Courtesy of a Newsweek item criticizing our Alito flags, I came across this tweet from New Republic staffer Matt Ford accusing us of defacing the Stars and Stripes, which would be a violation of the Flag Code.

It is true that the flag in question has both stars and stripes, but it is not the Stars and Stripes. As any discerning eye would recognize and as we made plain in our description, the flag is based on the Bennington Battle Flag, which is an iconic Colonial-era banner but not, obviously, the official flag of the United States.

The fact that it has 13 stars should have been a giveaway. These small distinctions are annoying, I know, but rather important when commenting on flags.