography, Lanterns on...

In his article "A Class War" Victor Davis Hanson paints the picture that General William T. Sherman and his army were fighting a war of equality. He seems to think average "agrarian" men of the northern states, were so inspired they would lay down their tools, leave their families and join the Union army to invade the Southern States on a campaign of social equality. Hanson states Sherman's objective was "freeing the unfree and humiliating the arrogant." This is a nicely packaged version of history that reads well, though historically inaccurate.The Draft - Yankees RiotSupport for invading the South was...

Speakers Assail 'Political Correctness' and Explain What Thousands of Soldiers Fought For Sometime around dusk Sunday, people wandered among the plain, age-stained tombstones of Confederate soldiers in Winchester's Stonewall Cemetery.They read from the slates, sending names and dates of births, deaths, and battles fought into the twilight. Most only spoke loud enough for themselves and perhaps one or two nearby to hear.Members of the 33rd Virginia Company D Honor Guard (above) participate in the 138th annual Confederate Memorial Day Service at Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester Sunday. Emma MacBeth, 7, of Stephens City (below) reads the tombstones of Confederate dead...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Christine Iverson 202-863-8614 Washington, DC — An analysis of key votes in advance of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference this weekend in Florida shows that Senator Kerry is out of step with both Republicans and Democrats in the South.On issues ranging from support for the President’s middle class tax cuts to funding for troops in Iraq, to the Defense of Marriage Act to the ban on Partial Birth Abortion, John Kerry has consistently voted against issues supported by his Democrat colleagues in the Senate who represent constituents in Southern states.“Once again, John Kerry’s greatest problem is...

Once a Democratic stronghold, Northeast Florida is now, without question, Republican country. When local politicians and experts discuss that drastic shift over the past 20 years, they point to one familiar face -- that of former President Ronald Reagan, who died Saturday at 93. "He's the one that started that movement, here and in the whole state," said Bill Taylor, who chaired the state Republican Party from 1974 to '80. "He had the faith, and it was contagious." Reagan, politicians and observers say, made it acceptable for local officials to be Republicans. The former president's message of keeping money in...

Most analysts say Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts could have a hard time carrying Southern states, with the possible exception of Florida. Here's a look at the region's political landscape: NORTH CAROLINA(15 ELECTORAL VOTES) The most recent Democrat to carry the Tar Heel State was Jimmy Carter of Georgia who beat President Gerald Ford by 11 percentage points in 1976. The only Democrat to come close since then was Bill Clinton, who in 1992 lost to the elder President Bush, 43.4 percent to 42.7 percent. In 2000, George W. Bush easily defeated Vice President Al Gore, 56 percent to 43...

GRAND BLANC - Bringing flags bearing the Confederate insignia to school could cost two Grand Blanc High School seniors their diplomas. School administrators met Thursday to determine the fates of the two students and a third who was involved in an altercation sparked by the flags. School officials wouldn't announce the outcome of the meeting. The Confederate flag has sparked a heated debate at the school about whether it's simply a symbol of the South or one of racial discrimination and slavery. The two students who brought the flags to school Wednesday said there's nothing racist about the Confederate flag....

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Alberta Martin, the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died Monday, ending an unlikely ascent from poor sharecropper's daughter to the belle of 21st century Confederate history buffs who paraded her across the South. She was 97.

After 35 years hosting a talk radio show I’ve become habituated to being labeled as everything but a child of God.  Offensive?  Certainly, sometimes.  Insensitive? You bet!  Guilty as charged.  Life is insensitive, so is the truth.  I don’t hide from either.Well, this column ought to certainly stir the puddin’.  I wish to make an observation that I dare say most of you are going to find both offensive and insensitive.  I really don’t expect to make any friends here, but I may just cause a few people to think for a few minutes.One day in the late 1970’s I...

To the Editor/ The New York Times: Your "Political Points" article in the 23 May Sunday New York Times, reports that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is reading Grant, the biography of the Civil War general, Ulysses S. Grant, as a morale booster. But if Rumsfeld is going to adopt Grant as a role model or source of inspiration, he (and you) should be aware that Grant’s policies and actions included the following: • Ordering the expulsion on 24 hours notice of all Jews "as a class" from the territory under his control (General Order # 11, 17 December, 1862), and...

Dear History Professor,It was wholly a pleasure to get your thoughtful letter, and read your response to my comparing the bitter remnants of the old Confederacy and the new terrorists of the Arab world. You seem to have thought this thing through. Yes, both old guards, Arab and Southern, represent a reaction against modernity and all its works — and both are heirs of a once great civilization that brought on its own ruin. Neither can come to terms with its own history. ("Forget, Hell!") As you note, "Both are/were led by cultured elites representing traditional, agrarian societies in which...

Jessica Simpson Beats Spears To Daisy Duke Role Britney Spears's hopes of landing the role of Daisy Duke in the forthcoming movie version of the 'Dukes of Hazzard' have been dashed-after bosses handed it to Jessica Simpson.While star Spears had expressed interest in playing the sexy character from the '70s TV show, singer Simpson has been chosen as the blonde who will fill the extra short shorts of original Daisy Duke Catherine Bach. Simpson's manager father Joe, 'She is really excited.' Simpson herself adds, 'I wanna wear those shorts so bad.'The film about three redneck cousins, two corrupt public officials...

The last known living widow of a Civil War veteran suffered a heart attack and is unable to talk, her caretaker said Thursday. Alberta Martin, 97, has been in Enterprise Medical Center since suffering the heart attack May 7. She can open her eyes but can't talk, said the caretaker, Ken Chancey. "The prognosis is not good," he said, "but Mrs. Martin is a fighter." Martin, known for years as the last Confederate widow, became the last Civil War widow when the last known widow of a Union soldier, Gertrude Janeway, died early last year. "She's the end of an...

William Thomas "Billy" Overby, a member of the Confederate guerrilla group Mosby's Rangers, lived most of his life in Sharpsburg, not far from what is today Thomas Crossroads. He was hanged on Sept. 23, 1864, in Front Royal, Va., by a band of rogue Federals. Offered freedom if he would disclose Mosby's whereabouts, Overby supposedly told his captors, minutes before the noose tightened, "Mosby will hang 10 of you for every one of us." For years those words haunted Carolyn Cary, longtime Fayette County historian. Last March she self-published "William Thomas Overby: Proud Partisan Ranger," the first biography of this...

Get ready for a second U.S. civil war Major divisions will be along economic, political, secular and theologial lines. By John Troyer, Columnist he Washington Post recently ran an interesting three-part series of articles regarding political divisions in the United States. Two families were profiled in the story, the Stein family in Sugar Land, Texas, and the Harrison family in San Francisco. Both families are strikingly similar: white, Catholic, married heterosexual households with children and homes. Yet, the ideological location of the families in the story is significant — the Steins are conservative Republicans and the Harrisons are liberal Democrats....

The University of Texas at Austin would appoint a senior diversity officer, require a cross-cultural course and rearrange statues of Confederate leaders under a new proposal that aims to fix strained race relations. The recommendations, announced Monday by UT President Larry Faulkner, are a response to a report submitted in January by a task force on "racial respect and fairness." The task force was formed in response to incidents of racial insensitivity at UT. "We'd like to position UT to be a more positive agent in developing students' knowledge and skills so they can work across cultural boundaries in a...

One hundred and forty years ago this month, 100,000 Union soldiers marched into Georgia. Less than eight months later, the Yankees captured Savannah. Along the way, they fought more than 20 major battles, crushed Confederate resistance, destroyed at least $100 million worth of railroads, warehouses, plantations and factories, and left Atlanta in smoking ruins. It remains one of the most famous military campaigns in American history: Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's March through Georgia. It's still taught to cadets at West Point as an example of how to break an enemy's will to fight. And without the trauma of Yankees plowing...

Today we morn the great loss of Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Who died 141 years ago today. May the greatest General ever to walk the face of the earth Rest in Peace.

Dear Shucks, The other night I was checking out the new Walmart.com service in search of music to download for 88 cent a song. I have a about three hundred CD's in my collection, maybe twenty of which are albums that I can actually let play through from beginning to end. So, naturally being able to scan an entire album and choose the songs I actually wanted was the main attraction to their site. The first name I did a search on was Johnny Van Zant. I was just curious about his solo efforts before he took over his late...

By CATHIE SHAFFER For The Independent FLATWOODS In a few weeks, Jacqueline Duty will graduate from Russell High School. Like other future graduates everywhere, she's savoring the special moments of her last year of high school. Among the highlights was to be her senior prom, where she'd enter the decorated gymnasium wearing a dress she designed herself, to reflect who she is. But instead of being greeted by her classmates Saturday as she walked in on the arm of her date, she was greeted outside the school by police officers and school officials — because of that choice in dresses....