Alabama, Ladies and Gentlemen!

[Dalty]

Awwwwwww. You don't need our approval, you big awesome lug!

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Well, sure. I don't *need* it.

[Dalty]

But you crave it? Out of cruelty?

[Dalty]

So the U.S. Flag flew at half mast, the State flag was at half mast, but the Confed flag flew at full mast right in front of the State Capitol building?

[neglet]

I have one friend who posts things like that southern meme, as well as tons of anti-corporate anti-Republican stuff. He wasn't the brightest bulb in high school.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

In response to this article, a relative of mine said, "Bentley is an evil democrat-how stupid were we to re-elect him." She then posted a link to this article in response.

[Adam54]

Does your relative know that Bentley is a Republican?

[Adam54]

And seemingly a rather conservative one at that?

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Does your relative know that Bentley is a Republican?

She lives in Alabama. My guess is that she has a clear idea of what a republican should be. He clearly doesn't fit the bill in her eyes.

I'm surprised she didn't post a link to this article, too.

[Adam54]

I give Breitbart credit. They don't try to disguise their trolling under the pretense of being "news" like Fox does. They just own it.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

I don't know that they think they're trolling.

[Mal Shot First]

Breitbart sounds like the name of a buccaneer.

[Mal Shot First]

I guess it's also reminiscent of Bluebeard.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

To me it reminiscent of a florist's name to me.

[Mal Shot First]

Waldbart!

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Waldbart the Green!
Waldbart the Magnificent!
Waldbart the Wal-Mart Pusher of Carts!

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Alabama Wal-Mart Gets Bomb Threat Over Confederate Flag Sales

I've been to this Wal-Mart. It's a little over thirty miles from my hometown.

[Dalty]

Breitbart sounds like a fake watch I could get out here in one of the markets.

[Dalty]

Or an involuntary flatulant movement after eating too much German food.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

FATULENT!

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

A lot of my Alabama Facebook friends are seeking out and sharing every instance they can find of a black person carrying or supporting continued use of the Confederate flag. The intention, of course, is to say, "See? This guy's all right with it. If this guy's all right with it, we should all be all right with it. Q.E.D. Somebody hand me a motherfuckin' mic. Whoops. Dropped it."

Apple has apparently removed all games with Confederate flags. Is that going too far? I don't know. It's used within a historical context--even if it isn't necessarily representative of the flag flown by X battalion/X state's army. It's also not one of the Confederacy's three actual flags. The Southern Cross is an element in the Confederacy's last two flags, but there weren't that many flags being flown that featured a standalone Southern Cross. North Virginia's battle flag was a square version of it. Tennessee's was a rectangular version of it. The rest of the battle flags either featured it as one of the elements on a flag or didn't feature it.

If it becomes outlawed on a federal level, of course, it should come down. There's no question there. There will be plenty of pushback if it does. A lot of it will come from people who didn't care a couple weeks ago but who want to show solidarity with those who do.

If it doesn't become outlawed on a federal level, I guess it will be up to the states. Some states, clearly, will want to keep it flying. Should they be allowed to? Maybe, but they might also want to do a little soul-searching and ask themselves why it's so important to them that it remain on mast. The majority of them will have a quick and easy answer, and it won't matter to them whether or not it offends a certain segment of the state's population. Many of them will respond as some of them are already responding. They will deflect, find something this segment of the population does that offends them, and point out that their majority offense should hold more weight than the minority offense of allowing the flag to continue to fly.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Alabama Probate Offices Close in Wake of Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

A number of these Alabama friends continue to talk about how the Confederate flag kerfuffle was used to distract us from the "TPP" being passed. They usually append to this one of two contentions: (1) its being passed makes Obama a bona fide, sitting dictator, and (2) it hands over control of the U.S. to "global monopolists. Occasionally, they make both contentions.

I am honestly somewhat clueless as to just what the TPP is, despite reading pro and contra articles and trying my damnedest to stay focused while reading the lead text on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Wikipedia page. I just tried the lead text again, and it left me with a throbbing headache. That's not an exaggeration for comic effect. I have a throbbing, literal headache now.

I know it has something to do with free trade, I know a pro-TPP argument is that it's supposed to help the poor producer of goods and low-skill manual laborer (this is the counter to the above contention), and I know that it has long been a part of Obama's trade agenda. I don't know any of the specifics of it. Some mental block is keeping me from understanding it any better. Reading about it feels like reading about finance, and I have difficulty reading about finance. Reading about finance is to Goiter as traveling down stairs is to Professor X.

It seems vaguely like this is putting the U.S. in cahoots with Big Business, which seems like something that should appeal to the right. Is their problem that it's global Big Business and not U.S. Big Business? One of the anti-TPP articles I read called it "Economic Slavery for All."

[Mal Shot First]

Regardless of what the TPP actually says, this law doesn't just apply to the current president. Let's say the next president is a Republican: That person is going to have the same power that has now been granted Obama. Would the next president also be a dictator, according to the logic of your Alabama friends?

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

I was going to ask the exact same question, but it got lost in the shuffle as I was writing. I think they may be proceeding from the assumption that a democrat will win in 2016 and that there won't be a republican executive officer for a while. That, or they're fearful Obama will dissolve the current system and declare himself supreme ruler.

I'm not joking about the "fearful" part. I've seen a number of my Alabama Facebook friends say as much.