In Virginia, gays can’t get any kind of official recognition. But celebrations of institutionalized racism can! Yesterday, Gov. Bob McDonnell apologized for declaring April “Confederate History Month” (Note: south of the Mixing Bowl, the term for this is “month”) without mentioning that…whole slavery thing. Getting smacked by Sheila Johnson may have speeded the apology.

Brag Bowling, a “commander” in an organization called Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), advocated strongly for the proclamation, as he believes it will boost tourism in the commonwealth. And if you look at the Facebook profile of someone named Brag Bowling who is “a fan of” groups such as the SCV—Sam Davis Youth Camp and the Southern Legal Resource Center, Inc. (“Defending the Rights of Southerners to Honor Their Culture and Heritage”), you will see he is also friends with Kirk David Lyons.

Lyons, the chief legal counsel of the SLRC, likes to wear kilts, has a fascinating history of alliances with white-power groups, and is currently campaigning for people who are proud of their Southern heritage to give their race on census forms as “Confederate Southern American.”

SCV has been split between moderates—who do dope-swoons about the days when people owned people—and neo-confederates, who trend a little more rightward. In 2002, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report reported that a man named Bragdon Bowling “is connected directly to Lyons through an apparently clandestine circle within the SCV — what members call the ‘John Wilkes Booth Camp’.”

I predict tourism will be up!

ITEM: Naked Guy is free!

Nats lose. Wizards lose. The Haynesworth signing does not seem to be working out.

That BB gun at St. Albans? Police say it belonged to a St. Albans student, which means you and your future boss will probably have a good laugh about his colorful youth someday. Also interesting: that piece mentions it’s illegal to own a BB gun in D.C. Yeah, you wouldn’t want people running around with those.