Good Lord. Ed, please don’t fall into the routine of saying ‘red meat’ or ‘the obligatory …’. Please. I’m begging you. Leave that kind of crap for AP. Pleeeeeeease!

Thanks in advance :)

Kevin M on April 17, 2008 at 5:30 AM

I agree with this. Ed, stop condescending.

I’m confused. How is this art, while flushing a Koran down the toilet is hate speech?

Thanks in advance :)

Once again, unless there is some new law that has come out I am not aware of, technically it is against the Law to lay our Flag on the ground. This is not freedom of speech. Speech. Speech is something that comes out of your mouth. For exampele, “People who lay the US Flag on the ground and walk on it are dumba**es.” If I were to say that, that would be speech. Desecrating the flag is a physical act, that by the way, as far as I know, is against Federal Law.

gator70 on April 16, 2008 at 10:09 PM

You are mistaken, and fortunately so. Not only is there no law on the books (technically the Flag Code is, but there are no penalties attached), but speech doesn’t have to be spoken to be protected. This is a well-affirmed principle of constitutional law, and has been tested on flag desecration cases repeatedly. As sick as it makes me to see the scum defacing the flags at that exhibit, it should be protected. It’s the same right that allows us to write freely here, or print Muhammad cartoons, or any other not-directly-spoken act of opinion you want. So long as it doesn’t damage someone else’s property or interfere with their own rights, your expression is pretty much absolute.

This is how it should be. At least when disgusting excuses for human beings misuse it, it shows the public just what those people really support.

Maybe the next generation isn’t as screwed up as their “teachers” have hoped and worked for?

They’d better not be, because the entire boomer generation is pretty much a waste of skin. How fresh the air shall smell when they’re all under the ground, feeding the worms.

Ah, American values at work. God Bless us all!!

Grow Fins on April 16, 2008 at 4:54 PM

Beating the crap out of people who hate and disrespect America is a time-honored tradition.

Particularly their haughty, condescending attitude to somebody who actually risked something for the freedoms that they so thoroughly abuse and would abolish in a second if they had the power to do so.

“We’re here protecting your right to disagree…”

Oh, is that so, you hippie skank? How so? If somebody comes by and tries to take a swing at the vet, what are you going to do? Wave your hairy armpits at them?

It’s a crying shame that the government didn’t have the sense to start circulating LSD laced with cyanide back in the 60s. They’d have done us all a favor.

*SPIT!*

It’s just a lazy cliche at this point, really.

Sadly I will admit I know this mainly because I was an art student back then, and my youthful leftist ideals led me to think this “art” was “cool”.

I’ve grown up a lot since then….

People use the National Ensign in such a manner to provoke interest in what they are trying to say, because what they are trying to say by it’s self is not worthy of merit. So people like this, those from Westboro Baptist Church, and other such “hate” or “enlightened” groups need to have a gimmick. If desecrating the U.S. flag is the only way you can convey your feelings on a subject, then how credible can your stance actually be?

If they wanted to impress me, they would go to a veteran’s house, pull his flag down and try to do the same thing in his front yard without police protection. DO THAT, and I’ll be impressed. There would be a lesson on freedom of expression, as well as protection of one’s property, and the revelation of how many American’s don’t feel the need to involve police in dispute resolution.

You were offended by patriots putting flags on their cars,after 911, which got tattered by the wind? That upset you as much as people–deliberately walking on it? Walking on it to show contempt? I don’t understand that,sorry.I’m not a marine but am the widow of one, the wife of one and the sister of 2.All were in VN.I’ve asked them and none of them understand your logic.

Just curious.

I just ran across this post at Gateway Pundit where some anti-Americanist asswipes need their faces caved in as a matter of “art form” and “freedom of expression”….

The Foot-soldiers of the Democrat Party – the Party of Big Mouths & Small Ideas.

Oh wait…I’m sittin’ on my dead ass on election day, as suggested by the HotAir, and Michelle Malkin blogs, ’cause McCain is a poopy-head…nevermind.

while he’s wearing it i mean…

aberger@maine.edu

This is the Provost. I believe he was the one who referred to the flag as “a piece of cloth”.

The veteren should have beated the “artist” to a pulp.

Ah, American values at work. God Bless us all!!

Grow Fins on April 16, 2008 at 4:54 PM

Hahaha!

Precisely. That’s what makes America a better place than Saudi.

Whoah! Hold your horses there! America would be a better place than Saudi Arabia even if burning the US flag was a crime. Trying to explain why the US is better than SA is like spilling a jar full of pennies onto the ground and then frantically trying to count them all at once. (Rain Man could do it)

American flag–ok. muslim flag–death.
L
letget on April 16, 2008 at 2:19 PM

Precisely. That’s what makes America a better place than Saudi.