The January/February 2008 issue of The History Channel Magazine (yes I subscribe) features some excellent content to commemorate Black History Month – a profile of prominent lawyer and rights activist William Henry Lewis and an expose of so-called sundown towns among them.

So imagine my dismay when I saw a full-page ad in the same issue for this:

Yeah I know that the reasons for the secession of the Southern states and the Civil War are numerous and complicated, but come on. This really is too much. Without even commenting on the utter tackiness of the ring itself – which I would expect to be worn by someone appearing on an episode of Cops – am I the only one who finds it a tad inappropriate that this thing is being advertised in the same issue of a magazine that shows pictures of a KKK rally and the 1921 Tulsa race riot?

To the magazine’s credit, at least they’re consistent. The March/April issue features a full-page ad for – I kid you not – a Confederate cuckoo clock (complete with a sculpture of Robert E. Lee) that announces the time with a miniature cannon.