LSU Student Planning to Burn American Flag in "Peaceful Protest"

Discussion in 'New Roundtable' started by CaseyLSU, May 11, 2011.

  1. martin

    martin Banned Forever

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    because that is simply protocol, not law. if i burn a flag, and anyone enforces it and punishes me, all of that crap is removed from the code when i destroy it in court. any review of that law (which wont happen because nobody enforces it) would result in that policy being proclaimed wildly unconstitutional.
     
  2. martin

    martin Banned Forever

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  3. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    Are they finally getting rid of those Euro faggoty, Pepe-le-pew berets? Fuggin' A. Maybe they will let soldiers actually wear khaki again instead of those bus driver service uniforms.
     
  4. red55

    red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

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    I'm all in favor of flag respect, but to consider the flag to be a "living being" is ridiculously absurd. I'd tear one to shreds in a second to stop the bleeding of a real living being.
     
  5. mctiger

    mctiger RIP, and thanks for the music Staff Member

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    I think a lot of people would agree with you, myself included.

    btw, I learned recently from interviewing the father of a KIA in Iraq that the flag that covers the coffin of a KIA is treated as if it is the fallen soldier. For instance, the flag is never put in the trunk of a car for transport; it rides in a seat. And I believe (someone from the military help me out here) that treatment does carry the weight of military law.

    Martin correctly pointed out that the code is not law. I just find it strange that the courts, in protecting flag burning, did a complete 180 from the concept of the flag as a revered object to be cherished, to a thing to be destroyed in protest.
     
  6. LSUsupaFan

    LSUsupaFan Founding Member

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    That's because a flag is just a pretty thing. There is no reason it should be cherished. If we make the flag untouchable, it loses all value. We should cherish our freedoms, not our symbols. The courts have always recognized this. The Chinese and North Koreans ban flag desecratiion. Are those the countries you want to model our policy after?
     
  7. mctiger

    mctiger RIP, and thanks for the music Staff Member

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    No, I want to keep the U.S. policy regarding the American flag up until 1989. I think the Supreme Court got it wrong. They said to protect the flag is to violate a person's First Amendment rights. I disagree, because the flag symbolizes much more than just the First Amendment. There are countless ways to express dissatisfaction. Why can't we have this one protected symbol?
     
  8. shane0911

    shane0911 Helping lost idiots find their village

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    Thank God (sorry martin but I think God hates france)

    Worst decision Shinseki ever made. Hated those damn things, especially when it rained and all that cheap black dye bleed down into your face. Those things sucked. Now the rangers can have their crappy little hat back and quit all their belly aching.
     
  9. LSUsupaFan

    LSUsupaFan Founding Member

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    The policy about the flag has always been that it is a pretty piece of cloth. The Supreme Court has repeatedly been 100 % correct on this. The reason the Flag Code has never been law is because it would be unconstitutional

    Yes. The flag is a symbol which means many different things to many different people. Its value is not universal. martin places no value in it. I place a degree of value, but I think liberty is more important than symbolism. You think symbolism is more important than liberty and put the flag on a pedestal.


    Because in a free society the person who decides how to express their dissatisfaction is the person that is dissatisfied. Again countries that squash free speech and ban flag burning exist. You can move their if you want, but chances are you love American style freedom. With that you take the good and the bad.
     
  10. mctiger

    mctiger RIP, and thanks for the music Staff Member

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    Wrong. The Supreme Court decides. And there have been numerous examples of the Court limiting freedom of expression. You can burn a flag, yet in 1968 the SC upheld the arrest of a man who burned his draft card (US vs O'Brien). In 1942, the SC upheld a state law preventing intentionally offensive speech being directed at others in a public place. (Chaplinsky vs New Hampshire) The Court has regulated free speech in instances of obscenity, defamation, sedition, and of course, incitement to panic. Yet people still manage to convey their dissatisfaction with untold numbers of injustices, real or imagined. Why would protecting the flag suddenly change all of that?
     

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