A Rebel Without A Clue

 And so in the fullness of time the esteemed Governor of the Great Sovereign State of Mississippi, Tate ("Tater Tot") Reeves signed the bill authorizing the new state flag. Thus, the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia has been permanently removed from the state banner. Whoopie do. "In God We Trust" is included, because the enabling legislation required that in the "winning" design. According to what I've read, the gold star at the top represents the five Native American tribes that originally lived here. As an aside, there was a brief news bite on the local TV station last night showing the COVID vaccination site at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. The new flag was shown, proudly upside down! So on January 11, 2021, the new flag was raised over the state capitol. Various politicians declared this a symbol of unity. And of course, this was especially weird coming on the heels of the invasion of the U.S. Capitol building by knucklehead flaunting...

  I pledge allegiance to the Great Mosquito and to the Yellow Fever which it spreads The Mississippi Commission to Redesign the State Flag received over 3,000 proposals. Some were obviously jokes, which was expected, and at least one of those jokes -- or at least we assume it was a joke -- inadvertently made its way onto the published list of 147 "finalists." Supposedly this happened because of a typo on a commissioner's "first cut" list.  While it's not exactly dignified enough for courtrooms, the Great Mosquito Flag certainly strikes a chord in the hearts of all Mississippians. According to one source , the mosquito pictured on the proposed flag would be capable of sucking 12 gallons of blood per hour! As far as I know, the only bloodsucking parasite capable of exceeding this rate of consumption is a Mississippi politician.  Seriously (and in my opinion, sadly), the Great Mosquito flag was a joke . The guy who submitted it did so to poke fun at a coworker...

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...