Uhmm, in the news, just curious what you guys would say. I associated the flag more with General Lee’s Dodge charger on the “Dukes of Hazard”, than with the KKK type of nasty shit.
Still ,I am getting it, the KKK and other loser groups have sort of co opted the symbol. So perhaps we should ditch it. It reminds me of how Hitler ruined a perfectly good mustache. Charlie Chaplin rolled over in his grave and cried.
Have you seen his film, The Great Dictator? He totally pokes fun of Hitler, using his similar looks (and mustache) as a starting point. It’s about a “little guy” who also looks like the dictator character in the movie. 1940.
And Chaplin was not dead. He died in 1977, after Star Wars had debuted. While many people seem to assume he was Jewish, he was not.
As for the flag, take it down. It’s not a question of whether some white people are offended. The people who were enslaved, murdered, lynched oppressed and discriminated against should have the final say. It was nice to see South Carolina enter the 20th century. 
Dukes of Hazzard Redux
Scene 1 opens with a high speed chase. Deputy Rosco P. Coltrane is in pursuit of the Duke brothers, Bo and Luke. They escape by jumping over a creek. The deputy crashes into the creek. During the characteristic jump and “yeehaw” sequence, a motorcyclist stealthily enters the scene, approaching from behind and jumping onto the roof of the General Lee. With incredible speed, the masked motorcyclist dismounts, unholsters a can of spray paint and proceeds to deface the image of the Confederate battle flag atop the General Lee.
Scene 2 follows the motorcyclist, whom rides out of town, dismounts and removes helmet. The rider is none other than Bree Newsome.
Scene 3 opens at a klan rally. All the participants are dressed in robes. Rosco P. Coltrane approaches the Duke brothers, telling them that he witnessed the motorcyclist painting the car. The Duke Brothers grab a torch, then run to their car to examine the damage. Painted over the Confederate Battle Flag are the words “Your favorite band sucks!” The Duke boys look at one another, and Luke says “No one talks that way about Lynyrd Skynyrd!”
Scene 4 opens in the police headquarters of Boss Hogg. The Duke Brothers and Boss Hogg, united by a common enemy, promise to put their differences aside and find the perpetrator of the desecration of the flag. Uncle Jesse seals the deal with the betrothal of cousin Daisy to Rosco P. Coltrane. During the meeting, inside, Bree Newsome sneaks up to the General Lee, outside, opens the hood, then tinkers around under the hood. The meeting ends, the Dukes approach their car. Bo honks the horn as they drive away, but instead of the typical “Dixie” coming from the horn, instead we hear the melody to “I won, bubble-gum, you lost, applesauce.”
Scene 5: An elaborate trap has been set to catch the masked motorcyclist. A car chase is enacted between Rosco and the Duke brothers. Again, Bree Newsome enters and proceeds to deface the General Lee. This time, with great speed she pulls out a sharp tool and scrapes away the “1” in the “01” painted on the side of the General Lee, leaving only a “0”. She attempts to ride away but is apprehended by a large group of locals, each one with a tooth blacked out and chewing on a piece of grass. Bree removes her helmet, and her identity is revealed to the crowd. Just as a lynch mob is forming, Bree Newsome is saved when the National Guard shows up, accompanied by civil rights activists. Humiliated, the entire Duke family, Boss Hogg and Rosco P. Coltrane pile into the General Lee and drive off a cliff, landing in the fecal holding pool of a local waste water treatment plant. As they sink into a giant vat of human excrement, Luke exclaims “Golly, I didn’t know my s**t stinks!”
Wow Eldo, you can write
I’m like so old I remember Dukes of hazard as a thing. At the time, I didn’t like it. Not because of any racist symbols, the rebel flag was as cool as Skinard back in the 70’s. Oh no, I was scared riding in the back seat of the cars. People started to believe that shit was real and with a few beers in them, would start to drive that way. I’m not kidding.
Not everyone knew that an original “General Lee Charger”, would become a valuable collector item. During the making of the show, they made about 37 Chargers, painted the same. They were not an expensive used car at the time.
Most of them went to the crusher. They had one pristine General, called the hero, that was used for all the close shots.
The other shots were done without computer animation. Once a car was smashed on the left, they used it for shots from the right. At a certain point, they would make it a jump car. The shots were real, but after the jump, the frame was bent to hell and they just scrapped the car.
I was about 10 years old when the show “Dukes of Hazzard” came out…I loved it. Later on, Hollywood copied the same premise of the jumping car with “Knight Rider”.
There are some pretty funny compilation videos on the internet…of every car jump during the five year series. Yeehaw!
It was a lot longer ago
A popular 70’s show. It has been repopped since than, but this is the original.
Sorry, my mistake
I misread your comment to read that you though the show came out 10 years ago.
The KKK didn’t use the confederate flag, they used the US flag:
Isn’t it time we take down that flag?
A German friend told me the following: Since certain expressions associated with Nazi Germany have been banned in public, in Germany, this has had the effect of driving neo-Nazis “underground”. This has the secondary effect of solidifying the views of those in the underground, because they spend a lot of time hanging out with like-minded individuals whom whom affirm their views. Arguably, if Germany did ‘not’ curtail free expression in this manner, people would have more of a chance to tell one another, in person, that the others’ views are crap, resulting in a moderation of more people’s views.
The test of free expression is the expression of unpopular views. If the rebel flag can be banned for being distasteful, who knows what else might be banned. So, I am suggesting a compromise: Keep the Confederate battle flag flying next to the SC legislature, and next to it commission a bronze statue of a black man hanging from a tree. I’m sure all those free-expression South Carolina folk’d be pleased as punch!
“All Americans…need to watch what they say, watch what they do.” --Ari Fleischer
some of your ideas could be better
I like how some of you have been responding to my forum posts. Still a statue of a hanging man could be misinterpreted, away from Eldo’s friendly artistic intent.
Likewise Gilby’s comment was not so helpful. The KKK did march with ol glory , but also many other symbols, the rebel flag and lots of cotton sheets. Sort of the last stand for king cotton. A reasonable case could be made that the USA civil war was as much about cotton barons fighting northern ascendant industrialists, as it was about slavery.
A story an old black man told me in New Orleans, his daddy and friends would put on sheets and hoods during the depression of the 30’s and attend Clan rallies, for the food. He said his dad would come back with loads of fried chicken he had stashed under his robe.
I don’t think changing the stars and stripes is doable at this time. It’s one of the few internationally accepted rules that no one disputes, every country must have a flag.
Except East Jabroo. No no talks to them because they don’t have a flag, they just paint their bodies and shoot arrows at diplomatic helicopters. This is their ambassador, he’s the black guy.
Not!
+1
I read the news today: clashes between anti-racist and Klan supporters outside the S.C. statehouse. At this point in the game, all the good old boys can hope for is violence. Then the mainstream media can frame the entire debacle as a clash between two inappropriately-behaved groups, neither of which your average person want to be associated with. This cartoonish depiction of race relations makes it easy for the general public to pretend they are open-minded about race and to ignore institutional racism.
Are you sure there were only 37 General Lees made during the Dukes of Hazzard TV show? It seemed like more, though your description of how they “recycled” the damaged ones makes sense. I remember being able to see the cars bend on landing after almost every single jump. 1970 Dodge Charger? Not recommended for jumping!
When it comes to jumping cars, I’d have to give the title to the Mach 5 in Speed Racer. Sure, it was a cartoon, but that car could jump without a ramp!
That might be true, but while we have no such bans here, people with grossly antisocial beliefs still tend to associate with one another and not share their views with the general public. They get only negative reinforcement when they do that; it’s much more fun to do it with like-minded friends. For the same reasons, conservatives like to talk mostly with other conservatives, liberals with other liberals, etc. Whether our views are right or wrong, we still prefer talking to people who think like us.
While Germany has banned the Nazi flag, I don’t think we have any banned flags over here. Including that one. All the recent hubub was just about convincing the state government of one state that maybe they shouldn’t fly that thing on state grounds. And even with such a simple thing, it took an awful lot of what should have been unnecessary explaining of why it would be a good idea.
Some people aren’t over it. Like the Flat Earth Society, the reality of the rest of the world doesn’t fit with theirs and they’re unhappy. Except that the Flat Earth Society does it for fun, not to try to pull the rest of the world backwards.
It would appear I was off a bit in Charger info
Looking it up, it seems how many were made depends on who you ask , somewhere between 255 and 320.
They were 68’ and '69 Dodges. It was a cheap car at the time, but the series greatly increased it’s value over time. The first general Lee sold at auction in 2012 for 110,000 $
Most of the mod money went into paint. They jacked up the front end and put sand bags in the rear trunk to help it avoid a nose dive on long jumps.
He’s a fun one if you have a couple minutes. A General Lee jump contest at Dukefest '08.
Still on the General Lee topic of conversation
Maybe the best Duke jump vid on you tube.
Note how often they cut away on many shots half way through the landing, then cut to the chase scene with a different car.
Not your most articulate reply
Northern industrialists had a lot to gain from the civil war, selling guns and war supplies. A wealthy northerner could be exempt from the draft by paying a 300 $ fee. Much like the Iraq war was quite popular with Halliburton Inc.
Southern Cotton barons had to win the war, fearing if they lost, and slavery was banned, the value of their large plantations would be greatly reduced. They had no machines that could pick cotton.
Oddly enough, the common working men who fought the war on the south (poor whites who owned no slaves or land) , as well as the northern Irish who owned no shares in factories, mostly fought against their own self interest.
Many NYC Irish gangs did riot harshly against conscription, based on the fear that freed slaves would come north and reduce their wages by taking Irish jobs. But most did not riot, fought for the union, and when the union won, many did come home to find the new low wage slum of New York was called Harlem.
The poor southern whites actually benefited from the war, as employment for field farmers and builders went up as rich southerners were forced to pay wages to cotton pickers. Any southerner who owned 10 or more slaves was exempt from the draft.
Just took this from Jef Rouner
You saw this same thing recently when questions about the Confederate flag started making the rounds. It may be your opinion that slavery was not the driving cause of the Civil War, but the Texas Articles of Secession mention slavery 21 times (rights are mentioned only six, and only once in a sentence that doesn’t mention either slavery or how way more flippin’ awesome white people are than black people). Do I even need to point out that some people are also of the opinion the Holocaust was fake, and that their opinion means absolutely nothing to the reality?
Your history is a bit off
Slavery was endorsed by the union in the first year or so of the civil war. Union generals ordered their troops to return run away slaves to their southern masters. It was a war over fed rights vs the states right to secede. Taking with them by the way, millions of acres of land owned by the feds. Land that was purchased from Mexico and France by the feds with blood and $.
Later on in the war, the idea of being the gentleman and returning spoils of war to the enemy fell out. Blacks were trained and armed in the union, with the promise of freedom. They didn’t fight much because they were not deployed until late in the war. By all accounts the black union troops fought bravely. By the end of the war 10% of the union’s ranks were black. But only in the last year of the war.
What started as a war of fed rights vs states rights in the end got painted as a victory for blacks vs slavery. It didn’t start that way. You can’t kill or maim millions of people and destroy all that stuff for no reason without looking stupid. So the story was told, we did it for the blacks. Then after the war was over blacks didn’t get equal rights for 100 years, and were they treated as our favorite cousins up north ? No, they were blamed for the bloodiest stupid cock up ever. The rich white boys are innocent. They did it for the blacks.
I think many of those cuts were made by the person doing the compilation. There is something redundant about watching the “same” car jump over stuff over and over. It looks much worse if you see just how badly the car lands most of the time. Often you could see that the frame was being bent, or sheet metal getting distorted, hood popping or other damage, that would only last for half a blink until they cut to a different angle. I was also “struck” by how short and steep the ramps were. Most were a pretty hard hit, presumably to get the car airborne quickly, with a compact ramp that’s easy to cover up. Like it’s those bushes causing the 3500 pound (1587 kg) car to catch air.
Yes, the Civil War was about several things besides slavery. But that’s not really the point, is it? In some ways, the war was about slavery from the beginning. It just couldn’t be sold that way, to a country that wasn’t necessarily ready for the idea. It had to be brought about gently. And, uh, with a lot of guns.