Not everything bad needs to be illegal...

What's the House of Representatives up to?Idiocy. Absolute idiocy.

Not that I want to see people burning the flag. It's infuriating, immature, childish, pointless, gutless, useless and foolish. As a rule. But damn it, the Constitution protects freedom of speech, specifically political speech, and burning an American flag CLEARLY qualifies as political speech. (As long as you burn your own flag - if you burn someone else's, vandalism laws come into play.) But this is another assault on political speech, just like the McCain-Feingold monstrosity.

It makes me ill to say this, but I agree with Jerrold Nadler.

"If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents."

"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session."
- Mark Twain

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial."
- Justice Louis Brandeis, US Supreme Court