Washington Redskins Team Owner Announces New Foundation

The Perpetual Outrage Industry has been wailing about the name of a football team for a long time. I haven't been following this fake outrage, mainly because I don't follow fake stories and I don't really care about the NFL.

However, it appears that team owner Dan Snyder has basically told everyone to go pound sand, and predictably, he's been vilified. But recently, he's made a move that might make it harder to cast him as a villain.

He's announced the foundation of the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation.

"I believe the Washington Redskins community should commit to making a real, lasting, positive impact on Native American quality of life — one tribe and one person at a time," Snyder wrote. "I know we won't be able to fix every problem. But we need to make an impact. And so I will take action."

This is actually a pretty clever move.

The criticism (as far as I can tell) is that the team name is a bad symbol, it hurts people's feelings, and that the name is racist. Even assuming for the sake of argument that people are getting their feelings hurt, the damage is...let's call it indefinite.

However, it appears this new foundation will be doing actual, concrete work to make people's lives better. Will this stop the Perpetual Outrage Industry? No. They won't be happy until they've stamped the name out of existence, and my guess is that they'll get their way eventually. My guess is that the NFL will likely allow Snyder to keep the name as long as he owns the team, but the NFL will condition the sale or transfer of the team on the name changing.

This will keep Snyder from passing the problem to someone else, but  might also have the effect of depressing the value of the team by a few hundred million.

Chapin Teacher Suspended for Stomping on American Flag

An Honors English teacher in Lexington/Richland District 5 apparently threw an American flag on the floor of the classroom of students and stomped on it. Wait, what?

"He drew a couple of symbols, like one of them was a cross, and he said, 'What does this represent,' and everybody said, 'Christianity,'" said Copeland.

"Then he proceeds to take down the American flag, and said, 'This is a symbol, but it's only a piece of cloth. It doesn't mean anything,' and then he throws it down on the floor and then stomps on it, repeatedly."

First of all, what is going on in Honors English these days? Aren't they supposed to be struggling through The Canterbury Tales; The Great Gatsby; Absalom, Absalom!; and other...you know...books? What book did this relate to?

Also, I don't think you can say "this is a symbol" and they say "it doesn't mean anything". That's actually the whole point of a symbol. Symbols represent things. They mean things. Stomping on the American flag means something. It's perfectly within your rights to do so, but when you stomp on a flag, you're expressing yourself. The act means something because the symbol means something. I guess this knuckle-head, wannabe-teacher wanted to express himself. He did. Now he's suspended.

When I was in school, we used to say the pledge of allegiance in the morning. Do they still do that?