Virginia Is for Lovers (of Revisionist History)

Virginia might not be so much for lovers as for haters, writes Gail Collins—or at least crazy revisionists of history. Gov. Bob McDonnell's celebration of "Confederate History Month," which failed to acknowledge the existence of slavery in its "love affair with all things Confederate," is the latest in a long line of insults "for those of us who take social studies seriously," Collins writes in the New York Times, noting that secession seems to be in the air.

“Many issues of the Civil War are still being debated today,” says a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. And while Collins is up for a discussion, "as long as we could start by agreeing that the whole leaving-the-union thing was a terrible idea," McDonnell's proclamation and that put forth by a GOP predecessor, "celebrated the Civil War as 'a four-year struggle for independence, sovereign rights and local government control,' with such cheer that you would really think the fight was all about zoning," she writes. (More Virginia stories.)