Butler’s General Orders, No. 28 Applies to The Sable Arm

I have been making a point of staying away from what are sometimes referred to as “controversy/confrontational/whatever” blogs (a phrase I seem to have inadvertently coined in the comments section of Cenatua’s Blog) but yesterday I read something that outraged me not as a Civil War historian, but as an American and a parent.

I get it that people feel strongly about the American Civil War and sometimes get so worked up that they say stupid things – over the past 17 years I’ve seen it in person more times than I care to recount.

But what was said yesterday goes far beyond the usual “You said something with which I disagree, therefore you are stupid” exchanges that you typically see.  

FAR beyond.

Sociopath and child predator Josephine Bass (AKA “Josephine Southern”) has made a point of defending the white heroes of the Confederacy against evil bloggers like Andy Hall and Corey Myer, once leveling the devastating intellectual critique, “You are dog crap; the lot of you.”

But yesterday Bass made the following chilling statement in the comments section of The Blood of My Kindred:

“Bless Your Heart, I do think you are lucky that no one has shot you in the face or gone to your kids school and shot up the place” [emphasis added]

This, just five days after the unspeakable slaughter of twenty innocent children in Newtown, Connecticut – an act which Bass presumably applauds, since these children were Americans (and there’s nothing that Neo-Confederates of Bass’s reprehensible ilk hate more than the United States…except maybe African Americans.)

While I am not necessarily interested in bringing this debate to The Sable Arm, I wholeheartedly agree with what Brooks Simpson said about this revolting and malevolent comment from Bass:

“Sometimes, people, confrontation is not only the right thing to do, it’s something that we all must do.”

Thus, let me make the following clear: any hate speech or violent comments, especially those directed at innocent children or minority groups, will not be published and may be reported to authorities. And Josephine Bass is hereby banned from The Sable Arm.