Free Republic

For the past couple of days I’ve been ashamed and disappointed that RedState has decided to enter into the feeding frenzy over the Confederate flag (note: the flag in question is actually the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, but for sake of brevity I will refer to it as the Confederate flag) and have cooperated in tying that flag to the shootings in Charleston, SC. As humans we are, at the core, herd animals and we like to be liked. That is understandable and, from an evolutionary point of view, essential to survival. There is a line,...

ODUM--States from Alabama to South Carolina and retailers from Amazon to Walmart are folding their Confederate flags in the wake of the June 17 deaths of nine worshipers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. But Dewey Barber is sticking with the image on the T-shirts and vehicle tags his workers turn out at Dixie Outfitters in Odum, and that kept everyone busy filling a surge in orders and fielding calls Tuesday. “It is good for business,’’ said Barber, owner of the company he founded in 1997 with three people. “We’ve seen a surge in orders.” Civil rights groups have long...

Former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), a possible 2016 presidential candidate, said on Wednesday that Americans should rethink rushing to ban displays of the Confederate flag at state Capitols. Webb, a former secretary of the Navy, defended the historic emblem’s use in a post on his Facebook account. “The Confederate Battle Flag has wrongly been used for racist and other purposes in recent decades,” Webb said. “It should not be used in any way as a political symbol that divides us.” “Honorable Americans fought on both sides in the Civil War,” he added. Webb was the first potential candidate to launch...

So-called “liberals” are proudly displaying their disdain for Liberty calling for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from our midst. They say that the losers in a war shouldn’t get to fly their flag, and they’ve arbitrarily decided it ‘represents racism’ not to mention it was right there with the Charleston Church shooter…. Okay, let’s apply that rationale to the flag of Mexico – they lost a war with the US and as for racism, we should check with ‘La Raza’ on that score. In addition the Mexican flag represents a clear and present danger to US sovereignty via...

The Senate majority leader told reporters Tuesday that the memorial belongs in a museum, not the statehouse.

A prominent attorney admits to taking flags from the graves of soldiers, a move that's sparked both positive reaction and calls for him to be arrested and disbarred. He's also received death threats and hate mail. The lawyer says his actions are meant to promote unity. A bag of small Confederate flags sits at Union Springs City Hall. They were removed from graves at an old Confederate cemetery downtown, behind the Red Door Theater, near the intersection of Highway 82 and North Prairie Street. Myron Penn pulled up the flags with his family on Mother's Day. Penn, a founding partner...

Born as a symbol of rebellion, the Confederate battle flag retains much of that symbolism to this very day. What is even more intriguing is the fact that the very commissioning of the original Confederate battle flag was itself, an act of rebellion. This little-known part of the flag’s story is told in a fascinating new documentary written and produced by historian Kent Masterson Brown.

Why did he have to be from Delco? A Ridley Park man was arrested outside of the Toby Keith concert at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, N.J., Saturday for shouting racial slurs and waving a Confederate flag at residents of a nearby apartment complex. Darren T. Walp, 33, was tailgating in the parking lot of the concert venue when around 6:30 p.m. he decided to scale the large, wrought iron fence that separates the parking lot from the nearby Royal Court apartment complex, according to the Camden County Police Department. Once he was on the private grounds of the...

Now the band has suddenly decided to become political correct. Gary Rossington, the only original member, grovelled to CNN's Fredricka Whitfield. He says he doesn't want to offend anyone by using the Confederate flag. He said the band will no longer display the flag. Lynyrd Skynyrd "Sweet Home Alabama" in 1977. This was three months before the plane crash that killed three of the original members. --SNIP-- The band released a new studio album just days ago ironically titled "Last of A Dying Breed." The band is preparing to go on tour to support their new album. However, there is...

Fear not, Dukes of Hazzard fans, no one is going to mess with the General Lee. After a forum post on HobbyTalk.com indicated that Tomy Toys, manufacturer of all official Dukes of Hazzard merchandise, would no longer produce scale models of the show's famous 1969 Dodge Charger with its Confederate battle flag displayed on the roof, Warner Brothers has issued a statement to the contrary. The original story reportedly came courtesy of an anonymous worker with Tomy Toys, who said the Stars and Bars livery would be excised from the models beginning on January 1, 2013. The news incited substantial...

I suppose his actions qualify him as posing a severe domestic terrorist threat.

OAKWOOD, Ga. (AP) -- A college president in Georgia says she ordered an instructor's painting that featured a Confederate flag removed from a faculty art exhibit. The Athens Banner-Herald reports the flag was superimposed on images including a hanged black man and a hooded Ku Klux Klansman.

New York—The group that is seeking to build the $100 million mosque next to the Ground Zero site certainly understands the sensitivity to the American people. In a bold move to reach out to the American people, the group announced today that they will fly a Confederate Battle Flag across the top of the mosque. Spokesperson for the group, Daisy Khan, indicates that most of the opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque is coming from the southern part of the United States. “We are aware that much of our opposition to exercising our Constitutional rights to build the mosque,” said...

TAMPA - A park memorializing Confederate veterans will officially open April 25 with cannon fire, live music and re-enactors impersonating famous Southern generals. The park, near the junction of Interstates 4 and 75, gained notoriety last summer when the Sons of Confederate Veterans raised a 30-by-50-foot Confederate flag there. In October, the group replaced the first flag with a larger one. The veterans group said they raised the flag to draw attention to the 1.9-acre memorial park at its base. David McCallister, a lawyer and officer with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the park was built to relate the...

ATLANTA — In a cultural war that has pitted Old South against new, defenders of the Confederate legacy have opened a fresh front in their campaign to polish an image tarnished, they said, by people who do not respect Southern values. With the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States in 2011, efforts are under way in statehouses, small towns and counties across the South to push for proclamations or legislation promoting Confederate history.

A federal appeals court ruled that a Missouri school district had the right to suspend a student who wore a cap depicting a Confederate flag. The ruling Friday by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said schools may restrict First Amendment rights "in certain limited circumstances." It affirms a lower court ruling from 2007. Bryce Archambo was 14 when he was suspended from Farmington High School in September 2006, after wearing a baseball cap depicting the Confederate flag with the words, "C.S.A. Rebel Pride, 1861." The district said the flag was associated with racism and feared...

TAMPA, FLA. - Chip Witte doesn't consider himself a Rebel. He doesn't hang Dixie battle flags in his living room, nor does he wear one on the back of his leather jacket. Yet when the Tampa motorcycle mechanic saw the world's largest Confederate battle flag unfurl above the intersection of I-75 and I-4 in June, he felt a jolt of solidarity with the lost cause and lost rights that he says the battle flag represents. "I think it's great that they're allowed to fly it," says Mr. Witte. [Editor's note: The original version misidentified the highway intersection.]

The controversial stars and bars of the Confederate Flag could soon find their way to Florida license plates. State Rep. Don Brown, R-DeFuniak Springs, has worked with the Sons of Confederate Veterans to sponsor a bill that would allow the group to create a non-profit license plate that bears the Dixie flag. The tag would cost roughly $25 from the Department of Motor Vehicles. SCV Executive Director Ben Sewell said his organization has been successful in the past at getting the license plates in numerous states and feels they’ve met the requirements in the state of Florida to acquire the...

The Republican presidential candidates on Thursday moved to appeal to different types of conservative voters before the South Carolina primary, with Mike Huckabee using colorful language to declare the Confederate flag a states’ rights issue and Senator John McCain embracing a supply-side tax cut proposal. “You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag,” Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, told supporters in Myrtle Beach, according to The Associated Press. “In fact,” he said, “if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d...

The little known holiday is fine with some Tennesseans, but others don't think the government should still officially honor the Confederate Army General.