April 17th, that damn piece of cloth on a pole goes to Hell.

The BBQ Pit
#1

Yes, bar any last minute stupidity by the Federal Gov’t, local brain-dead backwoods morons, or anyone else, Mississippi votes to dump the 100+ year old unofficial flag we’ve been using and pick something better.

Naturally, people are whining and complaining that we shouldn’t do this. If you’d seen the sheer energy and hatred some inbred morons expend on a piece of cloth representing a dead cause, you’d also despair of Cecil’s grand crusade ever succeeding.

It’s staggering. Why do people worship a flag? Why are they so willing to defend what will become, and in a large part already is, nothing more than a ball and chain around the ankle of my generation and my kids?

Read this letter to the editor or this one. And these are mild!

I hate this state sometimes.

#2

So…uhhh…why do you give a shit again?

#3

And, naturally, people are whining and complaing that we should do this.

#4

Eek. Letter #1. I am alternating between ROFLMAO and clinging to my computer chair in the throes of desperate envy. The Land O’ Lincoln ain’t got nuthin’ remotely approaching the sheer fun value of whatcha got goin’ down Biloxi way. You Rebel devils have ALL the fun, dammit.

Sign me,

CONFEIXIECRAT WANNABE

And remember, Jesus couldn’t please everybody, either.

#5

Man, my parents live in Ole Miss, and I understand why anyone living there would want the thing gone-- this is the sort of thing that makes a laughingstock of the south-- THAT’S why people should give a shit.

#6

i don’t understand why any southerners would want to fly the confederate flag. if nothing else, it’s disrespectful to the soldiers who fought, died, and surrendered under that flag. it’s like, ‘i don’t care what it represented to those who fought to defend it. now that it conjurs up the dukes of hazzard instead of secession, i’m going to fly it.’ i’m sure the confederate soldiers would be proud.

#7

I always got the opposite impression from people I met who flew a confederate flag (there are serveral). They flew it precisely to honor the confederate soldiers. At least that was my impression.

#8

Did you notice that Georgia is also changing their flag?
They are making it the seal of the state, and then in fine print at the hem they are adding a few old flags with some slogan like “remembering our history”, meaning one of them is the CSA flag. They also took the time to also add “In God We Trust”.

#9

I’m just wondering when California will decide that its state flag promotes cruelty to bears and changes it to the Pepsi symbol.

#10

And I was all set to go, “Oh, Spoofe…” :rolleyes: --when suddenly I remembered the Pizza Hut logo on the side of the shuttle rocket.

#11

Just FYI:

They Confederate battle flag is only included as a part of Georgia’s previous state flag. The new flag includes small representations of all of the previous state flags and US Flags that have flown over the state.

The only slogan on there is “Georgia’s History.”

The flag can be seen at this site:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/30/ga.flag.03/large.georgia.flag.jpg

#12

yeah, i know. i don’t think they realize why it’s desrespectful. you want to honor your losing soldiers, put up a memorial or erect a statue. don’t publicly fly your war flag that means nothing now to your former enemies. the confederate soldiers fought, in some respect, to fly their own flag, and had to surrender in the face of mounting casualties. don’t just fly the flag anyway now that it’s no longer a threat to the union.

#13

Nope. The silly buggers in the Lege went and added “In God We Trust” to the new flag, because of course we want a flag that all Georgians can unite around, except for those godless un-American Commie heathen baby-eating atheists.

#14

Hmmm. Sorry bout that. I figured that CNN would have their facts together. My bad.

#15

Well, it wasn’t part of the original design; the Lege just went and tacked it on there. (Of course, the original design is one which is eminently suited to having things just tacked onto it as afterthoughts.) It also seems to be true that all the Decent and Right Thinking People in Atlanta are pretty determinedly ignoring the whole “IGWT” issue. The Guv and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the rest of the pro-business establishment and mainstream liberal types have all been pretty single-minded about ramming this sucker through. I understand and share their desire to ditch the old flag, but unfortunately it’s probably going to be impossible to make them understand why it’s a problem to stop saying “Fuck you, black people” but to then turn around and say “Fuck you, atheists”. I mean, gosh, it’s on the money and everything, and it doesn’t really hurt anybody, and it’s not anything really offensive, like putting a motto on the flag that says “Georgians are a lily-white people” or “We Georgians, as a people, repudiate the Pope of Rome and all his works” or even “Jesus is Lord over Georgia” or “Georgians are heterosexual”, let alone something really shocking and unacceptable like, I don’t know, “Georgians don’t believe in God”. (The Cranky Atheists Who Don’t Like Being Told They Trust in God Issue also upsets the nice neat division of everyone into pro-the-old-flag/anti-new-flag and pro-the-new-flag/anti-old-flag camps, since I don’t want either one.)

#16

Thanks for the link. Cool flag, actually. One of only a handful in history that have incorporated a prior flag as its own element, rather than as a jack square.

So I was mostly right. The distinction of whether that’s a battle flag or just a state flag that contains the battle flag is kind of lost on northerners. Still looks like a red flag to Blacks, although they did say they wouldn’t fight if that was the compromise.

And the “In God We Trust” part was still pending IIRC.

#17

The bill for the new flag–complete with IGWT–has been passed by both houses of the general assembly and signed by the governor, and the new flag has already been raised over the state capitol.

#18

On ours, they’re replacing the flag area with a red field with 20 stars in a circular pattern. not too imaginative, but it’s an improvement.