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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (6448)	12/9/2005 10:27:00 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542532

Criminalizing extreme political speech like flag-burning equates that conduct with actual attempts to subvert or overthrow the U.S., which is a ridiculous connection. Coming together to express outrage at government policies is how the whole USA was founded in the first place. If we can criminalize burning a flag, why not criminalize the failure to fly a flag at one's house on appropriate days, or make anyone in the presence of the President where a flag lapel? If you say that not doing those things constitutes a vicious attack on the United States of America, it is perfectly justified to make them a criminal offense. It is a ridiculous, horrible slippery slope that we have seen in too many other banana republics throughout history. And on a "scale" of importance, the courts have always bent over backwards to make sure political speech had far more protection than other controversial actions with real human consequences (the "shouting fire" example being best known).