It’s laudable that Ole Miss wants to update its mascot, but, damn, these are some lame options.
I don’t see how they can pass up an opportunity like this:
Diamond Dogs-era Bowie. Go glam. You’ve got the red hair. Just add a blue jumpsuit, throw some white in there and voilà, you’re in business with the school colors.
As a bonus, you could make for a helluvan entrance with this bad boy:
“Ahhhh… wham bam thank you ma’am” flat-out smokes “Enter Sandman”.
Get The Picture 
What happened to the whole Star Wars thing that some students at Ole Miss were trying to push?
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It is a crying shame this could not happen. Lucas, marketing was your strong suite, how did you not MAKE this happen? Generations of Mississipian’s growing up with Akbar? “It’s a trap,” indeed.
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Ole Miss is trying to be politically correct and select a non offensive mascot. Sad. These proposals even give “lame” a bad name. What is up with all the muppet nominations?
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I agree that it is sad. That said, I always thought their old mascot was lame, too. If you can’t come up with something cool, why don’t you just pass on the whole mascot business? Who says a college football team needs one anyway?
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These three words have become a cancer in this country:
Political Correctness
Diversity
Non-offensive
And sadly, Ole Miss is trying to incorporate all three into the selection process.
It REEKS of a lack of backbone and the belief that despite what others may think about you, staying true to oneself is paramount. And re: recruits, Ole Miss isn’t likely to miss on many b/c of Colonel Rebel so I don’t see the problem. They’re not going to be Florida or Georgia (closer to GA) despite their best efforts.
At some point (and not a day too soon), the pendulum is going to swing back in the direction of truthfulness and common sense.
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There are a number of OM coaches who would disagree with you on that.
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How is having a Confederate mascot not alienating to Black players and students of Ole Miss?
You say that staying true to oneself is paramount. But who exactly do you mean should be staying true to oneself in this matter, other than Whites whose ancestors fought for the South?
The university isn’t just for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It’s for all Mississippians.
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It’s who the state is. You nor anyone else can deny that. If a resident doesn’t like the state’s history then move. The (vast) majority of the state’s citizens would *vote* for tradition. Here we go again, trying to make the world “fair” for everyone.
Guess what? It can’t be done. Life, in all forms, is not fair.
So go ahead and toss the traditional University mascot and replace it with something obtuse and esoteric so it won’t mean a damn thing to anyone.
Yeah, that makes sense.
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‘Life isn’t fair, and if you don’t like it move?’ Thats your argument?
The new mascot may not mean a damn thing to anyone, but the current one DOES represent more than only the good qualities you profess.
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And thus is a reason to change it?
Because certain people don’t like it? Do we have to change everything in this world based on the logic that “someone is offended” or “someone doesn’t agree with it”.
Yes, my argument is about life not being fair and either accepting it or moving on to another town, city, state, country, planet – whatever the f*ck it takes to make you happy.
When you’re unhappy with your job, do you stay in it and complain or do you resign and find another one? The job or employer you despise isn’t going to change to fit “your” desires! Too many idiots expect to be given a job that perfectly fits their expectations without working for it. It sucks for these morons b/c you see them continually get their ass kicked by Mr. Life. Mr. Life doesn’t owe you sh*t!
It’s also about using common sense when dealing with controversial traditions or ideals. We can’t change the past by eliminating symbols, and we can’t make life fair for everyone.
In the end, it’s not about Colonel Reb – it’s about making changes based on a certain sect of our population that is “offended”.
For Christ’s sake, it offends me to no end that there is a United Negro College fund, a Black Entertainment Channel, a Black Miss America, and so on. But do I cry about it? No.
Try replicating those entities for Whites or Asians and watch the reaction.
Wake TF up people. Political Correctness is a cancer and is killing this country.
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Jax, I think I’ll just point back to No One’s statement.
Political Correctness is a cancer according to talk radio, but for me, it ranks farther down the list for me in terms of our countries problems.
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…a certain sect of our population that is “offended”.
Oh sh!t, now I got another thing to worry about:
the black sect.
Somebody hurry up and pass me the 32 oz. Cutter and a high-pressure hose…
http://www.cutterinsectrepellent.com/ProductCategories/BackyardProducts/BackyardRTS/
http://instaputz.blogspot.com/2010/06/glenn-reynolds-very-conservative.html
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Where do you find all this sh*t?
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In the Everglades, Jax. Don’t ever go in there without some damn Cutter.
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Stuff works. Used it last weekend.
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They should just create a Western Kentucky style “what the hell is it” mascot so as not to offend any particular group.
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Actually, the lack of creativity that it takes to create that crap is pretty offensive.
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Nuts to that, Big Red is awesome.
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Wish people would get over themselves and grow up. Sticks and stones ya know.
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I’m afraid that it’s a little more complicated than that. But you always have Boomerang.
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Thanks for reminding me that I need to download some David Bowie.
What *is* up with his one dilated pupil?
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It signals the start of his space oddity act?
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Cocaine snorted up only one nostril, the left one.
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Colonel Reb spends some time in the vault, which is just like going to rehab at a Sierra Tucson without the windows
which opens up all kinds of opportunity for the new improved mascot
http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2010/02/24/with-colonel-reb-out-at-ole-miss-draft-william-faulkner/
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Comparing one’s job or a f***ing TV station to reminders of slavery shows what an idiot JaxDawg and is kind really are. Political correctness is absurd. But there are one or two things in the history of this country that shouldn’t be celebrated and should be admonished. Life isn’t fair, that is the only way to explain what has happened to JaxDawg. Go Ole Miss Carpetbaggers!
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In JaxDawg’s defense, I don’t believe many southern whites would appreciate it if some type of mascot were created to make confederate soldiers appear foolish, comical, stupid, filthy, backward, unpatriotic, etc. – something like Sgt. Shultz of Hogans Heroes. If the circumstances were reversed, and the whites were the one’s being offended, then ‘political correctness’ would be considered not just okay, but mandatory.
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Cdawg,
I am not comparing one’s job to slavery. It’s bizarre that you comprehended my statement that way. I’m comparing the willingness to cave to political correctness (“let’s make the world fair!”) to the way the real world works. In the working world, companies don’t cave to you, you either cave or move on. People can that become “offended” by a mascot can complain to the University. Employees that are offended can stfu or move on as there are 200 people in the unemployment office wanting that job.
And the double-standard that now exists between the majority (whites) and the minorities (blacks) is disgusting. Trying to make life fair through the adoption of PC and Diversity is waste of brainpower. You don’t hear Asians whine. They are a minority that works hard to get ahead. Perhaps other minorities should try that.
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I know it is terrible that certain segments of society think that things are just handed to white people. We work hard for what we have and haven’t exploited anyone to get it either. Afterall, its not like we’ve ever elected some white guy who spent his first 4o years in the bottle failing at everything he touched just because he was born into a powerful white family. You’ve got to earn what you get when you’re white.
A black man with George W. Bush’s background and history may have made shift manager at McDonald’s after he changed his life while George W. Bush was kept down by his whiteness only being able to achieve leader of the free world status. Its sad really, the advantages that blacks have over us now.
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“A black man with George W. Bush’s background and history may have made shift manager at McDonald’s after he changed his life…”.
Down here, he would have been doing the ’10-20-Life’
https://fpc.state.fl.us/10-20-life.htm
tour at Raiford thanks to W.’s younger brother, another oppressed white guy.
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That is a very weak argument, Derek.
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And to think Derek, we elected him not once, but twice!
And kudos to you for being today’s liberal winner with the obligatory “George Bush”
comment. Original! Well done!
So you pull your Ace card only to miss the general point here, which I interpret as you can never make life fair and equitable as long as you take from one and give to another. And in the name of political correctness and diversity and tolerance (et al) we find this baseless, perverse logic forced on us every day. Forget hiring the best person, let’s focus on skin color and ethnicity. We need to be more “diverse”.
Diverse = fair.
Ok then, hire more white garbage collectors. Make the NBA more white. Put more white people in prison so we can have diverse incarceration rates! Make sure we have more fatherless white homes so we can have an equally f*cked up family structure.
Forget that we’ve been praying to our father in heaven in our schools since this country was founded – let’s allow one whiny, liberal California parent to erase 225 years of policy and tradition just b/c they are “offended”.
And in the case of Mississippi, let’s bow to the minority PC crowd and vacate the one distinct symbol of this University. Why don’t they put it to a referendum and let the citizens of Mississippi decide?
But hey, you still have George Bush to pick on. And btw, Marion Berry was innocent.
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No I wasn’t but thanks for the good word.
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Apparently, the only racial distinctions that worry you were made after the Civil Rights Act rather than before. One can make the judgment that this is a color blind society BUT FOR those who want to make it an issue for the benefit of the minority. I have a word for those people: idiots.
I know its easy to miss the point entirely about George Bush especially when you are an idiot. My point was not to add to the “liberal” attacks, or the the judgment of around 6 billion people on the planet (white male southern idiots excluded) that found him to be a complete boob, it was merely to point out that white people do have big advantages in this country and whining about any small measures to level the playing field are like the New York Yankees whining about playing a team of 6th graders because they will use aluminum bats. I think the Yankees will be just fine and so will us white males.
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What about “Rebel Reach”? It’s the process of trying to grasp at any minute tie you could bring into the whole mascot theme, e.g. “The Key Club has been around here in Oxford for 125 years, that’s why we think Rebel the Key would be a great mascot. The kids will love having their photo taken with Rebel the Key who will be soft, fuzzy and red on one side and blue on the other- ‘oh neat!'”
Seriously, why the hell would you even want a mascot if these were your lame @$$ choices?!
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Whoever they choose will not go over well for a number of years
It is a lose-lose situation
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Derek.. Maybe Ole Miss could use Community Organizer for a mascot. Yea, that is the ticket.
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