Disturbing Flagger Obsession

Folks, what we have below is a list compiled from the results of searches done at Brooks D. Simpson's Crossroads blog. The searches were done with the search function provided on his blog, and with Google.

The search term used was "flaggers."

The searches identified 97 posts occurring between December 29, 2011 and October 26, 2013. There were many more mentions of the Flaggers, or use of the word "flagger," in the comment threads at Crossroads, but neither search engine searched the comments.

If you were to go back through and read these posts, you would find innuendo, slime, outright lies and yes, hatred -- not to mention contradictions (why is he still carping about Susan's "silence" when he purported to explain it weeks ago?) and general unbalance...  All quite disturbing....

The question is ... why?  Anybody want to offer any explanations for Simpson's obsession (and that of his peanut gallery)? For his pathological lies, his pretending to know people he has never met -- know their motives, their thoughts, their feelings? Any idea where such megalomaniacal behavior originates? And why?

97 "flagger" posts at Crossroads blog between December 29, 2011 and October 26, 2013 -- 36 posted before the I-95 flag announcement, 61 after...

 _______________________________

2011        2 POSTS

12/29  Who Supports “Flagging” the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts?
12/29  Stirring the Pot

2012        22 POSTS

1/4   News on Southern Heritage
1/15 The Lexington Controversy Considered
3/18 Museums, History, Politics, and "Heritage"
3/22 News and Notes March 22
3/24 News and Notes March 24
3/25 Deconstructing Confederate Heritage
3/27 News and Notes March 27
3/30 Be On Your Best Behavior
3/31 Manufactured Outrage
4/11 Flagging the Lincoln Memorial
4/16 Support for Southern Separatism
4/22 Once More...It's Not About You...Or Me
5/27 And So What
6/6   News and Notes, June 6
6/13 News and Notes, June 13
6/15 A Setback for Certain People
7/23 Is Connie Chastain a Rainbow Confederate?
8/3  Karen Cooper Speaks Out
8/6  The Racist Confederate Flag Case
10/14 Edgerton's March
10/18 Risky Business at the Southern Heritage Preservation Group
10/16 The Rise of Ulysses S. Grant

2013       73 POSTS

1/14  And the Law Won
2/28  Confederate Marksmanship
2/2    News and Notes, February 2
2/7    Memphis: In the Footsteps of Lexington?
3/30  An Expression of Total Indifference
4/19  News and Notes April 19
5/12  Unanswered Questions About Taser-Wielding Rob Walker on Monument Avenue
5/13  The Richmond Police Weigh In on Taser-Wielding Rob Walker
5/13  Rob Walker: At the Center of Controversy
5/14  Better Late Than Never; Susan Hathaway Apologizes
5/14 Turn Out the Lights
8/3  A Fitting Tribute to the SHPG

(Note: 61 of the 73 posts in 2013 occur after this one announcing the I-95 Flag)

8/4  Another Really Big Confederate Flag
8/6  Popular Response: The Virginia Flaggers and Their (Proposed) New Flag
8/7  The Flaggers Explain Their Reasoning For Their Big Flag
8/8  Flags and Billboards Along I-95 South of Richmond
8/9  The Gift That Keeps On Giving Strikes Again
8/11 Update on Virginia Flagger Follies
8/13 The Underbelly of Flagger Support
8/16 Tripp Lewis Fulfills His Community Service Obligations
8/18 Have the Virginia Flaggers Overreached?
8/19 Flagger PR Needs Work
8/21 The Fantasy World of Flagger Supporters
8/21 Happy Birthday Rob Walker
8/22 The Flagger Imagination
8/23 Flags Across Virginia
8/24 Connie Chastain Is Right
8/25 The Flagger Proposal Disrupting and Disrespecting the Confederate Dead
8/27 Flagger Hysteria Neither Heritage Nor History
8/28 Another Troubling Flagger Link
8/31 Matthew Heimbach and the Virginia Flaggers
8/31 The Flaggers Fall Silent
9/1  Is This How Flaggers Support Heritage?
9/1  You Know How the Story Goes
9/2  A Weak Non-denial Denial from the Flaggers
9/2  A Reasonable Proposition
9/3  Meet Matthew Heimbach, Virginia Flagger
9/5  Happy Birthday, Virginia Flaggers                    (26)
9/6  To Be or Not To Be, Connie Chastain and the Virginia Flaggers
9/7  The silence and Disappearance of Susan Hathatway of the Virginia Flaggers
9/7  You Must Be Kidding
9/7  Are the Flaggers Their Own Worst Enemy?
9/7  Let's Make a Deal
9/8  Susan Hathaway's Silence Explained
9/10 Flaggers Free Speech and Frustration
9/13 Guess Who's Been Invited to the Flaggers Picnic? Matthew Heimbach
9/14 The Flaggers Resort to Intimidation, How Desperate Are They?
9/14 Who's Friends with Matthew Heimbach? Flaggers Grayson Jennings and Tripp Lewis
9/15 A Flagger Explains American History
9/15 Which Do You Prefer?
9/17 What's Next for the Virginia Flaggers?
9/18 Notes from the Black Confederate Front
9/18 Ten Days to Go
9/20 The Flaggers Follow My Advice
9/21 Just One More Week
9/22 The Sunday Question; What Would YOu Build In Confederate Heritage Disneyland?
9/28 All That Fuss For This
9/28 Meanwhile, Elsewhere in Richmond
9/28 The Flaggers' Big Moment in Historical and Hysterical Perspective
9/28 Lessons in Photography
9/29 A Day Almost Like Any Other
9/29 The Humiliation of Heritage, The Flaggers' Big Fail
10/1 The Klan at Gettysburg 2013 Or Not
10/3 Photoshopping Flagger Fantasies
10/4 Flagger Fizzle Fallout
10/5 How to Handle the Press and Protestors the Confederate Heritage Way
10/6 The Southern Heritage Preservation Group Strikes Back
10/6 Birds of a Feather Flag Together
10/7 Fiction and Fact About the Flaggers
10/9 News and Notes October 8, 2013
10/10 Oops, the Flaggers Did It Again
10/13 Connie Chastain, Bigot
10/26 The Virginia Flaggers Crash a VMFA Event.

Have at it, folks. I look forward to your comments about this.

Will My Comment Get Posted?

I have just souped up a lackluster comment thread following a trivial, Confederate-bashing post at Corey's flog. The post is about John Hall sneaking his Dobie into his hotel room, which is presumably against the rules.  The comments are posted below (edited out the "Reply" tag and timestamp), including mine, which is, I'm told, awaiting moderation.

The comment thread:

3 thoughts on “John C. Hall, Jr: Confederate Advocate on Honor…”

Schroeder says:   
How sickening.

   
Andy Hall says:   
He’s a funny guy, in a laughing-at-you-not-with-you sort of way. He frequently calls for (others) to begin the rebellion against the Yankee occupation of the South, but earns his living as an accountant, helping his clients stay in compliance with IRS regulations when they send their money to Washington, Dee Cee. For all his fiery talk about rebellion and independence, the federal government couldn’t function were it not for thousands upon thousands of people just like him, across the South, helping to make the federal tax system run smoothly — or at least much more smoothly than it otherwise would. If the “Free South” ever did actually come about, it seems like a toss-up whether John Hall would be viewed as a (1) a Southron Patriot or (2) a long-time collaborator with the Yankee occupation.

The other funny thing is that, for all his my-ancestor-Captain-Corker fixation, he actually has another ancestor who went marching through Georgia with Kerosene Billy Sherman. Doesn’t talk about that, so much.
   

Jefferson Moon says:   
That’s the chivalry…

And here's the comment I left:

Connie Chastain says:   

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Ah, geez, Andy, it’s all in how you look at it. It could be viewed that John is helping ordinary citizens in his part of the South to avoid persecution by the IRS/feds. You are just perpetually in pleasurable, fault-finding mode about white Southerners who don’t see the “race” issue the way you do (blacks good, innocent, persecuted; Southern whites evil, bigoted persecutors), aren’t you?

Re: John’s Sherman-affiliated ancestor … I had an ancestor, a Confederate soldier who was captured, took the oath of allegiance to the union, joined the union army and got sent “out west” to “fight Indians,” family legend always said. Family legend also said he was proud of his union service and after the war, would wear his union army uniform to Ellijay on court days. I know he had carved on his gravestone “1st Lieut. 12th Tenn Cav” because I’ve seen it and made photos of it. I’m not proud of his service to the enemy (when I was a teenager, I joked that he was a greater embarrassment to the family than the unwed mothers) but otherwise, I am quite proud of him. Family legend also said he was self-educated and spoke seven languages (I think probably he was not fluent in all of them, and some he only read or wrote) — English, French, Spanish, Cherokee, German, and possibly a smattering of Hebrew and Latin. Not bad for an Appalachian mountaineer.

You floggers have rigid way of thinking how things ought to be in the minds/hearts of other people — based, of course, upon your own bigotry and prejudice about them. You have a very rigid and narrow view of “Confederates” or “heritage folks” — think we’re all mental clones, or that when one person speaks, he/she is speaking for all of us. You wouldn’t do that with another group (except maybe, Tea Partiers or other political/social conservatives).

What gets me about you floggers is how eaten up you are with race, race, race, race, race. As I’ve noted before, you are fixated on how badly slaves were treated, and how miserable they were, because their misery exists in exact inverse proportion to white evil, so there’s nothing better for demonizing white Southerners (whom you hate, with, of course exceptions for yourself and other race-conscious, white-Southern guilt-peddlers) than ratcheting up slave misery.

But what I find amazing is that in all your race-focus, you miss things happening today…

========

Perp ~~ Victim ~~ Crime:

John C. Hall ~~ Sonesta Hotel ~~ Sneaking dog into room

De’Marquise Elkins ~~ Santiago West (13 months old) ~~ Murder (shot in face)

Letalvis D. Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson, and George Thomas ~~ Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom ~~ Kidnapping, Rape, Torture, Murder (beaten, shot, burned, suffocated)
   
Demario James Atwater, Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr., ~~ Eve Carson ~~ Murder (shot)

Courtney Lockhart ~~ Lauren Burk ~~ Murder (shot)

Reginald Carr, Jonathan Carr ~~ Heather Muller, Brad Heyka, Aaron Sander, Jason Befort ~~ Torture, Sexual sadism, Kidnapping, Robbery, Murder (shot execution style)

Tyrone Woodfork ~~ Tom and Nancy Strait ~~ Murder (beaten to death) and sexual assault.

Chancey Luna, James Edwards, Jr., Michael Dewayne Jones ~~ Christopher Lane ~~ Shot in the back

Macyo January ~~ David Dunlap and Whitney Butler ~~ Murder (shot)

    ========

Talk about karma….

Wonder Woman, you want to talk sickening? Try this: http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/newsom.asp

And this:
http://nicholasstixuncensored.blogspot.com/2010/12/forget-me-not-wichita-horror-update.html

You don’t find much Trayvon-style, border-to-border and coast-to-coast coverage of this kind of black-on-white atrocity-crime in the national press — heck, you can be called a racist and a white supremacist just for KNOWING about them. You usually have to go to local sources, which has only been available to most people via the internet, the past 10 years or so. And, of course, you won’t get even a whiff of it from “civil war” floggers, who, nevertheless, cover both race-race-race-race-race AND contemporary issues when it suits them,

But John Hall snuck his dog into a hotel room. In the flogger world-view, that deserves more attention, more shaming and head-wagging, more condemnation, than the Knoxville murderers, the Carr brothers, baby-shooter Elkins and all the rest of them combined.

So what do y'all think. Any chance of my comment getting through?

Found On Facebook....

 

Better them than somebody like her ... or her role-models, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot, etc., who managed to kill over 100 million human beings in less than a century.... The rich, white slave owners created a culture that was better for everyone, including slaves, than the wretched system symbolized by the image on her shirt was for anybody.

A Challenge From Crossroads

1. The people in the picture -- a buncha dirty yankees.

2. Caption -- Concocting evil to perpetrate upon the Southern people.

Okay, how'd I do?

Especially for Brooks D. Simpson

First, the disclaimers. One,this video was posted on Facebook, and you have to be careful with things you find on Facebook -- or other places on the 'net, for that matter. Lots of disinformation and misinformation out there. But I don't have a problem believing that this video is genuine and that the Muslims demonstrating on the video pose a great threat to the survival of Great Britain if they grow to sufficient numbers  Two, the F-word above the video-frame is in the embed code -- I didn't put it there. Facebook's embed function gives me no choice but to paste it as is.

In view of Simpson's recent tirade against me for my intolerance for the violence of Islam, I can't help but wonder how tolerant he will be when Muslims in Gilbert, or Tempe, or Phoenix grow to such numbers that they duplicate the demonstration in the video ...when they start saying the US can go to hell, and US police can go to hell... The floggers get all upset because some Americans don't like how NPS park rangers are behaving during the shutdown... but presumably, they would think it is "intolerant" to oppose Muslim hatred for and threats against American cops...

If I'm wrong, they can correct me, here or on their flogs.

Post by Connor Jackson.

A Tiny Little VaFlagger Post at Crossroads

Since October 10, Simpson has managed to keep the figurative duct tape on his mouth re: the Virginia Flaggers -- unless you count his homage to my justifiable intolerance of Islamic Jihad in the US as a post about the Flaggers, since I'm an honorary VaFlagger. That was posted on October 13.

So now he's carping yet again (but only with a few paragraphs) about an oft repeated complaint of his that simply hasn't gotten much traction -- a particular VaFlagger's constitutional right to free speech. Predictably, mention of "free speech" and The First Amendment brings a pedantic post from M.D. Blough that says basically what most of her First Amendment comments have said. I wonder if she's caught on yet that she can save time with Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V....

So anyway, Simpson writes,

"In the past a person critical of this blog has claimed that my belief that a certain Virginia Flagger should be able to express her opinion freely in public without suffering retaliation from her employer displays a misunderstanding of the First Amendment … but I did not invoke the amendment. I note that the Flaggers are silent on whether to support this person’s right to express her opinion publicly without fear of retaliation, while I have supported her in this matter. What that says about the Virginia Flaggers I leave up to you to decide.."

Well, first, support doesn't have to be publicly proclaimed in order to exist. Second, just because Simpson hasn't heard something doesn't necessarily mean it hasn't occurred. Third,what it possibly says is that the Flaggers may know more about the situation and circumstances than Simpson does. And fourth, it possibly means that his source(s) in Virginia may not have the entire picture themselves, so they're sending him incomplete info....

There are likely even more applicable circumstances, but that's enough for now.

One More Shameless Plug...

...and then it's back to yankee-bashin'. If you know of indie authors or small indie publishers who might need pre-publishing services let them know about WORD SLINGER BOUTIQUE. And whether you're in the market for such services or not, drop by and look at my new premade cover inventory.

What I've Been Doing Lately....

Sorry for the scarcity of posts lately, dear readers. I've been revamping my author services website and creating an inventory of pre-made e-book covers to sell. (See below.) Once it's completed, routine maintenance won't take nearly as much time as this revamp.

Lots of stuff going on to comment about. I will note a couple of things in passing.  I've been labeled an intolerant bigot at Crossroads for my "no more mosques" graphic in the right sidebar. I make no apologies for being intolerant of barbaric beheadings, stoning rape victims, forcing women into burial shrouds (burqas) while they are still alive, etc.

Reading the comments following that post (and other comments that have gone before) I can't help but wonder if this classified ad originated with Oumar Konate, husband of Kristen Schroeder "Wonder Woman" Konate:

FOR SALE BY OWNER.
Complete set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 45 volumes. Excellent condition, $325 or best offer. No longer needed, got married, wife knows everything.

 She sez, "And as for Constance – those are outdated pics – she’s much older with short hair that looks like a helmet of salt and pepper."

Well, my hair is streaky silver (I paid good money in high school for "frosting," both home and salon versions, to make my hair look like it does now, ha!) but it's down to my shoulders....  I guess she doesn't realize that trees aren't the only things that grow...

And my name is not Constance. It sez, "Connie" on my birth certificate. My sister chose that name for me. She was five at the time. I don't know where she got "Connie" but I'm pretty sure she didn't know anybody named Constance, and had never heard that name at the time...

So this expert on me, and on Virginia laws and regulations, is also an expert in comparative religion and especially Islam.

May I say I find it profoundly ironic that these people who get so red-faced and judgmental about slavery in the USA a century and a half ago are so solicitous and defensive of a "religion" spread by the sword and violent conquest and bent on world domination....

Anyhoo, here's what I've been working on... I want to have about 30 covers in my pre-made inventory (almost there), and I have two more sections of the website to update ... then, in the words of The Terminator ... "I'll be back."

I Think I've Figured Out...

...What Al's Problem Is.

He wants hair.

And a neck.

Like Simpson.

So.....

Fishy, Fishy, Fishy

Yep, folks, there's something fishy in the Old Dominion... at least, it looks that way to this ol' broad down here in Florida.

But first, the sloppy reporting at Crossroads and the correction required:

Original: You can’t find Connie’s post now. Why?

Correction: You can’t find Connie’s post now. Why? (Thanks to Al Mackey for locating the quote and he post).

Of course, even Simpson makes mistakes, and it's rather a refreshing change from his usual outright lies....

But I'm also interested in what's going on in Virginia. Specifically the timetable related by Chesterfield County spokesperson Don Kappel to the Chesterfield Observer detailing the county's attempts to contact the VaFlaggers. I noted it in my previous post... noted how vague Kappel's language was in pinpointing the timetable he was talking about... But it's more compelling as a visual.

The blue section is the maximum time period covered by Kappel's statements about trying to contact the VaFlaggers, and the timetable is fishy, the "found" address is fishy... And while Kappel and the county were trying to contact the VaFlaggers, by mail (!) (so they say), Kappel was giving statements to the press that would indicate to most people that permits are not needed.

It's also telling that Kappel sez the permitting language is "somewhat misleading."

No! Really?

And what's this about the county determining that the Flaggers made "an honest effort” to meet county requirements. County requirements? Chesterfield.gov indicates all permits are state required, via the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code... Looks like more than the "permitting language" is somewhat misleading...

But basically, what it boils down to is the county wanting its money.... and it has got its money now.

And judging by the donations that pour in to the Flaggers' coffers every time information hits the 'net about things that smack of harassment, like this story, the group had plenty to cover the county's gimme-gimmies when they went to the county office today....

... and the flag is still up. And it's gonna stay up.

Back to Crossroads, I don't know which comments are the funniest. Let's start with Wonder Woman's sudden expertise in Virginia law:

"They will be encroaching on the I-95 maintenance easement – no cutting those trees – someone didn’t do their due diligence. There are fines for digging without a permit – VDOT will most likely survey now and they are no one to mess with."

I hope Wonder Woman isn't too disappointed when no fines ensue.

VDOT will most likely survey now? Why now? Why 61 days after news of the project broke?

Besides, of course trees on the VDOT right of way can be cut:

A single use permit shall be required when the following actions are proposed, even if the activities being conducted are normally allowed under a districtwide permit: 3. Trimming or cutting any trees located within the right-of-way. 4. Applying any pesticide or landscaping within the right-of-way.
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+reg+24VAC30-151-30

Like everything else, the government has to issue you a "permit" and you give them money. (Giving the government money is what the USA and its constituent administrative provinces [formerly states] are all about these days.)

Then we have this from some anonymous somebody named "Flamethrower" --

 All Connie had to do to find out how to obtain the permit is just go find the county’s court clerk(s) office, or look up their .gov site and then email her inquiry. Why is she just too lazy?

Yup, I suppose I coulda done that, but frankly, I doubt they'd give me a permit even if I emailed 'em and asked 'em real, real nice...
 

(Pssst, Flamethrower. I'm an honorary Virginia Flagger... my contribution is uploading content to their blog. What I say here, on my blog, is my opinion; I speak for myself, not the VaFlaggers or anybody else, capisce?)

___________________________
Shark image Copyright © by Disney

He Can't Post About Me -- or the VaFlaggers -- Without Lying

(See Update below video at end of post)

In the matter of Chesterfield County's,  um... tardy action ...  regarding the Virginia Flaggers' I-95 project, Simpson has gone off the deep end, as you might expect. And, as usual, the story isn't so much about the VaFlaggers as it is an excuse for him to do what he likes best -- attack me. (He mentions me in the third sentence.)

I dunno...  Reckon it was the animated hair-gif that got his ire up?  But truth be known, his ire stays up...  It's kind of the opposite of -- .... never mind.



So then he says I "went after Al in characteristically bitter fashion." But he doesn't post a link to where I did so, claiming, "You can’t find Connie’s post now."

I wonder where he imagines he saw my bitterly-fashioned going-after-Al post that now can't be found. Not on Backsass. I have removed no posts I've uploaded to my blog since the I-95 flag story began. In fact, I don't recall ever removing/deleting a post from Backsass.

So poor widdle Bwooks is mistaken about where he saw said post, if he's insinuating he saw here -- but perhaps it is significant that he doesn't identify where he saw it ... for a good reason. You can tell whatever lie you want to about a post that never existed.... And if he saw my bitterly-fashioned going-after-Al post somewhere else, it was some place where I have no control over what appears and disappears.

Anyhoo, he imagines my magically appearing/disappearing post has something to do with this, from an article in the Chesterfield Observer that came out on October 9. Specifically, he cites this:

“We then sent it to a second address we found, but by that time they had already erected [the pole] without a permit,” Kappel explained. “The folks who erected the flagpole did some research, they looked online, and they didn’t think they needed a permit. The language, to a layman, may be somewhat misleading.”

In his typical, sleazy, deceitful manner, Simpson left out this part:

Don Kappel, director of the county’s Department of Public Affairs, said county officials tried to contact the flaggers after news of the project broke, but a letter they sent to one address they found for the group came back as undeliverable.

This smells to high Heaven. They found an address? Where'd they find it? On a scrap of paper lying on a sidewalk somewhere? In somebody's shirt pocket, behind the plastic pen holder?

The Virginia Flaggers address is not hard to find. Google "Virginia Flaggers" -- first thing to come up is their blog, and their address was published there August 3, 2013.

And it's still there.

Va Flaggers I-95 Battle Flag Project

And it has been prominently displayed on the sidebar for weeks...and appears at the end of many posts. You'd have to work at it to miss it.

Yep. Stinky, stinky, stinky...

So Kappel says county officials tried to contact the Flaggers after news of the project broke? Well, that doesn't tell me anything. When is "after" the news of the project broke? Right after? A day or two after? Geez, folks --  Now, today, is "after news of the project broke."

News broke about the project on August 7, in the Richmond Times Dispatch:

FLAG FLAP Confederate flag will fly along I-95
Posted: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 11:19 pm, Thu Sep 26, 2013.

So let's say they sent it the day after the story broke... August 8.  Or even a week after the story broke, August 15. Or even two weeks after the story broke, August 22....

Kappel says the first letter for the group came back as undeliverable, so, “We then sent it to a second address we found, but by that time they had already erected [the pole] without a permit." (Another "found" address... Sheesh.)

The pole went up on or about September 18.

So if they sent the first letter two weeks after the story broke, August 22 -- there was 18 days -- two and a half weeks, in which they had time to get the first wrongly address letter back from the USPS (assuming they sent it via that agency), "find" the correct address and mail it again.

One wonders, when the first letter came back undeliverable why didn't they just get on the phone and call Susan or Grayson (guess the county employees don't know how to use a phone directory?) and say, "We'd like to send your organization a letter, can you give us your address?"

Michael Buettner, author of the Observer hit-piece, doesn't say when he talked to Kappel. But even if it was a day or two before the article appeared, say October 7, that is nine flippin' days after the dedication ceremony, which occurred ten days after the pole went up.. He also doesn't say how long Kappel  and the county have been "working with the group to have them obtain the necessary permits..." blah, blah, blah...

What a bunch of crap. This more than stinks to high Heaven.  Both Buettner's article and the county's actions it showcases, in my opinion, smacks of something people are doing after the fact because they were put up to it. Again, in my opinion -- get that, people, in my opinion --  it is skirting very close to official harassment, after the fact, with the complicity of the press....

Of course, Simpson has been harassing and haranguing and generally trying to cause hurt and damage to the VaFlaggers since they formed -- people who have done him no wrong, by the way -- and has attempted to sic the Richmond media on them, and has just generally made a digital persecutor of himself.

Here's what he and his buddies just cannot stand.  Just like Simpson's ire, the  flag is up. It's going to stay up.

But watching Simpson in action is always an exercise in morbid fascination tinged with nausea. Down to the sick video he posted (and he calls my novels, about faithfulness in marriage, trashy.) 

Somewhere In Arizona

The music THAT puts me in mind of is The Alan Parson's Project... so, dedicated to Brooks D. Simpson, with special emphasis on the lyrics....

I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You

(Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson)
© Universal Music Publishing Group

If I had a mind to
I wouldn't want to think like you
And if I had time to
I wouldn't want to talk to you

I don't care
What you do
I wouldn't want to be like you

If I was high class
I wouldn't need a buck to pass
And if I was a fall guy
I wouldn't need no alibi

I don't care
What you do
I wouldn't want to be like you

Back on the bottom line
Diggin' for a lousy dime
If I hit a mother lode
I'd cover anything that showed

I don't care
What you do
I wouldn't want to be like you

UPDATE ~ UPDATE ~ UPDATE

Kappel said ...  “We are working with the group to have them obtain the necessary permits and to determine that the pole meets the requirements for safety and so on.”  ~ October 9, Chesterfield Observer

* * *

“There are no ordinances that would prevent this group from erecting this flag on private property,” said Don Kappel, director of the county’s Department of Public Affairs.

Kappel said the only thing that would cause county ordinances to become a factor would be a height greater than 50 feet.   ~ August 21, Chesterfield Observer

Why no mention of the letter, of the county trying to contact the VaFlaggers?

* * *

Chesterfield spokesman Don Kappel said the county has no regulations or ordinances that would prohibit the planned display.

There are height restrictions on flagpoles in certain areas of the county, Kappel said; the most restrictive is 50 feet, the size of the pole the flaggers plan on using.  ~ August 18, Richmond Times Dispatch

Why no mention of the letter, of the county trying to contact the VaFlaggers?

Stinky. Smelly. Revoltingly stinky and smelly.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Music has charms to soothe the savage breast...

 Or to getchur groove on!

Is there anybody here who can imagine Andy Hall gettin' down with the Dramatics? Or Brooks Simpson groovin' to Gino Vannelli? Or Kevin Levin swingin' to Edgar Winter? I write fiction, but that takes more imagination that I've got....

Oo, oo, ah, ah..

It doesn't hurt yer eyes to look at this guy...
 

An' some metal, just 'cause....

Photoshop Fantasies or Photoshop Lies ... Which Is Worse?

1. Photoshop Lies
           2. A Tale of Two Photos

Haters Are SOOOO Easy To Manipulate....

From Crossroads (heheheeehhhe):

Heeeheehahahaaahhaaaha!!! HOhahahahohohhoheeheehee...

A Book I Would LOVE to Read!

It's Worse Than Many People Realize....

C'mon, Folks ...

Let's be civil in the comment threads. Otherwise, somebody will mistake us for floggers, floggerettes, or the haters at RVA-Unity or LibertyLamp.

Landscapin's Not All You Can Do With Photoshop

It can make almost anything look better ... well ... sort of....

Answerin' Andy (and Neil)

Since Andy Hall is too skeered to let me post comments at his blog, I'll have to do it here.

Neil Hamilton sez, "For myself, after all of this, the only thought that comes to mind is,'That’s all?' Well, at least the company/nation/outfit that made the flag got something out of it."

You were expecting more, Neil? Thank the floggers. They're the ones who created the brouhaha about it. I mean, Simpson made a blog post nearly EVery SINgle, FLIPpin' DAY after the I-95 project was announced.

And then there's Hall's misconstruing Grayson Jennings' comments on following a news story at the Times-Dispatch.

"Yup," Hall writes, " Even Grayson Jennings, A-List Virginia Flagger, isn’t trying to explain this, over at the Richmond newspaper in the comments. Apparently it was not intended to be seen year-round:"

And he pastes this comment from Grayson: "... and….did someone glue those leaves on the trees? Best I can recall,leaves generally fall….. in the fall…"

Hall continues, "Or for that matter, why do drivers on I-95 need to see it at all:" about this comment from Grayson: "The soldiers can see it….that’s all that matters."

Hall still can't seem to get it through his head that more trees will be coming down, but since it is a volunteer project, financed with donations (rather than, say, being financed by the Commonwealth or the feds) it will get done when it gets done.

He and Simpson are both like lttle kids. If they don't know about it, it hasn't happened ... and when they want something, they want it NOW. Their patience isn't as long as their p--pinky....

Update Oct. 3...

And he just keeps on carping...

Hall sez, "After seven weeks of interviews, calls for donations, YouTubes, Facebook — even posing on the Capitol steps with their new flag — all for the stated purpose of raising a flag to be seen by visitors driving into the city, one of the lead Flaggers now says it doesn’t matter if people on the freeway can’t see it."

For the stated purpose of raising a flag to be seen by visitors driving into the city? Let's test Hall's comment here against what Susan Hathaway told the Times-Dispatch....

“Basically, the flag is being erected as a memorial to the memory and the honor of the Confederate soldiers who sacrificed, bled and died to defend Virginia from invasion,” she said.

“This will tell people that everyone is welcome,” Hathaway said. “Why do we have to be a place where Southerners who are proud of our heritage are not welcome?”

“The flag will serve to welcome visitors and commuters to Richmond, and remind them of our honorable Confederate history and heritage,” Virginia Flagger Susan Hathaway wrote in a post on the Flaggers’ website.

Oops. He steps in it again.  Yes, the flag will welcome visitors traveling I-95, but the stated purpose of the flag is serving as a memorial to the memory and honor of Confederate soldiers....

Actually, the seven weeks was filled with more crap from floggers than it was any sort of communication from the VaFlaggers...   Since the flag went up? The Flaggers have been clipping along like normal --  celebrated their 2nd anniversary picnic, flagged the VMFA, and enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, a flood of emails and other communications of praise and congratulations.

What about the floggers?  The brouhaha in the floggosphere since it went up (comprising bellyaching, crap-slinging and ridicule, and generally showing floggers to be shallow, mean-spirited and hate-filled, not to mention jealous) seems to be much harder on the floggers than it is on VaFlaggers.

Deconstructing Flogger Ridicule

Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.
                                                                ~Oscar Wilde

One of the things I've enjoyed most about watching the flogger melt-down over the Virginia Flaggers I-95 project was the build-up of hate-bile they frequently spewed out disguised as questions like ... "Did the flaggers get a permit?" ... "Do they know how long the flags will last flying 24/7 in all kinds of weather, next to a busy roadway?"   Blah, blah, blah.

Floggers are so unsure of their own intelligence, they have to invent stupidity* and plaster it onto complete strangers so they'll have somebody to feel intellectually superior to, and assuage their cognitive embarrassment.**

Floggers are so unsure of their own ethics, integrity and honor that they have to invent dishonor and corruption to plaster onto complete strangers, so they'll have somebody they can feel morally superior to, and assuage their guilt.

Floggers are so unsure of their own decency, caring and concern (and they should be unsure, since they never demonstrate [with very few exceptions] decency, caring and concern) that they have to invent meanness to plaster onto complete strangers so they'll have somebody to feel righteously superior to, and assuage their shame.

Floggers are so devoid of the enjoyment of life, they have to invent sourness and plaster it onto complete strangers, so they can comfort themselves with the thought that people they hate are as miserable as they are.

So, they've picked the Virginia Flaggers to portray as incompetent, dishonorable, callous, and unhappy ... when this is actually the perfect description of floggers -- while the Virginia Flaggers are just the opposite.

Mackey's list of Virginia land-use requirements takes the cake, though. You don't start, build and own a successful specialized construction business in Virginia -- as one of the Flaggers has done -- without knowing the law, ya know? 

You'd think, the way the floggers pored over everything that appeared in online print and video about the flag project, they'd retain some of what they read. But if they did that -- or admitted to doing it -- they couldn't hurl the insults that give them such pleasure.

For example, that list of "land use" requirements.... I guess Mackey missed this in the Times Dispatch (or he's pretending he did): "Chesterfield spokesman Don Kappel said the county has no regulations or ordinances that would prohibit the planned display." And if there were state regulations that would prevent it, somebody would have used them much earlier -- in time to prevent the project. That lawyer, Cannon, maybe, who had the big US flag put on the construction equipment (which, of course, require no work on his part, as the construction company has already acquired all the necessary permits).

So you gotta wonder what Mackey gets out of that exercise in futility.

For another example, LibertyLip wants to know: "...what about this paranoid induced need for fencing, lights and … security cams? Who is going to pick up the electric bill for these big flood lights and 24 hour camera surveillance? How are they going to get the wiring done and make it weather proof?"

Big flood lights? Wiring? LibertyLip, who seems woefully technologically ignorant, apparently missed this quote from Susan Hathaway: "We definitely do plan on lighting her at night, most likely with solar lighting."

I can just hear the gears going in his head. Solar lighting? The sun shines in the day, you dipsticks! What's gonna light it at night, without wires and electricity?

Well, something like this, probably.

As for surveillance cameras, they can go solar, too, and transmit images wirelessly. Like this.

Wow, who'da thunk it? If an astute, with-it hip guy like LibertyLip doesn't know about solar power, who knew a bunch of people from VIRGINIA would know about it, huh.... 

But, hey, let the Floggers continue to think the Virginia Flaggers in particular, and Southern heritage folks in general, are a bunch of morons. It's good when your opponent underestimates you. That's why there's a flag flying beside the Interstate just outside of Richmond, Virginia, and LibertyLip, who wins against things like that -- always has and always will -- sits in defeat at the Crossroads comment thread.

Loser....

I must say, though, I'm still surprised Andy Hall stepped in such a big pile of intellectual crap. He saw the same pictures as everyone else. He saw how big the clearing was for the Dedication. He knows there is now just a perimeter of trees around the clearing -- thin enough to see chunks of the surrounding area -- and he knows there is still tree-cutting to be done, because he was told so. But he ignored that in favor of making that crack about "moving the overpass", because that sort of mean-spiritedness is what's in his heart, and that is much more important than acknowledging truth.

And he still  pretends the obsolete Google Earth pics showing a fully wooded lot are accurate.

Anybody who can concoct on-screen 3-D models like he does can follow and project the VDOT fenceline in the Dedication photos and see that most of the big trees still standing are on the private property side, not the right of way. He can see that most of the trees that need to be removed for visibility of the flag to northbound traffic have already been removed.

He can see it, but he can't admit to seeing it. Just like I'm sure he read this, in the Times Dispatch: "The flag will fly on a 50-foot pole, and will be visible from the northbound lane, said Susan Hathaway, founder of Virginia Flaggers,... Hathaway would not say where exactly the flag will be located, adding that it’s not yet clear if the flag will be visible from the southbound side of the highway."

I'm sure he also saw this quote from Susan, "Much of the site work will be by volunteers," and people who know anything about that understand that volunteers work on a project when they can -- but their primary responsibilities to family, job, school, church, etc., take priority.

But when you look at the photos of the Dedication, and see how much work has already been done clearing the site -- enough to get the truck in to set the pole, and accomodate the Dedication attendees -- that's quite a feat for volunteers to have accomplished in only a few weeks, particularly considering rain days, heat, humidity and other conditions to contend with.

But of course, when you hate (and hating is okay when it's GOOD hate, POSITIVE hate, and hurts people who DESERVE to be hurt, don't you know -- good hate like flogger hate) acknowledging such realities is not an option if it neutralizes the ridicule you're just dying to spew....





*This is why they only pay attention to a tiny handful of people who post at the SHPG.
**Most of the time, they do this in vast ignorance of the subject they're speaking about.

The Flogger Mindset On Display

Comments from Corey's blog, regarding photos from the Virginia Flaggers flag raising:

Of course, you wouldn't see this at a Klan rally, so it cannot be acknowledged by floggers.

Happy reunion of old friends... JM Big Hoss Herman and Karen Cooper

 Blind spots have to be selectively created so haters like LibertyLip can maintain his "acceptable" and even "good and positive" hatred....

___________________
Screenshot edited by C. Ward; Photo by Judy Smith