A Man of His Word...

On January 6th, Brooks Simpson posted at XRoads:

This Week in Confederate Heritage
This year I’m going to try something different when it comes to chatter about the antics of various Confederate heritage apologists advocates. As a rule, I’m going to confine my commentary to a weekly column for the normal run-of-the-mill items.

 That was eleven weeks ago -- meaning, there should be eleven "Confederate Heritage" posts subsequent to that date.

There are not. There are twenty. That's only two shy of TWICE eleven... The large numbers on the calendar above represent heritage posts.

He also said, "Of course, there will be exceptions to the rule, but only in cases I find particularly interesting."

I think it's pretty clear that he find so many cases "particularly interesting" because he is obsessed with Confederate heritage and its supporters, because they are grist for his denigration mill. You have only to look at the subjects of the 20 posts in eleven weeks to see that:

 1 -- 1/6/2015
This Week in Confederate Heritage
This year I’m going to try something different ...

2 -- 1/9, 2015   
Susan Hathaway and the Virginia Flaggers....

3 -- 1/15, 2015   
Proper Flag Etiquette

5 -- 1/16, 2015   
Civil War Arithmetic

6 -- 1/19, 2015   
Quote of the Week: January 11-17, 2015

7 -- 1/1, 2015The Past Two (Boring) Weeks in Confederate Heritage

8 --  2/9, 2015   
Attention John Stauffer and Jim Downs …

9  -- 2/25, 2015   
Remembering … and Misremembering … Reconstruction

10  --  2/28, 2015   
The Persistence of Myth in Confederate Heritage

11 --  3/6, 2015 The Last Five Weeks of Confederate Heritage

12 --  3/8, 2015 Call for help from author

13 --  3/15, 2015 What they don't teach you

14  --  3/16, 2015 Confederate Heritage Fantasy Fiction

15 --  3/17, 2015 Connie Chastain Outs Karen Cooper and Valerie Protopapas

16 --  3/19, 2015 “Restore the Honor!”

17 --  3/20, 2015 The Ignorance and Lies of H. K. Edgerton and Robert Mestas

18  --  3/22, 2015 This Week

19 --   3/24, 2015 Poll Questions: The VMFA, the SCV, and the War Memorial Chapel

20  --  3/25, 2015 Research Exercise: Where Are the Flags?

A man of his word, huh....

Mousy!....O Mousy!....

Quickie update specifically for you.

I just didn't want you to miss it....

Another Lie from the Floggosphere

Challenges for My Readers

(1) Find on this blog or elsewhere any "blindingly racist statements" made by me about the Pakistani birthplace of Mayor Huja of Charlottesville, Va.

(2) Find on this blog or elsewhere any statements made by me that indicate my view of the Civil War is based more on “Gone with the Wind” than anything factual.

Put your findings in a comment following this post. Thanks!

How a Liar Lies, Part .... Geepers, I've Lost Count....

Cowanon sez, "Now, please do be specific when you make accusations of lying, smearing, and libel. We're waiting."

In my previous post, I said, "There are lots of ways to lie ... outright stating an untruth, but also implication, omission, pretended ingnorance, etc."

Here's how Cowanon does it:

This is known as the "links and ties" method of character assassination, perfected by the $PLC (Socialist Pecunious Lawyer Crowd), but in widespread use by other assorted leftists, including "anti-racists" and the civil war left. Person A and Person F may have little to nothing in common, but the links-and-ties chain that separates them is used to imply that they do.

This is the method used in the attempted smear of the Virginia Flaggers with Matt Heimbach. He attended some events they attended and he shows up in a couple of photos/videos with them. The implication by the smear-meisters is that they have the same beliefs he does. They don't always come right out and say that -- perhaps they don't wish to be challenged to prove what they cannot prove... So they make certain implications and hope the reader will do the rest. Which their readers are usually eager to do.

Couple of other interesting things to note about Cowanon... S/he says:

And...

But Fair Use is not for smearing, lying about, falsely accusing and mendaciously implying associations that don't exist.

Cowanon's visceral hatred of those he falsely implies are racist, using the false associations/links-and-ties method of mendacity, is reflected in his visceral obsession with them. To have such a need, and to indulge it, is truly pathetic and Cowanon seriously needs to get a life....

    UPDATE         UPDATE         UPDATE         UPDATE    

A well known Southern heritage advocate illustrates the links-and-ties smear method this way: "My hairdresser's first cousin's ex wife's insurance agent's mother once dated a guy whose second cousin's ex husband was in the klan. That makes me a racist." LOL!!

And speaking of the various methods of lying (outright stating an untruth, but also implication, omission, pretended ignorance, etc.) Simpson has just posted a blog entry that employs several of these methods. He's been particularly poisonous recently, after being silent for several days. I think he's pissed that I exposed his mean-spiritedness, as revealed in his false reviews of my books. I'm not sure why he would be angry about that ... I mean, he loves being mean and mendacious, so what's the problem?

Cowardly Anonymous Flogger Also a Liar

There are lots of ways to lie ... outright stating an untruth, but also implication, omission, pretended ingnorance, etc.

Over in the Quickies widget, I said, "The Fair Use doctrine does not mean images or written passages used without permission were donated, so 'Courtesy of' is a lie."

Cowardly flogger dishonestly truncates that to this:

 "The Fair Use doctrine does not mean images or written passages used without permission." Connie Chastain"

She doesn't end with ellipses to indicate there was more. She attributes it to me exactly as she misportrayed it, with a period after "permission". This, of course, totally changes the meaning of the sentence I wrote. My point was that Fair Use doesn't give the passages used the status of DONATION.

Cowardly Anonymous Flogger -- Cowanon for short --sez the entire point of the Fair Use Doctrine is that images or passages are used without permission and are donated.  Not true. Fair use allows images and passages to be reprinted without permission under certain conditions, for certain reasons, and with certain restrictions -- but it doesn't give the images and passages the status of donations or courtesies.

From Merriam Webster:

 courtesy of

If you say that something has been provided through the courtesy of or (by) courtesy of a person, organization, business, etc., you are politely saying that they paid for it, gave it, or let it be used.

~The flowers were provided through the courtesy of a local florist.
~This program is brought to you courtesy of our sponsors. [=it has been paid for by our sponsors]

I have given no text or images to Cowanon. I have not donated them to her. I am not allowing them to be used. She has stolen them and the Fair Use doctrine simply protects her from the consequences of theft and copyright infringment. So her use of "Courtesy of" is a blatant and very characteristic lie.

This kind of moral bankruptcy is rampant in the ranks of heritage critics.  I hope to show more of this kind of disgusting lack of integrity from other critics as time permits. But, I have an author services job to finish, and several more possibly coming in soon. It'll have to wait for a while.

Working Covers and Inspiration Images...

for my historical novel and sequel....

The protagonist of After the Stars Fell (tentatively named Morgan Walraven) was born in the "big house" of his father's modest plantation, Valhalla, on November 13, 1833, the night of a spectacular Leonid meteor storm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonids).  Born in Valhalla's slave quarters on the same night, and almost at the same moment, was a male slave (tentatively named Dorsey) who would eventually be given to young Morgan as a companion and playmate.

I was inspired to give Morgan this date of birth by a passage from the Foreward of Carl Carmer's book, Stars Fell on Alabama: "Many an Alabamian to this day reckons dates from 'the year the stars fell' -- though he and his neighbor frequently disagree as to what year of our Lord may be so designated. All are sure, however, that once upon a time stars fell on Alabama, changing the land's destiny. What had been written in eternal symbols was thus erased -- and the region has existed ever since, unreal and fated, bound by a horoscope such as controls no other country." (Emphasis mine.)
 
Morgan and Dorsey are 28 when they go off to war to fight the yankees. Morgan leaves behind a young wife and baby. It will be in interesting to see how the fall of the stars on their birth night influences their lives -- whether they're charmed or cursed.

Valhalla is located on a fictional river in Baldwin, Monroe or Clarke county, probably Baldwin. The house was inspired by Crumptonia near Orrville, Alabama. It has a front porch covered with a triangular pediment roof supported by four square columns with very plain capitals. However, Crumptonia is a bit too grand for Valhalla's big house -- it served as the inspiration, not the pattern. Valhalla is smaller and much more modest.



Crumptonia restored:



These are more what Valhalla would look like:

The Dellet House, Claiborne, Alabama


Black Thistle Plantation, the Underwood Home, Pleasant Hill, Alabama


Glencairn Plantation, Greensboro, Alabama (Don't know if it's been restored.)


Dry Fork Plantation, Coy, Alabama

Although the plantation house and outbuildings will look like those in more inland areas, Valhalla's land and vegetation was inspired by those that surround Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville, Florida. But the house won't look like this one....

 

The plantation will border on a fictional river, a tributary of the Alabama or Tensaw. It will also border on, and in some areas encompass, wetlands thick with saltmarsh cordgrass.

In antebellum times and in the 21st century, the house is visible from the main road, but one must travel a short distance through coastal woodlands like those below to reach it.

Valhalla is still owned by the descendants of the Walravens who built it. The current owner (in the sequel) is Julian Walraven.  By the time of the sequel, in the 21st century, the plantation has transitioned to a dairy farm.  Julian, in his late 20s, and he and his father run the farm.

 

____________________
(Note: Some of these images found on the net are for illustration purposes only.

Addressing the Escambia County Commissioners

Background: In December 2014, it was reported in the Pensacola media that the Escambia County Board of Commissioners would vote on the five flags display at the Pensacola Bay Center. Everyone, including the late Earl Bowden of the Pensacola News Journal (PNJ), assumed the vote would be to replace the Confederate battle flag with the First National flag of the Confederacy, known as the Stars and Bars. This would make the county display the same as the city of Pensacola's five flags displays. I didn't attend that meeting because this change seemed a foregone conclusion.

In a move few if any foresaw, the commission voted 4 to 1 to remove all the five flags except the US flag, and to add the Florida flag to the display.

The community was stunned. I believed from the moment I heard about the vote that it was a mistake and would eventually be corrected. When Bowden editorialized that the flags should be returned to the display, with the First National instead of the battle flag, I was even more convinced. The PNJ editorial by Commissioner Grover Robinson cinched it for me. It was just a matter of time before the decision would be reversed.

January's and February's commission meetings passed with no discussion on the matter, but it was on the agenda for the March meeting. Although I knew I would have zero influence on the matter, I decided to attend the meeting.

____________________

The March meeting of the Escambia County Board of Commissioners began at 5:30 p.m. the 5th. I would not be able to get there until 6:30 or later. I assumed that would be too late to request to speak to the board, so I had no plans to do so. That being the case, I didn't take time to put on make-up or put up my hair, and delay my arrival for the meeting even more.

After dealing with various items county business, the commission brought up the subject of the Pensacola Bay Center five flags display. A number of citizens spoke to the board, and several extolled the U.S. flag as a lofty contrast to the Confederate flag with its symbolism of racism and slavery.

These comments echoed others made recently in letters to the PNJ and on social media: The only flag we should display and be proud of is the American (sic) flag.

The more I heard this sentiment at the meeting, the more I squirmed in my seat at the back of the chamber. Finally, I went to the woman who took requests from attendees to speak to the commissioners, and asked if it was too late to sign up. No, it wasn't. She gave me a slip of paper with a few blanks to fill in, and I did so.

My hastily scribbled notes

Back at my seat, I rummaged through my purse, looking for paper to jot some notes on.  I had just cleaned out my purse earlier in the day, and the only paper I could find was a couple of convenience store receipts. I scribbled notes as the subjects I wanted to call attention to came to mind; I was still writing when my name was called.

Here's what I told the commissioners:

What's worse? A country created on the principle that all men are created equal and allows slavery for eighty-nine years, or a country founded on the principle of slavery that's ready to give it up in four. Jefferson Davis sent Duncan Kenner to Europe at the end of the war-- close to the end of the war -- to offer to free the slaves in exchange for recognition from Britain and France. That's not taught in our schools. It took the Confederacy four years. It took the United States eighty-nine.

And there are other things that that flag stands for, like the genocide of the Plains Indians by the Grant Administration. It was U.S. policy to kill off the buffalo and starve the Plains Indians and take their lands for white settlers. It was under that flag that native Americans were imprisoned on reservations in conditions worse than plantation slavery. Under that flag MK Ultra experiments on unknowing-- CIA experiments on unknowing subjects, Abu Ghraib, torture in Central America approved of and perhaps achieved with help from the CIA. So that flag is not stain-free.

And the claim that it offends African Americans. Pew Research poll showed that -- recently 48 percent of African Americans are indifferent to the Confederate flag, only 41 percent disapprove.

The crux of my brief remarks was that the US flag, which some people had extolled as if it symbolized unsullied righteousness and represented impeccable loftiness, was not stain free. My point was to remind people that, when it came to negatives, the two countries represented by those two flags shared more similarities than differences.

I was the last speaker, and the board carried on their discussion afterward. Although Commissioners May and Underhill weren't prepared to change their votes, I was not at all surprised that the other three did indeed vote to return the five flags, with the First National, to the bay center. I don't believe for a moment that my comments had any bearing whatever on that decision. But I hoped I had given people something to think about.

Commissioner Underhill was not pleased with my remarks, and said, "And to that last speaker who spoke and talked about all the sins committed under this flag, this is the flag of sinners. This is the flag of a bunch of people who got together and said we can do it better and we have made some mistakes but to sit there and articulate all the things that have been done wrong under this flag, I'm really sorry that your experience brings you to focus on all of those things when we should in fact be focusing on all the things about this flag that bring us together."

It would probably be pointless to try to explain it to him, but very little about the US flag brings us together, and it grows less powerful to do that every day. In fact, it has become increasingly targeted for removal in various places and by various groups and individuals around the country. Confederate heritage folks know what that feels like first hand, and we've warned people for years that the US flag was next.

Although I don't really think Commissioner Underhill is interested, my experience that caused me to focus on those negative things is the experience of having my Southern and Confederate heritage and culture continuously attacked and dishonored. I believe the north/union had no moral authority for coming South to kill Southerners 150 years ago, just as those targeting Confederate heritage for removal today have no moral authority for doing so.

In any case, I have to wonder how many disappointed, appalled, even angry constituents the commissioners heard from during the period from December to March... In January, WEAR-TV reported, "Commissioner Grover Robinson says as soon as the county made that decision, he started getting a lot of complaints." It quoted Robinson as saying, "(They said,) ‘you took down Spanish, the British, you took down the French, why did you that?’” Robinson said.  “It’s part of our history, it’s our culture and there’s a strong desire to identify with our culture.”

Indeed, there is. Those people who complained to the county commissioners are the reason the flags went back up. Kevin Levin's calling it a victory that "rings hollow" is simply his attempt to save face because it runs counter to his long-standing prediction that Confederate heritage is disappearing from the earth.  This was a victory not only for Confederate heritage but for the people of west Florida who have strong desire to identify with our history and culture.

The Silence of Colossal Hypocrites

  UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE 

While Andy and his commenters are tsk-tsking over some spoken words that hurt nobody -- and are intended to hurt nobody -- they completely ignore appalling brutal incidents like this.

4 teen girls attack victim in Brooklyn 

McDonald's as dozens stand and watch 

This kind of senseless violence occurs constantly, and can be found in news reports on the 'net virtually every day -- but they are totally ignored by the left, including the civil war left. 

An Aussie baseball player shot in the back in Oklahoma, a baby shot in the face in Georgia, a beloved preacher is killed in Memphis for his car, a harmless dog shot and tied to a railroad track ... and on and on and on -- incidents given perfunctory reports in the media, but not frenzied over.  The media frenzies over Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown and Eric Garner. But because there are so few white-on-black murders in the country, they also frenzy over Phil Robertson's WORDS and Cliven Bundy's WORDS and Pat Godwin's WORDS. And so does Andy Hall and other floggers and their followers.

Do we begin to see the utter bankrupt morality of the left -- including the civil war left -- occasioned by their race-based ideology?

 ~ End of Update ~

They're talking about the Friends of Forrest video interview by The Guardian over on Andy's blog.

Sez somebody posting anonymously as "MsB" -- "This enables a tiny group to embarrass Southerners and by extension all Americans on a global scale."

I left a comment, but Andy has long since been too skeered to post my comments, so I'll put it here to illustrate not only how selectively blind self-styled "anti-racist" anti-heritage folks are, but to show what a hypocrite Andy is:

My comment: "How is it that this tiny, obscure group embarrasses Southerners and Americans on a global scale, but Rachel Jeantel, Sheila Jackson Lee, Maxine Waters, Cornel West, Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and countless other high profile black supremacists making idiotic remarks doesn't embarrass blacks and Americans?"

He won't post it, of course. He's skeered of what I might say. You wouldn't think somebody with Andy's arrogance would be skeered of little ol' me, but there it is.

Here's how it happened. Just before he banned my comments at his usually soporific blog, he told me he was banning me because, "You ... seem to have no interest in doing anything other than finding a way to question the motives, or agenda, or character ... of those who challenge your preferred historical narrative."

Here on Backsass, I replied, "Why, that is partially right!  In fact, my purpose is exactly to question the motives, or agenda, or character, of certain folks, but not because they challenge my 'preferred historical narrative.'  ... I question the motives, agenda or character of folks who 'civil-war-blog' with a political/racial agenda of stroking their overblown egos and showcasing their own 'anti-racist' credentials by misportraying others as evil racists." 

I guess Andy's skeered of having his motives, agenda or character subjected to scrutiny, so I'm outcast from Dead Confederates.

It's a shame, too, because this is a question I would love to pose to self-promoting, puffed-up "anti-racists" because I've never, ever seen any of them address it. You won't see it addressed on any of the usual flogs or the skeered-anonymous blogger at "Restoring the Honor."

Which makes them all colossal hypocrites...

What Does It Do For Him?

I recently noted elsewhere on this blog, "The flogger frenzy over what they imagine to be my 'racism' is amusing, but I'm busy, you know? I don't have time to pay attention to such sound and fury, signifying nothing. There may be a few things I care about even less than I care about flogger fantasies and lies about me, but I can't think of any at the moment."

No, I don't care what they think of me in terms of what they consider to be negatives. But I do admit there's something I'm curious about. Simpson's (and others') "interest" in my novel writing. Actually, I'm more than curious. I'm mystified by it.

From a post at XRoads:


The first thing that comes to my mind when I read this is -- can't he comprehend what he reads? The first sentence sez: "To my history-savvy friends."

Except for the occasional heritage person whose comments Simpson lets through, nobody at XRoads is my friend. Especially him. I'm frankly not interested in "help" from people who hate me and my heritage.

Simpson, of course, is the fellow who has made numerous references to the title of my third novel for the purpose of ridiculing the author; and referenced it in connection with completely irrelevant subjects, just to besmirch it.

Here's a google search index of his flog using the search term "sweet southern boys".  Sweet Southern Boys at Xroads

What does that do for him? He doesn't need to reference my books in order to indulge his lust to denigrate -- he can, and does, do that (a lot) without mentioning my novels at all. So what's the point of this obsession?

But this is the most curious of all -- why did he post negative reviews of my books on Amazon, when he hasn't read them, by his own admission? I think this goes beyond the usual desire to denigrate me; it is an action designed to hurt my book sales. What kind of animosity does someone have to feel to do such a thing? And why? I've never done anything to him except counter his attacks on Southern heritage and its advocates.

It's one thing to spend money on a book, read it, be disappointed in it for some reason, and to post that disappointment in a review. It's quite another to smear and lie about stories he hasn't read and to personally attack the author.

And why didn't he post his name to the reviews?  It was only because his reviews were connected by Amazon to "Brooks Simpson's wish list" that I knew for certain he wrote them. (Of course, I confidently suspected he did before I found that proof.) He has since changed his made-up reviewer name several times and deleted his wish list, presumably to keep people from knowing the reviews were his. Does he not want his friends and acquaintances to see the fruits of his mean-spiritedness?

I have posted on this blog evidence that the bad/attack reviews were his, and to my knowledge, he has not denied it.

Brooks Simpson Reviews My Novels

Given his history of animosity for me, his lies about my books, and his efforts to hurt the sales of my books, and given the same animosity for me expressed by his floggerettes, what on earth gives him the idea I'd be interested in help from any of them?

Well, of course, he doesn't have that idea. His post is not to encourage his sycophants to help me with historical information, but to chime in with the hate and ridicule he has already expressed for me, and with the targeting of my books. I wonder why. What does that do for a person?

Simpson's "All My Reviews" Page at Amazon

(Note, the only books he has reviewed are mine. Also note the review of the wristwatch he bought for his "hubby." Hmmm....)

(Note: I may soon post here some of my early ideas about the historical novel, that currently has the working title, After the Stars Fell.