So vexillology is in the news. Vexillology (as fans of The Big Bang Theory should already know) is the study of flags. A spirited debate is taking place about South Carolina's law which dictates that the Confederate battle flag be prominently displayed on the grounds of the statehouse. This flag used to fly over the statehouse dome, but was moved to a Civil War monument the last time this debate raged, as a form of compromise that was deemed politically acceptable at the time.

It's an important debate to have. The state government is honoring a flag which many see as a racist symbol -- one used by those against civil rights since the 1940s (the "Dixiecrat" campaign of Strom Thurmond was the real launching point of the Confederate battle flag into the world of politics). Those against flying the flag, from President Obama on down, are arguing that the flag should be moved "to a museum" instead of flying in a place of honor on the statehouse grounds. The argument is that the flag is so offensive to so many that the state's government should not legitimize it by flying it at the people's statehouse.

I happen to agree with this argument, but I am astonished that those making it are currently giving the state of Mississippi such a pass. Here is the official state flag of Mississippi:

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It's been a rollercoaster week in the political world, beginning with Hillary Clinton shifting the gears of her campaign by holding her first big rally, which was immediately followed by the man we're going to call "Jeb! Bush!" finally officially announcing his own candidacy.

For those who are wondering, yes, we here at the Friday Talking Points editorial board are indeed seriously contemplating making our own executive editorial decision to call him "Jeb! Bush!" throughout the entire campaign season. Jimmy Fallon actually made a good suggestion on The Tonight Show this week, that we all (in an imitation Regis Philbin voice) scream "Jeb!" whenever discussing the candidate out loud (another editorial idea we are endorsing). Earlier in the week I toyed with "Jeb?" (which has got to be the shortest headline I've ever written in nine years of blogging), or possibly "...Jeb..." but neither truly captures the ridiculousness of the exclamation mark. So we're thinking of just doubling down on exclamatory punctuation and calling him "Jeb! Bush!" in the upcoming months. Let us know your thoughts in the comments, as always. If it gets too annoying, we'll stop, how's that?

After Jeb! Bush! and Hillary's rallies, the entire world of late-night comics loudly praised all that they hold holy, when the news broke that Donald Trump was semi-officially entering the Republican presidential race (note: he still hasn't filed his official paperwork). The jokes just write themselves!

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The Supreme Court handed down two decisions today on free speech cases, both of which did some hair-splitting on the role government has in regulating certain types of speech. What's interesting is that they seemed a bit contradictory at first glance, since one was decided in favor of government regulation of free speech and one was not, but these are awfully fine hairs to be split and in reality the cases are only superficially similar.

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Is Fox News on the brink of becoming (as Pinocchio might say) a "real news organization" instead of the wooden de facto propaganda wing of the Republican Party? This might have been seen as a wildly speculative (and unrealistic) question just a short time ago, but events seem to be moving quickly and it now can be seen as a distinct possibility.

Change is coming soon to the entire 21st Century Fox media conglomerate, since Rupert Murdoch recently announced he'll be stepping down as its head. He'll be turning the operations over to his two sons James and Lachlan, who are 42 and 43 years old, respectively. Both sons (as Salon put it) "reportedly detest" Fox News.

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When the 2016 presidential campaign season began earlier this year, I started writing articles about every candidate when they officially announced their candidacies. I made a promise in many of these columns, that I would take each candidate seriously no matter what I personally thought their chances of winning were, or how much I agreed or disagreed with their platform. I promised not to be snarky, above all. I think that running for president is a serious business, and even though it does occasionally include what I would call "not really serious" candidates, I still wanted to give a measure of respect to each entrant to the race at the very start of their campaign. As I put it repeatedly, there will be plenty of time for being snarky later (usually on Fridays, of course).

But I did add one qualification, virtually every time I made my snark-free promise in the introduction to these articles. I promised a serious look at all new candidates, but I also warned I'd be likely to break my promise if Donald Trump entered the race (in fact, I already broke this promise back in February, by writing an article where I begged Trump to actually run). Because every man's got his limit as to how long he can stick to his principles, and the concept of "President Trump" would stretch mine to the breaking point, obviously. Today, Donald Trump entered the presidential race. Hence, the snark-free promise is declared null and void for today (it will be reinstated for the remaining entrants, never fear).

Donald Trump as president. Sure boggles the mind, don't it? Heh. Can't wait for him to try "You're fired!" with senators or Supreme Court justices -- that'd be a laugh riot! His campaign, as he would say, is "gonna be yuuuuuuuge!" Is America waiting for President Trump? Well, we're all surely about to find that out.

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Today, Jeb Bush formally entered the race for the Republican nomination for president. I should point out, as a bit of personal trivia, that his new campaign logo ("Jeb!") has allowed me to create what I believe is the shortest headline I have ever written (in over 2,000 blog posts).

Beyond punctuation fun (in reality, the most accurate slogan would likely be a sort of "ho-hum, well I guess so" use of punctuation: "...Jeb..."), Jeb's entry into the race also brings up another bit of political trivia I have so far been too lazy to research, namely what all the state rules are for candidate names on the official ballots. This is because, in reality, there is no "Jeb Bush" running. His full legal name is John Ellis Bush, and his nickname is nothing more than his initials ("J.E.B."), meaning that even writing "JEB Bush" is a grammatical redundancy (akin to "ATM machine" or "PIN number"). So how will he appear on a ballot? John "Jeb" Bush, maybe? Again, I haven't had the time or energy to research this, but it may become more important later, since John Ellis isn't the only one in the Republican field (Piyush Jindal and Rafael Cruz also spring to mind) with possibly-problematic nicknames.

The biggest knock against John (Jeb?) Bush is, of course, the same one Hillary Clinton faces: do Americans really want only dynastic choices for president? Jeb is, of course, the brother of the previous Republican president (George W.) and the son of the one before that (George H. W.). He's even a distant relation (through Barbara) of Franklin Pierce. I suppose we should at least be thankful he isn't named "George Herbert Bush," since future schoolchildren would have such a tough time remembering them in order if that were the case. But no matter what appears on each state's ballots, the family name "Bush" will definitely appear, which is such a big problem for Jeb that he left it out of his campaign logo entirely.

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We begin with a story which is just ripe for mixing a few metaphors: The Iowa Republican Party just announced today that they are cancelling the Iowa Straw Poll.

The metaphors can immediately get twisted, since "the final straw which broke the camel's back" doesn't really work -- it'd have to be "the final straw which broke the elephant's back," of course! Then there's always the classic anti-war spin on things: "What if they gave a straw poll and nobody showed up?" And finally, the most delicious piece of irony: Michele Bachmann will go down in history as the winner of the final Iowa Straw Poll, held back in 2012. Remember the reign of President Bachmann? Me neither.

The Iowa Straw Poll had already outlasted whatever usefulness it may or may not ever have had, even back in 2012. It's not some centuries-old tradition, as the first one was held in 1979. Its core reason for being has always been to transfer money from all the Republican presidential campaigns directly into the coffers of the state Republican Party organization. The entire "poll" was nothing but a sham where the candidates tried to outdo each other in nakedly buying votes. So we certainly are joining in the chorus saying "good riddance" to this mockery of democracy.

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You've got to pity the poor mainstream media reporters covering Hillary Clinton's campaign, at least a little bit. Well, actually, no, you don't have to pity them. It's a free country, right? So you are free to roll your eyes at the Clinton media gaggle without feeling a single drop of a small shred of a microscopic iota of pity for them. I apologize for even suggesting such a thing. Allow me to begin again.

I have to pity the poor mainstream media reporters covering Hillary Clinton's campaign, a tiny bit. No, no, I really do -- at least a smidgeon. They know full well that, barring any large and unforeseen events, they'll be covering Clinton's campaign for at least the next eight or nine months without having much of any "horserace" story to tell. If Clinton does as expected (again, barring a tremendous surge by Bernie Sanders or a sudden health problem for Hillary), she's going to become the Democratic nominee for president without much problem. This presents a deep quandary for the mainstream Clinton reporters, since all pundits (and I definitely include myself in this) absolutely love writing horserace stories. They're easy, they're poll-driven, and much like their namesake horseraces, it's always fun to see a dark horse pull into the lead or a frontrunner stumble or any other thrilling racetrack development that gets the heart pumping and the juices flowing. To put it another way: horserace stories are easy to write, which is why we get so many of them during each election.

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I've been giving each of the major candidates for president a serious overview, right after they officially announce their candidacy. Today, we'll take a look at Rick Perry, who made his formal announcement last week.

Perry is the tenth Republican to throw his hat in the 2016 ring, joining Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Rick Santorum. There are at least five other Republicans who will also likely make a run for their party's nomination, but they have yet to formally announced their candidacies.

Rick Perry served the longest term as Texas governor in the state's history, taking over the office from George W. Bush (when Bush left to become president), and Perry only stepped down from this post earlier this year. He, obviously, wants to follow the trail Bush blazed from the Texas governor's office to the Oval Office. However, this will be the second run for Perry, and he'll have to improve significantly on his previous performance to even have a chance of doing so.

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No new column today, sorry. I had planned a biography column on Rick Perry, but somehow failed to work up the energy to write it (I'll get it written in the next day or two, promise). Instead, I am going to attempt to work through the backlog of answering your comments from the past few weeks. I know I've been falling down on this job, so I am going to devote writing time today to answering what you have all been saying instead. Look in the comments section of this Program Note for updates, where I'll post my progress below, as I work through the backlog. And, once again, sorry for the lack of column today, folks.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant