Thursday, June 23, 2005

Free Speech for the Dumb: This keeps coming up, and each time Congress gets closer and closer to passing it. I've never seen an American flag get burned (other than on TV), but apparently it's dangerous enough that our government feels the need to restrict freedom of expression through a constitutional amendment for the first time ever to protect us.

I love this country. But I would rather see the flag burned millions of times than see our Constitutional rights go up in smoke.

People who burn the flag in protest are a bunch of idiots. And that's why it's important that we protect their rights. I want to make it as easy as possible to spot an idiot from across the street.

That's one of the unintended benefits of the First Amendment -- it helps identify stupid people. Imagine if Michael Moore were locked up for disagreeing with President Bush. He would become a martyr of sorts, a political prisoner who was standing up to an oppressive government, and that would add legitimacy to his cause. But because he lives in America where his rights are protected, he's free to say whatever he thinks. And as soon as he starts railing against Orange Alerts and accusing Bush of invading Afghanistan to install an oil pipeline, you realize pretty quickly he's not thinking about anything important. You can safely ignore anything else he has to say -- all thanks to the First Amendment.

Burning the flag doesn't say anything more than, "ME HATE COUNTRY. ME WANT TO BURN IT. OOH, FIRE PRETTY. OW! FIRE HOT!" I trust these morons to speak their minds more than I trust my government to decide what I'm allowed to say.