I see all she says, and it's very valid. Those were the reasons I watched and enjoyed firefly. Mal is an interesting character with many flaws and issues. At least the ex-confederate Texan theme didn't include Mal being a bitter racist or homocidal maniac.

Crazy, I'd never heard that term before.

I don't think I've heard anything much about that group. There are definitely some strong similarities between the Civil War and the Galactic Civil War in Firefly but there are also an awful lot of differences.

Firefly is not blatantly about Texans, Mal's accent aside, but if you start drawing parallels, that's the obvious conclusion. He's in a war fighting for local rights against a distant government which is trying to centralize power. His side lost. He can't stomach living under the rule of the "enemy" and flees to the geographical fringes where the government's power is weakest.

<oversimplified history lesson>
Anglo Texans were primarily southerners looking for new, slave-friendly land; they succeeded from Mexico only after Mexico changed its constitution to ban slavery. After the Civil War, Texas was still largely a frontier state and had very little direct federal oversight. Because of this, many disillusioned and embittered confederates moved to Texas. While many of them might have been fine people, they tended to be more racist than the rest of the south, and less likely to have useful skills other than shooting a gun at Union troops. Many of the old west outlaws come from this group of disaffected young sociopaths, and they flourished and were lionized in this anti-government haven.
</oversimplified history lesson>

I'm not a fan of intrusive government, I'm more of a libertarian, but I'm not about to cheer for violent racist vigilantes. Mal isn't one, but the parallels with a very violent and racist group are there.

Carpet skates look like too much fun. Too bad I don't have any carpet.

Ok, I really wanted to read the Firefly thing, but was bogged down by the constant abbreviations and web-speak. I realize that they are publishing this to the web, but can they at least speak in complete words???! Argh.