diff --git a/nova/flags.py b/nova/flags.py
index 72d123e2..e2f7960e 100644
--- a/nova/flags.py
+++ b/nova/flags.py
@@ -37,7 +37,6 @@ class FlagValues(gflags.FlagValues):
     defined after the initial parsing.
 
     """
-    initialized = False
 
     def __init__(self, extra_context=None):
         gflags.FlagValues.__init__(self)
@@ -45,8 +44,6 @@ class FlagValues(gflags.FlagValues):
         self.__dict__['__was_already_parsed'] = False
         self.__dict__['__stored_argv'] = []
         self.__dict__['__extra_context'] = extra_context
-        # NOTE(vish): force a pseudo flag to keep track of whether
-        #             flags have been parsed already
 
     def __call__(self, argv):
         # We're doing some hacky stuff here so that we don't have to copy