A Rebel Without A Clue

Today, Sunday, 28 June 2020, the Mississippi Legislature approved a bill to remove the current state flag , which features the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia in the canton. The bill goes to the governor for his signature, and he's already said he would sign it. (Actually, the Governor refused to consider such bills when he was Lieutenant Governor, consistently stated his preference for "letting the voters decide," and changed his pitch only when a two-thirds "supermajority" of Legislators voted yesterday to suspend rules in order to consider this bill after the usual deadline.)   Updated Update: On 30 June 2020, Governor Tate "Tater Tot" Reeves signed the bill into law. This means his signature went down on the right side of history. (It's entirely conceivable that he might have simply not vetoed the bill and let it become law by holding it for 15 days. (There's no "pocket veto" in Mississippi.) A few legislators (and th...

"The only thing that I did wrong was stay in Mississippi a day too long" - Bob Dylan Harley-Davidson Knucklehead I live in the Great Sovereign State of Mississippi. This is an admission that not only am I descended from knuckleheads and live surrounded by knuckleheads but that, at the end of the day, I am a knucklehead myself. This does not mean I am a Harley-Davidson, although a lot of knuckleheads ride knuckleheads. Now, I'll be the first to admit that Mississippi has much bigger fish to fry than what design is used for a piece of cloth, fish like our stubborn refusal to implement Medicaid, our abysmal educational levels, our lack of decent-paying jobs, and ignorant politicians campaigning on such burning issues as the need to keep "In God We Trust" on the automobile license plate, but hey, I enjoy a good fish fry! I also enjoy history. So here I go down the slippery slope! Current Mississippi State Flag The current state flag design, incorpor...

I have read this set three times, portions four and five. Howard Bahr's "trilogy" -- The Black Flower , The Year of Jubilo , and The Judas Field  -- are to Civil War* fiction as Shelby Foote is to Civil War nonfiction. These are intense books filled with historical accuracy, emotion, and a deep regional sensitivity matched by few other Southern authors. All but those obsessed with the American Civil War, Reconstruction, and the origins of the Lost Cause myth will do well to stick to The Black Flower , but your mileage may vary. The writing is consistently good, all three have fine story lines, and each addresses different aspects of history and human nature. But let's stick to the first book here. Bahr, one-time curator of Rowan Oak (William Faulkner's home) at the University of Mississippi, claims to have read all existing faculty minutes at the University, and indeed the epigraph to The Black Flower  includes the following: " J. Bishop, B.P. Carte...