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June 22, 2005

Like Clockwork

Terror alerts are so 2004. But the Republicans are in trouble. So time to drag out that old standby...flag burning! Because, y'know, it's so prevalent.

But this time the ridiculous debate has an even more ridiculous standard-bearer: Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (Guess-CA).

"Ask the men and women who stood on top of the [World] Trade Center. Ask them and they will tell you: pass this amendment."

D. U. M. B. A. S. S. If you actually had a chance to talk to anyone there (which there weren't, since they were all running like hell or jumping to a certain but quick death), they'd probably be more interested in things like the fact that 15 of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. Or maybe the August 6 memo that was ambiguously titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike In U.S."

Maybe they'd even want to talk about how their coming deaths would be avenged. I wonder how many of them would want to be commemorated by a prolonged war in an uninvolved country. I wonder how many of them, for that matter, would want to be used as political props by some shady idiot Congressman to pass a law that has nothing to do with the tragedy about to claim them.

But we'll never know, because they're dead. This, last I checked, was still alive:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amazing how some people are determined to defend the flag, but don't care so much about burning the Bill of Rights.

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Comments

You know, I can think of only two instances in which I would actually burn a flag.


1) I had on old flag, that was too damaged to fly, and I wanted to dispose of it in the proper, respectful manner.


2) It were made illegal to do so. In that case, it would be a symbollic mourning of the country in which I used to live - the one where protest was encouraged, not stifled.

I am certain that if this ammendment passes (and it looks dicey in the Senate - I have no idea how the states will go), the number of flags burned in protest each year will increase at least 10-fold (assuming there are any - does this ammendment address a real "problem?").

-Y

Posted by: Yxylu | June 23, 2005 09:05 AM

Actually, I'd like to recant what I said. Apparently, this is much more prevalent than I thought. We really do need something to stop this vicious, widespread desecration of the flag. Can you believe that in the past year there were no fewer than _one_ instance of flag burning in this country?

(Cite: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-06-14-flag-desecration-vote_x.htm )

In all seriousness, in light of this, I'd like to ammend my previous "10-fold" estimate, and make it more like 3 orders of magnitude.

-Y

Posted by: Yxylu | June 23, 2005 10:00 AM

I truly believe that this effort is 1/3 actual honest, if misguided, attempt to save the flag, and 2/3 a little experiment in "how to slowly take nibbles around the edges of Constitutional freedom". They're already floating around the repeal of the 22nd Amendment that they trot out whenever a President is in his second term.

(Yes, the Democrats did it with Bill, too.)

Posted by: Michael | June 23, 2005 10:21 AM

Don't you think that burning the flag is an unintelligent, sophomoric thing to do? I don't really care whether it is a law or not - but seriously, let's burn the ONE ABIDING SYMBOL of our freedom, independence, and, well, the ability to make such statements in the first place. I mean, I am a pseudo-liberal-conservative confused kind of person, but I'd rather see people taking the frustrations out on symbols of what they actually dislike.

For instance, CNN could be reporting elephants and donkeys burning in effigy across the land (not live ones, of course, unless there are people who want to protest animals).

Seriously, want to make a statement? Turn your flag upside-down. That's the sign of a ship (or a nation) in distress.

I don't really see how burning a flag is an action protected by the Bill of Rights. It honestly just sounds more like arson or criminal mischief or some stupid thing. But what I do know, is that it is a stupid way to make a statement, kind of like animal rights activists blowing up laboratories, and in their ineptitude, killing 30 college students in the process. Way to go, protesters.

Maybe I should burn a flag protester in protest.

Posted by: Ashley | July 9, 2005 12:49 AM

"Maybe I should burn a flag protester in protest."

First you'd have to *find* a flag protester. I don't know of anyone who has burned a flag. Do you?

Posted by: Sooz [TypeKey Profile Page] | July 11, 2005 02:10 AM