Mailed 39 Certified letters to Corporations which offer to donate to the Sons of Confederate Veterans

I mailed out 39 certified letters today to Corporations which offer to donate to the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).  These are corporations with American addresses. I will be mailing 4 or 5 more letters to foreign addresses by Saturday.

Along with the cover letter I sent each company a printout of the article about the SCV published by Black Commentator online.

The links to the cover letter, the companies being written to, along with the link to the Black Commentator article are at this blog.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/07/plan-to-write-corporations-who-sponsor.html

The link to the Black Commentator article:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

Update:

Campaign a complete success. Article on it here:

http://www.blackcommentator2.com/527_cover_scv_donation_loss_sebesta_guest.html

Texas U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman working with Institute of the Constitution run by League of the South board member Michael Peroutka

The details of this collaboration is at this link:

http://wthrockmorton.com/2013/07/tx-rep-steve-stockman-joins-with-league-of-the-south-board-member-on-amicus-brief/

I don't know Warren Throckmorton and I haven't checked all the details. However Peroutka is involved in the neo-Confederate movemeent.

Throckmorton refers to this URL:

http://www.theamericanview.com/institute-on-the-constitution-in-the-united-states-supreme-court/

It says that the Gun Owners of America (GOA) is also involved. The GOA had a series of full page ads in the neo-Confederate publication Southern Mercury.

Maybe the Institution on the Constitution is the gateway of neo-Confederacy into the conservative movement.

John Barr reviews, "The Fall of the House of Dixie," by Bruce Levine for "Civil War Book Review"

Professor John Barr's book review of "The Fall of the House of Dixie," by Bruce Levine for Civil War Book Review is online at:

http://www.cwbr.com/index.php?q=5491&field=ID&browse=yes&record=full&searching=yes&Submit=Search

An extract from the review:

Levine’s account begins by delineating the characteristics of the House of Dixie, one of magnificent wealth, political power, and social influence, all based upon cruelly exploiting the labor of millions of enslaved African Americas. His description of the antebellum South is especially clear that, at least from the perspective of those who owned other human beings, “slaveholding was not simply an economic necessity,” but also “the unique basis of the particular outlook, assumptions, norms, habits, and relationships to which masters as a social class had become deeply and reflexively attached. It defined their privileges and shaped their culture, their religion, and even their personalities.” The first two chapters disprove the all too prevalent claims of those in American culture who hold that slavery was not, as Abraham Lincoln said in 1865, “somehow, the cause of the war.” American slaveholders were so devoted their peculiarly profitable institution and its associated status that they chose to fight to preserve it once Lincoln and the anti-slavery Republican Party won the 1860 presidential election. In establishing the dominant power of the white master class, indeed of all whites, over the relative societal weakness of blacks, slave or free, in the antebellum South, and how the fighting overturned this social order, Levine assists the reader in understanding more clearly the revolutionary nature of the American Civil War.

John Barr is the author of a soon to be published book by LSU Press, "Loathing Lincoln: An American Tradition from the Civil War to the Present," which covers the history of Lincoln hater's in America.(Spring 2014.)

Lincoln Memorial Vandalized: Investigation Underway UPDATE: Paint is on the statue Update: Security cameras did catch the person doing the vandalism and policy are seeking person of interest.Update 3: www.lewrockwell.com sympathetic to vandalism Update: 4 More clues as to what happened. Final Update

These are the online articles:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57595627/lincoln-memorial-vandalized/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/green-paint-splattered-lincoln-memorial-19779233

Someone overnight splattered green paint on the Lincoln Memorial. No symbols or writing is evident in the green paint.

One report says the paint is on the floor near the memorial, another says some paint is on the statue as well as the floor.

The Lincoln Memorial has been closed off to the public. Clean up is underway. Surveillance cameras videos are being reviewed to see who did this.

At this time it is unknown who did this and why. I will be doing updates as information comes in.

At this time it the person doing it might be some lone crazy who thinks Lincoln is from Mars  because he or she stopped taking their medicines. However, with Lincoln being compared to Hitler by the Sons of Confederate Veterans ( See http://www.sonsofconfederateveterans.blogspot.com/2013/07/lincoln-more-like-hitler.html) suspicion is naturally directed to someone influenced by the neo-Confederates.

However, we have to wait, it could just be someone drunk and thinking this was "funny" or it might even be some leftist person. I would think a neo-Confederate would use red paint and not green paint. When people do vandalism to make a statement I would think everything would be very symbolic and the color would be very important.

So I am thinking that it is not likely a neo-Confederate, I don't see it as something they would do. I track the neo-Confederates, and it doesn't seem consistent with their behavior.  It might be someone in some other movement influenced by neo-Confederate thought but a member of some skinhead group or neo-Nazi group.

With the absence of facts a person can speculate, but at this point who and why is simply not known.

UPDATE:

The statue was vandalized.
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Vandalism-Discovered-at-Lincoln-Memorial-217075581.html

There is a video showing the vandalism. It happened sometime before 1:30 am last night. It was reported to police by some visitors to the Memorial.

UPDATE 2:

The security camera's did catch whoever did this and the police are seeking a person of interest. The monument has been reopened.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/26/19703353-lincoln-memorial-paint-vandal-caught-on-video-police-seek-person-of-interest-sources-say

The story doesn't say really how much they know about whoever did it.

UPDATE 3: www.lewrockwell.com

Read these www.lewrockwell.com blog postings:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/re-the-horror-temple-of-jupiter-defiled/

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/the-horror-temple-of-jupiter-defiled-2/

They are mocking those who are appalled by the vandalism and accusing Lincoln of genocide.

UPDATE 4:

The paint was splattered using a Mountain Dew bottle according to a report in the Washington Post. The report is that there was both white and green paint involved. Also, a shoe print left in the white paint.

Hopefully there is some sort of evidence in the Mountain Dew bottles of DNA or finger prints.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/after-vandalism-at-lincoln-memorial-cleaning-and-questions/2013/07/27/5dcc4b1e-f6d7-11e2-a2f1-a7acf9bd5d3a_story.html

A shoe print in white paint offers the opportunity to match up a shoe with white paint.

Final Update:

It seems it is as I originally thought was likely the case, a person with problems.

"Black Commentator" publishes article on the racism and extremism of the Sons of Confederate Veterans

Black Commentator has published my article on the racism and extremism of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). This article isn't only about racism. In the article there are the SCV denunciations of the Pledge of Allegiance as some type of socialist conspiracy, SCV articles asserting that the Republican party was and is involved in some type of communist conspiracy, comparisons of Lincoln to Hilter.

The prejudices against Muslims, gays and Lesbians (gays they call sodomites) are documented. Also, their promotion of books that defend or justify Antebellum slavery are mentioned. Also mentioned is their promotion of books that glorify the Ku Klux Klan.

Coming up what will be most interesting will be the denials of the SCV. I am sure one excuse or another will be given. Or maybe they won't. This article comparing Lincoln to Hitler was just published in the SCV blog yesterday (7/24/2013), maybe they aren't going to deny what they really believe.

http://www.sonsofconfederateveterans.blogspot.com/2013/07/lincoln-more-like-hitler.html

The link to the Black Commentator article is:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

Let people know about this article.

The SCV may have what it calls "Message Discipline" but I think that now with this article people will know what type of organization they really are.

Also, this is the article which I will be mailing to corporations which donate to the SCV.

There was just recently an attack on gays and Lesbians in the Chaplain Corps Chronicles of the Sons of Confederate Veterans after the article was sent in to Black Commentator for publication. (Search for the term sodomy). http://www.scv.org/pdf/chaplains/ChaplainsChronicleJul13.pdf

UPDATE:

The article was used in a campaign against corporate donations to the SCV through the We Care website. It was a complete success. You can read about it at the following link:

http://www.blackcommentator2.com/527_cover_scv_donation_loss_sebesta_guest.html

Article in "The Atlantic," "Rand Paul's Aide: A Dunce on the Confederacy"

The article is online and at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/rand-pauls-aide-a-dunce-on-the-confederacy/277701/

About how neo-Confederate Libertarian ideas are damaging to Libertarianism.

A lot of critical analysis of the arguments of neo-Confederates that would be useful to people who aren't Libertarians.

Jack Hunter resigns from his position as U.S. Senator Rand Paul staffer

Jack Hunter, AKA Southern Avenger, has resigned his position as a staffer for U.S. Senator Rand Paul.

This story is about some commentaries that Hunter was selling and were available on a CD. Several are put online.

http://freebeacon.com/the-confederacy-loses-again/


This story is about how Hunter's former editor for the Charleston City Paper isn't buying Hunter's claim that he left Paul's staff on his own to clear his name and not because Paul told him to go.

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/22/rand_pauls_white_supremacy_double_game/

Sidney Blumenthal reviews "Copperhead" a movie by neo-Confederate Ron Maxwell

You can read Blumenthal's review at this link:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/romanticizing-the-villains-of-the-civil-war/277969/

Ron Maxwell and the stars of his movie, "Gods and Generals," interviewed in Southern Partisan.

Ron Maxwell also wrote an article for Chronicles magazine where he claimed that Hispanic immigration might result in a new civil war.

I am glad the press is seeing that his movies are little more than neo-Confederate propaganda.

Project to write corporations who donate to the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) now underway, dossier on the SCV scheduled to be published this week. UPDATE: Published UPDATE2: SCV dumped.

My dossier on the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is scheduled to be published on July 25th this coming week. I will have a blog on it with the guest pass URL for readers. There might possibly be a delay of a week in publishing, but currently that is the schedule.

Next weekend I am writing 46 corporations and individuals asking them to stop supporting the SCV with donations. I have already gotten names, addresses, and assembled the mailing materials. Each CEO will get a copy of the article scheduled to be published.

You can read about how corporations donate money to the SCV at a previous blog posting.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/06/corporations-that-offer-to-give.html

The draft of the letter that is being sent to them is at this blog posting:

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/06/letter-to-ceos-of-corporations-that.html

The article that is going to be mailed to them has been published:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

For some reason Taio Cruz's song "Dynamite" with its line "I am wearing all my favorite brands, brands, brands, brands," is running through my head after typing this list. I wonder if Mr. Cruz and his fans would consider the Confederacy one of their favorite, "brands, brands, brands, brands." I doubt it. In fact a lot of brands probably don't want to be associated with the Confederacy in the public mind.

UPDATE 2: www.we-care.com has dumped the SCV. Technically the page is still up, but there are no companies listed. Total victory.

The companies are:

Adidas
Aeropostale
Alamo Rent A Car (They advertised in the Confederate Veteran)
Anthropologie
Apple Store
AT&T Wireless
Banana Republic
Barneys New York
Bed Bath & Beyond
Bloomingdale's
Converse
DKNY
ESPNShop.com
Footlocker
Fossil
Ghiradelli Chocolate
Giorgio Armani Beauty
Godiva Chocolatier
Guess
Jessica Simpson
Jos. A. Bank
Lancome Paris
Lee
Lindt Chocolate
Macy's
NASCAR Superstore
Nautica
NFL
Nordstroms
Old Navy
Oscar de la Renta
Ralph Lauren
Saks Fifth Avenue
Sesame Street
Sports Authority
Starbucks
Theory
True Religion Apparel
Urban Outfitters
Vichy Laboratories
Walgreens
Wedgwood Waterford PLC
Wrangler
Yves Saint Laurent

Major article in the "Atlantic" about federal government support for neo-Confederacy, including mention of the Arlington Confederate Monument, Ed Sebesta quoted several times.

I am going to updated this blog tonight, but you can read the article online here: 

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/you-wont-believe-what-the-government-spends-on-confederate-graves/277931

Some extracts:

The desire for more Confederate memorialization at the turn of the century came not only from a sense of respect for history, heritage, or states' rights, but amid a torrent of racism and racial suppression. Celebrations of Jefferson Davis' 100th birthday in 1908 were held without restraint. The novel, The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan, became a runaway hit when it was published in 1905; a theatrical adaptation successfully toured the South and was even staged in Washington, D.C. (Most of us have heard of the story of that novel and play because of the screen adaptation, D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation). And Confederate heritage groups like the UDC began erecting monuments and memorials that recalled a righteous cause.

I am quoted:

 "Every time the federal government gives them a headstone, it's an opportunity to hold an event, and a gathering" for these groups to engage in Confederate nostalgia, Ed Sebesta, co-editor of Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction. While not all, or even perhaps most, members of the SCV and UDC hold racist views, Sebesta says that at the leadership level, they've recently become much more open about their views of Confederate history and the values it represented. These include leaders -- sometimes in official SCV and UDC publications -- defending racist government policies of the past, or decrying the civil rights changes of the past 60 years.

For example, the December 2012 issue of UDC Magazine had an article defending the Black Codes. A 2003 article in the official publication of the SCV's Educational Political Action Committee, in Sebesta's words, "explains why segregation is justified." A 2006 article in Southern Mercury decried the judicial and legislative milestones of the Civil Rights Movement, asserting that in the 1960s, "The cultural Marxists relentlessly hammered away at Western cultural norms using the sledge of anti-racism as a battering ram to bring down the walls of traditional Western culture."

I have much of the racism of the neo-Confederates in the early and mid-20th century documented at the website www.confederatepastpresent.org.

You can read articles in which Confederate "heritage" groups praise the Ku Klux Klan at these links:

http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=161:extracts-from-the-book-qthe-ku-klux-klan-or-invisible-empireq-by-mrs-sef-rose-and-endorsed-by-the-sons-of-confederate-veterans-and-the-united-daughers-of-the-confederacy-&catid=37:the-nadir-of-race-relations&back=yes

http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=162:the-united-daughters-of-the-confederacy-defends-the-ku-klux-klan-in-1936&catid=37:the-nadir-of-race-relations&back=yes

There are many more articles praising the Klan at www.confederatepastpresent.org. Use the search engine at the site.

If you want to know more about the Arlington Confederate Monument and the effort to get the president to stop sending a wreath to the monument go to this blog:

http://arlingtonconfederatemonument.blogspot.com/

This blog also had some documentation of the 21st century racism of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

William Lee Miller, a great scholar at the Univ. of Virginia died.

I just learned that William Lee Miller died on May 27, 2012. His book, "Arguing About Slavery," was an inspiration to me and is one of my favorite books. I am sadden to learn of it.

The link to the New York Times obituary is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/us/william-lee-miller-lincoln-scholar-dies-at-86.html?_r=1&

Buy his book "Arguing About Slavery." It is a good read.

Professor Miller made the connection almost cinematically vivid in “Arguing About Slavery” when he recounted how Adams died in February 1848 after collapsing on the floor of the House: 

“It is altogether fitting and proper, for the purposes of the inner history and collective memory of the American people,” Professor Miller wrote, “that on the day that Adams fell there was seated, in a not very good seat in the back row of the House chamber, a Whig congressman from Illinois serving his first and only term.” 

Jack Hunter had earlier asked his former "City Paper" editor to delete his columns. Editor refused. He calls Jack Hunter common type of racist, one who doesn't realize he is one.

This story is here:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/07/rand-pauls-neo-confederate-aide-asked-his-editor-delete-columns/67344/

The editor says that he basically published Jack Hunter for amusement.

Haire says that while Hunter never said racial slurs or joined a lynching, "it was my opinion then and it is my opinion now that Jack is the most common kind of racist, the one that doesn’t realize that he is one." Which raises an interesting question, as The Washington Examiner's Philip Klein notes: If Hunter was such a racist, why did Haire publish him? In a way, Haire supports Hunter's own defense—that he was only saying this stuff because it sells. "The role of a radio host is different from that of a political operative. In radio, sometimes you’re encouraged to be provocative and inflammatory," Hunter said in a blog post. That apparently worked for the City Paper, too. Keep that in mind when you read about how the South has changed.

Some time ago I had suggested in a blog that Jack Hunter was being published for amusement by the City Paper. 

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2008/02/neo-confederate-ranter-columnist-for.html#.UekX2I2siSo

This got Jack Hunter quite upset and he denounced me in a YouTube video, which has been deleted, but he refers to it in his blog.

http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/SouthernAvenger/archives/2008/02/27/neo-confederate-hunter-sebesta-responds-to-sa--with-even-more-elitism

It seems I was right all along as to why City Paper included Jack Hunter. 

There is also this story at the City Paper is by his former editor and about Jack Hunter pointing out that his claims of youthful indiscretions doesn't hold up. 

http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/HaireoftheDog/archives/2013/07/18/former-editor-of-rand-pauls-neo-confederate-staffer-talks-about-the-southern-avenger

Now U.S. Senator Rand Paul and Jack Hunter are trying to represent Jack Hunter's Southern Avenger days as the efforts of a "shock jock" professional, which would validate exactly what I claimed then it was. He was being published for amusement.

I think the truth is that Jack Hunter believes then and now the same things and did take himself seriously. The editor didn't take him seriously and published him as a freak show to sell papers. When I pointed this out Jack Hunter was quite upset and I was supposed to be the bad guy for even thinking that. However, it turns out I was right all along.

Sons of Confederate Veterans Commander-in-Chief R. Michael Givens on the "darkness and indolence" of Asian culture

R. Micheal Givens, Commander-in-Chief, (C-i-C) of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is wrote on the battle of Thermopylae and the defeat of the Persians in the July/Aug 2013 issue of the Confederate Veteran, pages 4,5,26. The Battle of Thermopylae was a legendary battle in history and kept European Greece free of the Persian Empire. Ionian Greece was part of the Persian Empire.

I am glad of the defeat of the Persians and the victory of the Greeks since it did allow the Athenian and other democracies to survive. The successes and the notable failures of Greek democracy figured in the thinking which created our modern democracies. I like Greek Civilization, and when I was an undergraduate I was a double major in engineering and ancient history. There was not charge for an additional class since I was a full time student and I graduated with 5 1/2 years of credits in 4 years of school.

However, I rather doubt that the slaves in Greece or Persia cared much who won. It would be interesting to know what the Helots thought of the Spartan victory. It wasn't until the Spartans were later defeated that the Helots became free Greeks again.

However, what is interesting is the following comment on page 5 by Givens:

All this advancement may have never evolved had Greece become a Persian satrapy, and been assimilated into the darkness and indolence which was Asian, 2,492 years ago. 

Givens is talking about 480 BCE.

A lot is happening in Asia at that time. For starters Judaism is developing and will become Christianity. Buddhism is starting in the 5th Century BCE. Confucius is writing in the 6th and 4th Century BCE. Asian civilization is developing.

I don't know what the "darkness" and "indolence" Givens is talking about. It is this type of writing that tends to give interest in Classical history, the period of the Greeks and Romans a bad reputation. That is that an interest and appreciation of civilizations in the past of which lead to the development of modern Western civilization is about asserting superiority over others and assuming superiority for ones self. You can appreciate the accomplishments of a civilization without running down another. However, since the SCV glorifies the white supremacist Confederacy, they very likely have a world history view which supports white supremacy.

It shows Givens historical sense is ethnocentric and ill informed at best, but it is likely part of a larger racist view of world history. It is like something out of the 19th century where history is employed to justify colonial domination. It is also an example of the mentality of the SCV and Ben C. Sewell III who as an editor of the Confederate Veteran didn't point this out.

Yukio Mishima and the League of the South

The League of the South in one of their usual anti-immigration postings in keeping with their general hysteria over Latino immigration into the United States quotes Yukio Mishima.

http://www.lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2013/07/quote-of-day_16.html

Again, I only blog on the League of the South because this is amusing, but I don't want to create the impression that they are that significant in the neo-Confederate movement. They were at one time, but now they are just a remnant.

As anyone who is familiar with literature, and in particular gay literature, knows Yukio Mishima was a gay Japanese writer. I never read, "Confessions of a Mask," but in the 1970s it was one of the roughly dozen gay novels your other gay friends told you about and you read since there was only roughly a dozen gay novels to be read. However, I have never read it, in 1979 a flood of new literature was being published and you had choices and suddenly you didn't have time to read everything.

The other day I was reading online or in a magazine Thomas Fleming, head of the Rockford Institute, leading neo-Confederate, commenting favorably on Cavafy, the Alexandrian Greek poet. I was somewhat repulsed by it and thought "keep away from Cavafy Fleming!". I would have thought his hysterical homophobia would have precluded his ever saying anything favorable about Cavafy. Perhaps Thomas Fleming doesn't really know about Cavafy and this blog posting will inform him and he will reject Cavafy. I doubt it though. Fleming is literate and I think he already knows, but perhaps he doesn't, then again I think Fleming probably just critically processes Cavafy and uses what he likes in Cavafy's writing and discards the rest.

However, for the great mass of neo-Confederates their reaction will be more reflexive and they won't want to even mention Cavafy and Mishima under any circumstances. The Sons of Confederate Veterans Chaplain Corps will certainly not quote either one now. Let me mention Jean Cocteau here so he doesn't get quoted by neo-Confederates, as well for the same reasons Andre Gide and E.M. Forester.If I think of other writers to mention here I will do an update.

Oh by the way, neo-Confederates, your anti-Lincoln writer Gore Vidal wrote "The City and the Pillar." Look it up.

Upcoming movie, "12 Years a Slave," review and trailer at "Slate"

There is a new movie coming out, "12 Years a Slave." The link to the review and a trailer is at this link:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/07/15/_12_years_a_slave_trailer_steve_mcqueen_and_brad_pitt_have_made_a_different.html

From the blog posting at Slate:

The film tells the story of Solomon Northup, who was born a free man in the North,worked as a carpenter and violinist to support his wife and three children, and was kidnapped and sold into chains in Louisiana. He was eventually able to get word of his illegal enslavement up to his family, and when he was free again he wrote a bestselling slave narrative about his experience, called 12 Years a Slave.

U.S. Senator Rand Paul on Lincoln , is the GOP the party of Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?

U.S. Senator Rand Paul has shared his thoughts on Lincoln in response to the Jack Hunter controversy.

It is reported in this article online:

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/11/rand_paul_completely_mangles_lincoln/


Trent Lott explained to an interviewer for the Southern Partisan how the Republican Party was now the party of Jefferson Davis.

Is neo-Confederacy like a rising dampness, penetrating the conservative movement? Or is it an ideology that occasionally shows up in the conservative movement, but for which there is no general trend of neo-Confederacy being adopted by the conservative movement.

It might be that either scenario is a  current possibility and the conservative movement, if it wishes not to be neo-Confederate needs to take strong measures to prevent that from happening.

Sons of Confederate Veterans hysterically upset over gay rights

See this blog posting. Read their newsletter.

http://neo-confederatehomophobia.blogspot.com/2013/07/sons-of-confederate-veterans.html

Raging, delusional, frothing at the mouth.

"I was racist 15 minutes ago, but not now." The excuses of neo-Confederates

Jack Hunter is now alleging that he isn't the neo-Confederate of his Southern Avenger days. It is reported U.S. Senator Rand Paul is not going to terminate him.

Some articles on this are:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/07/09/why_rand_paul_won_t_get_rid_of_his_neo_confederate_co_author.html

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/07/11/rand-paul-defends-incredibly-talented-aide-despite-neo-confederate-ties/

This is what neo-Confederates do when discovered, they explain that they are no longer the same person. When Southern Partisan was in the news about their attacks on Martin Luther King they said that was their early years but they had changed. What had changed is that Martin Luther King birthday legislation was no longer in the news so it wasn't something they would report on.

Everyone does change over time and there is no way to read minds and see what people believe. So it is a very good rebuttal for neo-Confederates when their neo-Confederate past is discovered, "I was racist 15 minutes ago, but not now."

As some neo-Confederates find careers they find their documented neo-Confederate pasts liabilities, so they discover that they have changed.

However, I would ask Jack Hunter about what changed his mind about his neo-Confederate beliefs. What changed his mind about Lincoln or the Confederacy? Probably the only thing you would find is that he found his beliefs career limiting.

Warren Throckmorton has an article about Institute on the Constitution course offering on the Constitution canceled by school board

The Institution on the Constitution (IOTC) founder Michael Peroutka is involved with the neo-Confederate movement and the League of the South. The IOTC was going to offer a course on the Constitution with a local school, but people found out what the real agenda was and it was cancelled.

It is reported here on the web page of Warren Throckmorton.

http://wthrockmorton.com/2013/07/institute-on-the-constitution-founder-michael-peroutka-on-southern-secession-and-his-course-on-the-constitution/#comments

If you go to wthrockmorton.com you can see all his posts on the topic.

Besides learning that the course was cancelled, there is something else that is good about this report. Conservative Christians are rejecting neo-Confederacy. I don't think it necessarily means they reject the Lost Cause, but it does mean that they are learning what the neo-Confederate ideology is and rejecting it and realizing that it is something that is attempting to find a place in their movement.

I think upon reflecting on neo-Confederacy a person is likely to in time reject the Lost Cause.

NOTE: People should always understand that my anti-neo-Confederate efforts are non-partisan regarding other issues. It is my goal to reach out to all segments of society to oppose neo-Confederacy on the basis of a common support for American democratic values as embodied in the American republic. Hence the name of my website site www.templeofdemocracy.com.

U.S. Senator Rand Paul employs neo-Confederate Jack Hunter as his media director

For a while there the Republican Party leaders weren't associating with neo-Confederates. After Trent Lott's involvement with the Council of Conservative Citizens came to light and it turned out that much of the Republican Party leadership had interviewed in Southern Partisan magazine, the Republicans largely avoided the neo-Confederates.

However, it seems that U.S. Senator Rand Paul employs neo-Confederate Jack Hunter as his media director.

It is all over in the media.

The story first appeared in the conservative Washington Free Beacon and you can read the story at this link:

http://freebeacon.com/rebel-yell/

It is reported on in the media at these links:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/07/09/rand-paul-aide-has-history-of-racial-comments/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/09/rand-paul-staffer-southern-avenger/2502637/

Jack Hunter, aka Southern Avenger, comments about John Wilkes Booth and the assassination of Lincoln have gotten considerable commentary.

More amusing is this article, "Rand Paul can't understand why black voters don't vote GOP, here is a clue."

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/07/09/rand-paul-cant-understand-why-black-voters-dont-vote-gop-heres-a-clue/

The article points out that the GOP and Rand Paul is not going to seem a very appealing choice when they are involved with neo-Confederate racists like Jack Hunter.

Like most neo-Confederates who are caught out, Hunter talks about how his views have changed. When these things come to light we get some excuse like, "Well that was 15 minutes ago, my views have changed."

The good thing about this, besides the fact that Rand Paul will likely dump Jack Hunter, is that all the other Republicans will be making sure they aren't hiring neo-Confederates or end up some how associated with neo-Confederates.

What may be acceptable in South Carolina may not be so acceptable in the rest of the country.

Another good thing is that an arrogant rodent is going to get his.

The Civil War and Gay freedom in New York City; Gays 1 Neo-Confederates 0.

I was recently in New York City and on all days I might have been there, I was there on the weekend of the Gay Freedom Day parade.

I of course went to the Stonewall Inn and what is now Stonewall Plaza, a small park. New York City has some streets at odd angles and it leaves little triangular wedges of land which are made into parks. 

Stonewall Inn for those of you who don't know, is the location of the beginning of the riot which sparked the modern gay liberation movement. Fortunately the name doesn't seem to have any relation to the name Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.  The police raided the place and the patrons decided not to take abuse and local gay crowds gathered and there was a riot, then protests and then a movement. The rest is history. 

The original patrons were marginal people in then gay society, drag queens, prostitutes, minority gay members. They weren't marginal in rebelling though. 

The original bar closed shortly after the riots, but now it has been reopened as a bar and historic landmark and gay tourist attraction and hundreds of thousands of middle class gay tourists go there. I had a Corona beer there. It made no sense in a way, because there was nothing of the original there. But still, remembering Karla Jay and Allen Young's book, "Out of the Closets and Into the Streets," I went. Reliving my youth in a way I suppose. CLICK ON PICTURES TO MAKE THEM LARGER. 

And then I went to the park and took this picture of these sculptures.

Then wouldn't you know it, I saw a statue of a Civil War American general Philip Sheridan. I was so pleased to see a statue of an American Civil War hero so I took a picture of him also.

As Madonna would say, "strike a pose" 

Philip Sheridan helped force Robert E. Lee into defeat at Appomattox. 

Doing his part to preserve the United States of America he insured American victory over the Confederates and the destruction of slavery. He helped keep the American story of expanding freedom going. Was he all good, I suppose not. 

He was however a part of the parade of American history and freedom which has led to the successes of the modern gay rights movement and the grinding of neo-Confederate teeth. 

Of course in visiting New York I drove through the Lincoln tunnel on the way to the Gay Pride Parade. 

The Chaplain's Corps of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) may go on and on about R.L. Dabney, James Henley Thornwell, Benjamin M. Palmer, and others, but it is the raging of the increasingly irrelevant for an archaic past where they type could dominate and bully others.