How the South Makes America American

A lot of the traits that make the United States exceptional these days are undesirable, like higher violence and less social mobility. Many of these differences can be attributed largely to the South… Minus the South, the rest of the U.S. probably would be more like Canada or Australia or Britain or New Zealand—more secular, more socially liberal, more moderate in the tone of its politics and somewhat more generous in social policy. And it would not be as centralized as France or as social democratic as Sweden.

Politico

Kudzu Kills: New Research Shows That the Vine That Won’t Die Also Releases Harmful Ozone Gas – But Is It a Scourge from God?

Left: kudzu up close; kudzu devouring a utility pole; kudzu in Raleigh takes shape Christ statue in Rio de Janero (inset); and kudzu eats a truck
Left: kudzu up close; kudzu devouring a utility pole; kudzu in Raleigh takes shape Christ statue in Rio de Janero (inset); and kudzu eats a truck
Kudzu is the vine that ate the South — or rather is eating the South, at the rate of 125,000 acres of fields, suburban backyards and city alleys per year. It is also one of the very few things Southerners of all stripes can agree on. Whether smart or slow, liberal or conservative; black, white or other; rich or poor; young or old; 15 generations in or new Yankee transplant — everyone agrees that kudzu is a scourge.

And while research shows that the nearly impossible to kill vine has medicinal properties — it is being tested for efficacy in treating migraine headaches, vertigo, cancer prevention, various allergies, gastrointestinal upsets and even potentially helping alcohol abuse — a new report suggests that kudzu emits a toxic gas:

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The Confederate Flag: A Short History

"Stainless," the last of the three official national flags of the Confederacy in its three and a half years of existence
“Stainless,” the second of three official national flags of the Confederacy in its three and a half years of sovereignty

Update June 20, 2015: This story from June 2008 is getting attention in light of the right-wing racist terror attack on the Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston this week.

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The title of a story I wrote last week — World’s Largest Swastika, Um, Confederate Flag to Fly in Tampa — upset a few people.

Some are proud, lifelong Southerners, who took offense because, as they saw it, comparing the Confederate flag to a swastika was the same as saying Southerners are Nazis. To them, the Confederate flag represents the people of the South, just as the U.S. flag stands for the American people.

As I wrote last week, I used to see the Confederate flag in a more benign light, but my perspective has changed, and not just because I’ve been expatriated from the South for 24 years. My perspective has changed because, in my youth, I saw the flag as a symbol of Southern separateness, of regional pride. But that idealization has been eclipsed by the reality that, whatever the flag may have represented in the past, today it is nothing more than a symbol of hatred and oppression.

I have also become aware that the flag we think of as the Confederate flag is not what has been purported to be. In the Confederacy’s three-and-a-half years of sovereignty, it had three national flags, but today’s Confederate flag was not one of them. Today’s rebel flag is a 20th century adaptation of a battle flag that was square, not rectangular, for one thing.

Still, the Southerners’ visceral reaction to my comparison of the flag to the Nazi emblem prompted me to do a little digging on the history of the Confederate flag. Here’s what I found:

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