Confederate Flag Lapel Pins

I was pleased with the Confederate flag lapel pins from the World Flag Pins web site. I got a Confederate flag pin in response to all the furor about American flag pins. I agree with (the old) Barack Obama that wearing a flag pin is no proof of patriotism. Bush and Cheney avoided military service in Vietnam and wear the flag pin as cowards. I spent nearly 30 years serving the US government in the Army in Vietnam, as an attorney for the Veterans Administration, and as a Foreign Service officer. I don't think I need to prove my loyalty by wearing a stupid flag pin. If Bush and Cheney had served, they could wear some ribbon showing their service, if they needed to do something. Of course if they had served, they wouldn't need to display their loyalty so publicly.

In addition to my one great-grandfather on my mother's side who was a colonel in the 21st Alabama during the Civil War, I think I had a great-grandfather on my father's side who rode with Morgan's cavalry. After them, I had a grandfather who served in the Army in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War and in France in World War I. My father served in the Army in both Europe and the Pacific during World War II, and in Korea during the Korean War. And I served on the DMZ in Vietnam. I don't think I need to wear an American flag pin. A Confederate flag honors my great-grandfathers and protests the hypocrisy of the Bush administration, not to mention that of Charlie Gibson and George Stephanapoulis who made flag pins a major issue in the Democratic debate they "moderated."

Confederate Pen

I'm very pleased to have gotten a Confederate pen from a friend in Wisconsin. It has a Confederate flag on the body. It goes along with my Confederate flag key chain. I think maybe there's not much point in saving your Confederate money anymore. The South is not going to rise again as an independent country. However, it can stay in our hearts. Most of America may have embraced the cynical Rhett Butler view of the South, but there are still a few romantic Ashley Wilkes around.

Huntsville, Alabama, and NASA's Germans

I was pleased that this NYT article reported on the wonderful things the German rocket scientists did for Huntsville, Alabama. After recounting the accomplishments of the German scientists and engineers in reaching the moon, it's not surprising in today's world that the story then tars both Alabamians and Germans by inference. It says the Germans were bad because they were Nazis, and the Alabamians were bad because they were racists. So, they got along well together. But nevertheless, it does say that it was pretty remarkable that we got to the moon, thanks to Werner von Braun.

Jews are primarily responsible for fomenting hatred of former Nazis and Southerners. Hey! Let's hear about the Holocaust; we haven't heard about it for five minutes! It's unfortunate that Jews are coming to be defined by hatred: in this case, hatred of Germans who served Hitler, even if they became good Americans who won the space race with Russia after arriving here. And of course Israel is a country defined by its hatred of Palestinians, Nazis, Arabs, Muslims, Persians, and many others. Because of this attitude, the Times could not run just a straightforward story about the accomplishments of the Germans who came to live in Huntsville. It's nice that the people of Huntsville don't seem to hate the Germans like New Yorkers do.