*DON’T YOU DARE PRESUME TO TELL ME WHAT I as somebody who was raised working class rural white Southern male think about race, nationalism or any other Og damned thing
I believe the specific slice of white rural southern manhood under discussion (ab initio) was the slice who found it amusing to flaunt the Rebel Colors, was it not?
Let me offer a sincere apology to Sampiro and anyone else who may have been offended by my use of the phrase, “racist cracker bling bling” earlier in the thread. Had I not first introduced it, and someone else not picked up on it, this might not be an issue now. Sampiro rightly points out that other c-word is a racial slur, and I shouldn’t be so quick to fling it at any group. Had it been a non-black Doper who caricatured a member of Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam’s bow ties as “racist tarbaby bling bling” or something similar, it might not seemed so clever. Again, I apologize for lowering the tone.
OK, I’ll put “cracker bling” on my list of guilty pleasures…(but I still think it’s piquant)
Actually, I really don’t mind when you do it. It’s Alaric. 
This was an interesting and civilized debate before Alaric got here and started his usual shenanigans. I wish it would be picked back up but it seems to have run its course. What a shame…
“Who walked in the classroom,
cool and slow…?
Who called the english teacher daddy-o?”
The Coasters
Actually, if you take the time to read the OP, that was not the point under discussion.
Given that:
the people who might choose to fly that flag appear to be a rather diverse group;
you have provided no substantive evidence defining the ethnic, economic, educational, and class lines delineating the people who do display that flag;
and nearly all your posts have been deliberately insulting throw-away one-liners that have provided no substance to this discussion,
I would say that your behavior is treading very close to that of a jerk.
This appears to be a description of your entire contribution to this thread.
If all you can contribute to a discussion is facetious sarcasm, I would suggest that once you have keyed it and reviewed it to your satisfaction, you save it to your hard drive to be used on some other board or simply delete it rather than posting it where everyone has to scroll past it to find the genuine discussion.
[ /Moderating ]
I must have misunderstood the post to which my reply was directed.
I’m pretty sure there was a reference to masculine urges towards autonomy. Let me go back and see…
ah yes, here it is:* There is a spirit of masculine bravado in the Scots-Irish*
For reference, the use of ab initio referred to the beginning of my discussion with AT, not the OP itself.
while I have your moderator’s attention, perhaps you wouild clarify for me the rule against sarcasm.
I am aware of the strictures against personal insults, ad hominem attacks, and the like.
Shall I also (for further self-governance) consider that hurting the feelings of other posters by showing insuffioient enthusiasm for their reasoning will subject me to discipline?
Well, following your example, I will go back and review my explicit statement:
I have no problem with sarcasm or the odd drive-by smart-alec remark. However, you had submitted ten posts to this thread before I addressed you. None of them provided anything other than drive-by slams at an ill-defined group of people or thinly veiled digs at other posters.
If you are only here to chortle in your ignorance and prejudice, then you are not participating in the debate.
If you are only here to chortle in your ignorance and prejudice, then you are not participating in the debate.
THanks for the clarification. I will take care to lard my chortles more liberally with nuggets of forensic insight.
- where everyone has to scroll past it to find the genuine discussion.*
One more thing: (I don’t know if recommending the ignore button for oneself is an offense, but I can’t imagine that it is).
Posters who find my contributions tedious may, I believe, avoid the necessity for excessive scrolling by using the “ignore” feature and listing me accordingly I’m pretty certain that I will not miss their attentions, and I’m sure they won’t miss me…
That being the case, I find the concern for page length a bit overwrought.
Actually, it’s not even that. As a naval jack, it would only have been flown at the bow while the ship was peacefully at anchor. It would have been hauled down and replaced by the national flag flying from the stern or the mast as soon as the ship set sail or went into battle.
Cartoonverse, your post was informative and reasonable. I would contradict you on only this comment:
I’ve lived in the South for over sixty years. Most of the people that I know are not at all angry about losing the Civil War! How can you possibly think that? There were even Confederate soldiers that eventually acknowledged that it never would have done for the South to have won the war. My own grandfather was one of them. His son, my father, felt a terrible guilt for what his father and uncles had done. He spent a lifetime trying to atone for it.
The things related to the Civil War and the contemporary South that do annoy me are 1) equating an interest in Civil War history with racism, 2) seeming willful ignorance of why the South is poorer than the rest of the country, 3) references to Southern states as “the” slave states and 4) assumptions about the intellects, religious affiliations, political persuasions and general opinions of Southerners.
For one thing, the New South is more multicultural than many people might think. Here in Nashville, our Chief of Police and Director of Public Schools are both Hispanic. My neighborhood mosque was firebombed this week. One of the local girls was nominated for an Academy Award. I can buy beautiful saris just a few blocks away. (Our famous rhinestone mines have closed.)
No, we are not angry about losing the Civil War.
Cartoonverse, your post was informative and reasonable. I would contradict you on only this comment:
I’ve lived in the South for over sixty years. Most of the people that I know are not at all angry about losing the Civil War! How can you possibly think that? There were even Confederate soldiers that eventually acknowledged that it never would have done for the South to have won the war. My own grandfather was one of them. His son, my father, felt a terrible guilt for what his father and uncles had done. He spent a lifetime trying to atone for it.
The things related to the Civil War and the contemporary South that do annoy me are 1) equating an interest in Civil War history with racism, 2) seemingl willful ignorance of why the South is poorer than the rest of the country, 3) references to Southern states as “the” slave states and 4) assumptions about the intellects, religious affiliations, political persuasions and general opinions of Southerners.
For one thing, the New South is more multicultural than many people might think. Here in Nashville, our Chief of Police and Director of Public Schools are both Hispanic. My neighborhood mosque was firebombed this week. One of the local girls was nominated for an Academy Award. I can buy beautiful saris just a few blocks away. (Our famous rhinestone mines have closed.)
No, we are not angry about losing the Civil War. The bigots are just really loud and obnoxious.
Note to Zoe: this item seems, er, a little out of place and bizarre as an example of charming multiculturalism. Come visit our beautiful flaming mosques!
It was done by an angry Nashville mob when an Arabic newspaper featured some disrespectful cartoons of Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.
Hush up, Sampiro.
But my statement wasn’t meant to highlight any particularly charming aspects of the city – just that we are don’t fit the stereotype that people often hold of Nashville.
(I take the bombing very seriously. There are many Muslims in my neighborhood. On the same day, someone set fire to a Muslim bakery which is only a few blocks from my house. I don’t think the two situations were related, but it is strange to live in the middle of this and still hear people refer to Nashville as “gii-tar city.” (I guess I’ve developed a bit of a chip on my shoulder about this.)
Oh… my…sides…
There’s something I always forget to say on these Confederate flag chats. Though I am not offended by the flag I recognize that there are plenty of legitimate reasons why others are based on the historical use of the flag especially after the Civil War. Had the flag not been adopted by hate groups or used to defiantly stick a collective middle finger at the Civil Rights movement I doubt many people would be offended by it. While we may disagree on what to do about students wearing the flag in public schools I just wanted to let y’all know that I understand that you have a legitimate beef.
On the flip side of the coin, those of you who insist on displaying the flag need to realize that you might be sending the wrong message about yourself. It may mean southern pride to you but to scores of other people it has some pretty negative meanings.
Marc