I was having a conversation with a former colleague of mine about my recent flag burning post. While he thinks the proposed amendment is not a great idea, he thinks that burning the flag is disrespectful and, if you don’t like living in the US, you should leave. I, personally, think you should be able to do whatever you like with the flag – it is YOUR flag after all.

Remy also owns a bunch of guns. He thinks guns are cool. I’ve never had the need or desire to own a weapon. Again, we’re at odds, but I don’t argue with the fact that it’s totally his right to own as many guns as he wants.

You see the freedom in these two scenarios? Choice. He chooses to own guns and not burn flags, while others are free to not own guns and burn flags. Those are tangible examples of freedoms that both Republicans and Democrats are trying to take away from you. Freedoms we’ve had for 200 years.

What makes this country great isn’t some piece of cloth, the fact that you can buys as many guns as you want or the fact that you can abort your unborn child. What makes this country so great is that you have the choice to do those things.

If Democrats and Republicans get their way people will start losing their ability to make their own choices. It’s already illegal for adults to make lots of choices. Here are a few things that you no longer have a choice on how to act.

1. Wearing a seat belt
2. Consuming narcotics
3. Wearing a helmet
4. Marry people of the same sex

Here are four choices that you are no longer allowed to make. You know what strikes me is that these choices are my choice to make. They don’t affect anyone else, with the exception of number four, which shouldn’t matter either if the other person agrees as well.

Look around people. Two men or women getting married shouldn’t anger you. Abortion shouldn’t anger you. The fact that you have or are losing the right to make those choices is what should make you angry.

What’s on your representatives’ minds? Iraq? Social Security? Maybe they are giving our current dependency on foreign oil some thought? Nope, they’re worried about people burning the US flag. So worried, in fact, the House of Representatives have taken the drastic step of approving a Constitutional amendment. To make matters worse the proposed amendment is absurdly vague.

The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.

The funny part is that the the US Flag Code specifically states that the flag should be disposed of by burning it.

The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.

Also, what does desecration mean, exactly? According to Wiktionary it means the following.

An act of disrespect or impiety towards something considered sacred; blasphemy, sacrilege or profanation.

First of all I have problems with the country’s near religious worshipping of a piece of cloth. Why is it so sacred? The ideals it represents should be held in higher esteem. At any rate, what constitutes desecration? The amendment is worded in such a way that anything could be construed as desecration. Can I still wear my hammer pants with the flag on them? What if I leave the flag out in the rain because I’m forgetful? Am I breaking the law?

Never mind the fact that 95% of all the flag burning you see on TV takes place in a foreign country. Idiots.

UPDATE: It appears that it is already illegal to desecrate the flag, which makes this proposed amendment even more confusing to me.

Whoever knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles,
burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or tramples upon any flag
of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned
for not more than one year, or both.

Are you a douche bag driving a huge SUV and feeling guilty about all the smog you produce?

If so, then you can, of course, buy yourself some comfort on the open market. The idea is that you can purchase emission credits from the open emissions exchange from a smog producing company. By reducing the number of credits a company has it reduces the amount of crap they can spew into the air.

This is exactly the type of idea a Libertarian tree hugger would come up with. The idea is that if enough people purchased credits and didn’t use them, then companies would be forced to upgrade their emission systems because they wouldn’t have the extra credits they normally would have purchased on the open emissions exchange.

Interesting to say the least.