Friday, March 29, AD 2024 4:51am

Another Scalp for the Grievance Industry

 

The ginned up hysteria this week over the Confederate flag, after the dreadful murder of nine blacks in a Charleston church by a deranged white racist, marks a fitting coda to the one hundred and fiftieth commemoration of the War, as a symbol that few Americans know much at all about their own history these days.  Amazon, along with other retailers including Walmart, has banned Confederate flag products, on the grounds that they do not want to offend customers.  Katie McHugh at Brieitbart notes that Amazon has a long way to go if Amazon wishes to accomplish that:

 

 

Amazon sells a huge variety of shirts, posters, you-name-it featuring the hammer and sickle, Joseph Stalin’s mustache, all things Che Guevara, Vladimir Lenin and other colorful revolutionaries who fought to make the world a better place, man. Guevara’s book Guerilla Warfare is on sale in four different formats. In one of the worst genocides in modern times, Stalin forcibly starved Ukrainian peasants in what’s known as the Holodomor, a “terror-famine” that left anywhere from 2.4 million to 7.5 million Ukrainian peasants dead in 1933.

Communism is chic: Amazon’s senior vice president Jay Carney proudly features Soviet Union war propaganda in his lavish home, after all. “Have you enlisted in the army?” a poster featured by The Washingtonian Magazine photo splash asks.

Helpful reminder — Communism led to the deaths of 94 million people world-wide within a hundred years. That’s approximately 93,999,991 more murders than a drug-addled, fatherless loser committed in Charleston.

Go here to read the rest.

Score another victory for the perpetual grievance monger industry, helped along this time by some gutless and self-serving Republican politicians.  Now, as it happens, as faithful readers of this blog know, I am perhaps Abe Lincoln’s biggest fan on the internet, my sympathies in regard to the Late Unpleasantness are with the  boys in blue, and the defeat of Secession and the destruction of Slavery I view as grand victories for all Americans.   However, this attempted demonization of all things Confederate by ignorant yahoos a century and a half after the War is an affront both to History and common sense.  We cannot change history and the attempt to do so is both useless and bizarre.  It is also dangerous.  Some of the loudest and most hate filled voices in our land, backed up by people with considerable wealth, find Christianity in general, and Catholicism in particular, highly offensive.  Unlike the long dead Confederacy, the believers in Christ are an active threat to those at the helm of chasing from the Public Square ideas and people they do not like, and our time will come.

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T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 5:30am

It is their modus operandi: wave the bloody shirt and tighten the screws. FYI they are Hillary, Hitler, Lenin, Mao, Obama, Stalin, et al.
.

I no longer consent to be ruled.
.

What am I prepared to do?

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 5:41am

Hypocrisy never bothered anyone on the way to increased profit or political power. I didn’t know that Amazon was acting as an agent for Soviet propaganda. Cretins.

chris c.
chris c.
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 7:08am

Agree Donald. Anyone who thinks those most agitated over the Confederate Battle Flag would be satisfied if they win this one fight in SC, are dreaming. It’ll only be the beginning.

It’s disgusting that we are not focusing on what this story should be about; the inspiring acts of forgiveness expressed by the families of the victims towards their killer. These were examples of the best of the Christian faith. These good people sought to be instruments of God’s healing and mercy. That should be the story.

Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 7:28am

Screw you Amazon and WalMart. I’m no Southerner and have never bought any Confederate Flag/Southern memorabilia but this just pisses me off. So I let Amazon know what I thought of their cowardly political correctness insanity and took my business elsewhere…just on principle. Bought several small, inexpensive items from http://www.proudrebel.com/. Flat Rate $6.00 shipping. A small price to pay for the principle of it.

Tom
Tom
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 7:39am

I worry about this issue in my Richmond, where we have Monument Avenue, with heroic statues of Lee, Jackson, Davis, et al., and Rt. 1 is “Jefferson Davis Highway;” there was already some of this nonsense a few years back when agitators had Lee’s image removed from the newly finished flood wall downtown.

As for the flag, it’s a bit more complicated. The ANV battle flag was unfortunately seized upon by southern Dem governors in the 50s and 60s as a symbol of opposition to various Civil Rights era laws and Court rulings. And of course, that flag had unfortunately, and unfairly, in my view, been adopted by varieties of racists. In my estimation, R.E. Lee would be mortified to see the emblem of his army used in that fashion.

For those who wish to signal support for the perennial principles of anti-federalism and states rights as embodied in the Confederacy, I’ve often thought that the use of the political confederate flag would be more appropriate, less laden with baggage, and frankly, since most people haven’t a clue about it, less controversial. It’s the actual “stars and bars” and the original national flag of the confederacy:
comment image

Tom
Tom
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 7:46am

And I’m sure I’m not the first to note that if we are going to suppress symbols because they are sometimes used in pursuit of unworthy causes, we would need to get rid of the American flag, which also flew over places where slavery was legal; and was used while conquering and slaughtering both Indians and Mexicans. I imagine it also flew over the Japanese internment camps during WWII.

Of course, this is all silliness and profoundly un-American, since it seeks to silence free expression and punish “unapproved” thoughts and beliefs.

It’s somehow very Old Testament, however, this idea that the shooting in Charleston can be healed in some way by loading the guilt of it onto a symbol which we can then effectively destroy in atonement. The old idea of the “scapegoat.”

cthemfly25
cthemfly25
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 8:11am

Tom–might I suggest the Gadsden flag as an alternative though earth worshipers will find it offensive to snakes. And while we are concerned now about symbols should we not address the symbol of the Democratic Party given its affiliation with slavery and the suppression of civil rights.

Ginny
Ginny
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 8:27am

I live in South Carolina and think it is the right thing to do to remove the Confederate flag from the State Capitol. A memorial could be erected in honor of the victims of this heinous hate crime at some appropriate place with the Christian flag reverently hoisted to reflect the love and forgiveness of the victims’ families and friends. It could be a place of silent prayer, and of remembrance that true love gives joy, brought about by suffering. Would the thought police have a problem with that?

Phillip
Phillip
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 8:36am

“…we would need to get rid of the American flag”

If I recall correctly, the shooter in S.C. has a Facebook photo of him standing on the American flag and another of his burning the flag. Part of his protest? Should we ban people desecrating the American flag?

Whoops, I guess the Supreme Court has already ruled on that one.

Phillip
Phillip
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 8:42am

A little more sense on my adopted South from this article. It cites a survey that found that 61% of blacks in South Carolina wanted the Confederate flag removed from the capital. That leaves 39% that didn’t want it removed.

http://nypost.com/2015/06/23/liberals-are-still-getting-the-south-all-wrong/

Patricia
Patricia
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 8:42am

This latest grievance, contrived to keep some, any division going, will surely overshadow the dignity and pure example of lived Christianity emanating from those in Charleston who are not on the racist bandwagon. That must be the ‘thought process’ of the flag haters, who must be twisting upcoming July 4th, otherwise known as Independence Day. Fireworks and picnics with no Declaration of the original overshadows the celebrants’ understanding or interest. Too serious and sober for the people.

Dante alighieri
Admin
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 8:49am

And I’m sure I’m not the first to note that if we are going to suppress symbols because they are sometimes used in pursuit of unworthy causes, we would need to get rid of the American flag, which also flew over places where slavery was legal; and was used while conquering and slaughtering both Indians and Mexicans. I imagine it also flew over the Japanese internment camps during WWII.

Once upon a time it took months and even years for the next level of absurdity to be realized. In modern America it only takes hours.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/03/11/professors-us-flag-symbolizes-racism-should-not-be-displayed-on-campus.html

Tom D
Tom D
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 9:22am

I have an even worse flag story.
I was at a Christmas party exactly six months ago. One guest who is at this party every year started yelling at me that the ‘”Don’t Tread on Me” flag should be banned because those “tea baggers” who shot some people flew it. I had – and still have – no idea what he was talking about. I replied “You know, that flag is the current ensign flown by the U.S. Navy on all its ships”. “I DON”T CARE IT SHOULD BE BANNED” he yelled, and told me that the murders were also the GOP’s fault. It wasn’t my party, so I walked away.

Stephen E Dalton
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 10:09am

Don, I got a question to ask you. A few months ago, you said the GOP has a chance of winning big time in 2016. Now that so many GOP big shots have crapped on their supporters in the South on the flag issue, do you think the GOP will win big in 2016? Something tells me a lot of GOP voters are going to stay home or think seriously about a third party. Why vote GOP if it’s going to flip your heritage the bird?

Paul W Primavera
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 10:22am

I do not fly the Confederate flag at my home simply because I am loathe to deliberately pi$$ off my neighbors. I am not afraid of offending when the need arises, but I am not going to rub people’s faces in my beliefs. I expect the same treatment. To such people I would say, “Take your stinking Che Guevara portrait and your commie pinko flag and your Das Kapital, and shove them into a dark closet where they and you belong.”

Stephen E Dalton
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 11:45am

Don, the GOP big shots crapped on the Southern Whites who voted for them. Unless they publically apologize and make amends for this insult to the Southern people, the GOP will go into total irrelevance as a political party. And even if the economy goes meh to lousy next year, the Southern White Christians of all religious backgrounds aren’t going to forget this latest attack on their heritage. Pride in their heritage means more to these kind of people than a bad economy.

Ginny
Ginny
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 1:15pm

I think Donald is correct. Hillary’s latest all love is equal marriage equality video along with her pro abortion stance is not going to garner many votes in the South especially among the Evangelicals. Ugh.

The South is very patriotic. You should see the Stars and Stripes flying on the homes down here on Memorial Day, Flag Day and July 4. No one flies the Confederate flag, at least not in my neck of the woods. If taking the Confederate flag down from the Capitol brings any comfort to the victims’ loved ones and black community, take it down! It would have been nice though if this hadn’t turned into such a politician’s heyday.

Lisa
Lisa
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 2:01pm

I live in Frankfort, Kentucky, the capital city, and we’ve had a statue of Jefferson Davis in the rotunda of our Capitol Building for many years. It faces a statue of Abraham Lincoln, also a Kentucky son. One of our senators, Mitch McConnell, today called for the statue of Jefferson Davis to be removed from the Capitol Building rotunda. Since Kentucky was a border state during the Civil War, and both Davis and President Lincoln are sons of Kentucky, it always made sense to me that we displayed both statues in our state house. Apparently, the era of common sense has passed.

Foxfier
Admin
Wednesday, June 24, AD 2015 4:10pm

Of course they’re attacking the confederate flag; they can mostly count on even those conservatives who think flying it is silly to defend free speech and oppose their attempt to impose thought-crime type standards, and it lets them use the DARVO (Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender) tactic they so love.
That flag is hard core Democrat– they’re just pretty sure that none of their supporters will flip to the other side about attacking it, and demonizing the Republicans is just too useful.
.
See also, the proof that their “the US is racist” narrative is bunk. People can manage to find enough like-minded folks for a Pirate Convention in Charleston, but this guy in months of searching couldn’t hook up with an actual racist.
When an interest like “Dressing as a pirate” can manage to keep up a convention for three years running, but a violent racist can’t even find a hate-buddy, things are looking pretty good.

Jay Anderson
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 1:31am

Whatever role Robert E. Lee played in the Confederacy, an enlightened understanding of history and historical context would acknowledge him as a good and great man faced with a tragic choice. Perhaps he chose wrongly or unwisely in casting his lot with his native Virginia. But so did many others make that same choice of defending hearth and home over remaining loyal to a still rather new and rather experimental, at that time, project in nationhood. I have NO DOUBT that were I faced with that same choice, I would make the same decision Lee did. Even today, I have more loyalty to my “home” states of Texas and Virginia than I do to our country as a whole. Maybe I have that backward. Maybe Lee did, too. But we’re hardly alone in that.
***
But for making that choice, it has become quite apparent that our nation is now prepared to make Robert Edward Lee the near equivalent of Adolph Hitler. To remove his statues and other monuments in his honor from our public spaces. To decry him as nothing more than a badge and emblem of slavery. Our nation can abide 1 million murdered unborn (many of them targeted precisely because they are black), but giving honor to one of the greatest men in history … well, THAT we just cannot abide.
***
Hear me on this. I am serious when I say that a nation which welcomes neither the unborn nor Robert E. Lee is welcome is a nation in which I am not welcome. It is a nation of which I wish to be no part. To hell with it.

Tom
Tom
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 7:59am

Many are there already Jay. I don’t recite the pledge of allegiance anymore, because frankly I don’t have a particular sense of allegiance to the national flag; nor to the national Republic; I don’t believe we are one nation now, if we ever truly were; we are not truly indivisible, the Confederates attempted to make that explicit and failed, but the Union victory did not suddenly render us actually indivisible, and we are more divided now than at any time since 1860; and as far as freedom and justice for all, our nation has never really come close, first with blacks, then Indians, then Irish immigrants, then German and Japanese citizens, and lately and most horrifically, the unborn; soon, courtesy of the US Supreme Court, we’ll be adding “Christians” to the list.

And while there’s no doubt that we’ve created the greatest power for economic freedom and prosperity ever seen on the planet, and have been a tremendous force for good ad extra, it seems there’s always some profound failure ad intra to realize the values laid out by the Founders.

Consistent with the principle of subsidiarity, I view myself as a Catholic first, a Virginian second; and to the extent needed to protect those two primary identifications, an American third. But the national government has been the enemy of genuine freedom for so long now, I can’t in conscience pledge allegiance to it. Besides, the whole pledge thing was a progressive, semi-fascist concoction: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/22/opinion/greene-pledge-of-allegiance-salute/index.html

paul coffey
paul coffey
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 8:02am

– I’m with you Jay – but where do we go ?

there is a thread in this case of this flag waving mr. roof, of the Lanza outrage in Ct. probably many others : the ILL effect divorce , family break up and the lack of a father at home. No one of the current culture commentators will speak to this. Divorce ruins many lives. not just the immediate family.

Mico Razon
Mico Razon
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 10:04am

Tom and Don, in my humble opinion, small towns have more of the things that make America great and less of the things that make her not so great. When Chick-Fil-A is not welcome in Boston and Chicago, you know the ruin is next to complete. All we have left is ourselves, our Christian faith, and the hope that we are on God’s side. Some would call it retreating into our little cocoons, others would call it the Benedict option – http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2015/05/is-it-time-to-hunker-down.html Personally, I prefer calling it the new Noah’s ark.

Jay Anderson
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 12:19pm

Don, you are one of the most optimistic people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. In fact, I think you are probably the most overly optimistic person I’ve ever known, as several of your unfortunately fruitless predictions over the years have shown.
😉
***
Nevertheless, I admire you for your misplaced optimism. I wish I shared your optimism. But I don’t. I have come to the sad conclusion that things in this nation are probably too far gone to rectify. Our national debt, alone, is a hole out of which we will never dig. Our cultural deficit only gets worse (and will likely implode with the next major Supreme Court ruling) and exacerbates the economic and financial one. I don’t despair because I know the ultimate victory is already won and that this earthly home is only temporary. But I weep for what our nation has become.

Jay Anderson
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 12:49pm

And that’s one of the things I admire about you, Don. But here’s where I am:
***
“I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’ – though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.”
~ JRR Tolkien

CAM
CAM
Thursday, June 25, AD 2015 6:14pm

Another flag of the Confederacy. The Bonnie Blue Flag song – http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bonnie+blue+flag+youtube&FORM=VIRE14#view=detail&mid=0E081E2BA740BAECDAAD0E081E2BA740BAECDAAD
“The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as being potentially offensive or graphic. Viewer discretion is advised.” Unbelievable!
I’ve lived most of my life in the South because of my father’s and my husband’s military careers. I understand Southern Pride. In my part of rural Virginia it’s generally conservative socially, politically and religiously. I don’t know how long that is going to last. The Republican gubernatorial ticket in the last election consisted of a Caucasian, pro-life Catholic lawyer, former Attorney General, and an African-American, Ivy League educated business man, pro-life Baptist minister. Who was elected? McAuliffe, the Clinton’s bag man, another pro-abortion Catholic Dem pol. It was a close race, but the fix was in. Liberals are migrating to VA cities and universaties and bringing their warped views with them.
I have hope for our Church – each ordination class is comprised of good men.

Mico Razon
Mico Razon
Friday, June 26, AD 2015 8:59am

I am optimistic, too. I am optimistic about passing on my Christian faith to my children, if ever I get married. The rest I leave to God. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Mico Razon
Mico Razon
Friday, June 26, AD 2015 9:20am

I’m not saying shun the outside world completely. I’m already friends with like-minded people here in my town. I’m sure we’ll be there for each other in the years to come. And when I have children, I plan on sending them to this public university, which is not a Catholic university, but has the best campus ministry in the entire nation.

And I have Plan B. I’ve always considered places like Kansas and Nebraska to be nice, conservative states with room for the large families we Christians should aspire for ideally. If it takes an exodus to Kansas and Nebraska for us Christians to be able to live out for faith, so be it.

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