I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
~ Voltaire
We are at a time where the very last thing anyone should yearn for, is a reason to restrict the rights of another. Hasn't the government done enough of that already? Let's see what else, how about making nativity scenes illegal?
I'm agnostic and personally don't give a rat's ass about it's content as much as its religious expression.Think of the Atheists! Crap they could be walking along and BAM! Instantly they see the light and become born again. Lets stop the aggressive recruitment now!
This is a ridiculous premise, made real only by litigation. Thirty years ago it would have been unthinkable that a situation this absurd, could become a reality in the US.
But to be politically correct, your liberty must be shared, or surrendered. Less we offend some tiny disenfranchised faction. Which isn't a faction at all, but of all things the absence of an opinion. It's all that "right to be free of religion" crap. (Nobody promised anyone the "right" to censorship) People are real confused about the difference between what's an offered opinion and their personal liberty, to promote, accept, deny or even rebel against it.
To me the proper thing is to hate flag burners, but it would be tyranny to make it illegal. If someone believes strongly enough, even Scott's solution is the better. If you believe it that strongly, then yes maybe that is what you should be willing to do. Wow, that was easy as hell to say. As of yet though, I haven't heard of one mass demonstration against the TSA, not that I would, even if it has happened.
One day I might just feel the need to burn the flag. Hated or not, I reserve that right not only for myself, but for future generations. I'm not willing to give up an ounce of liberty, even if it's accepted as the "proper" thing to do. In reality, no I would never burn the flag, unless someone told me it was illegal. At which point hand me the matches, because it stopped meaning anything anyway.
"We are a nation of laws." most folks have probably heard that quote the part they didn't hear is: "and dependent upon the good "horse" sense of the American people". What our forefathers didn't count on back then, was us becoming timid robotic idiots, looking towards Uncle Sam for moral and social guidance. We are a country of morally broke individuals who can't discern the difference between what's "legal and what's "right".
The conservatives laugh at "occupy wall street" and the liberals laugh at the "tea party". At the same time what the media totally ignores is the fact that hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens, conservative and liberal alike, see it important to demonstrate against our current political system.
The extremists on both ends of the spectrum got it wrong of course, they have been getting it wrong since the beginning of history. But to dismiss the other 90% is just complimenting on the view while your head is in the sand. After this election the best possible position will be your head between your knees. I'd be very surprised if we ever see another one.
The internet confuses the issue that anything offensive should also be disallowed. The license for that comes from volunteering to participate within a private domain. The same logic that gives the TSA their power. The problem arises when that organization forgets, like the TSA, that ALL of their power is "supposedly" dependent upon willful cooperation.
Now they have back scatter vans that can literally x-ray a pedestrian thirty feet away. Just insisting that it be covertly executed, betrays the obvious dubious intent. Why not just paint the vans fluorescent orange? This is not a conspiracy, it's happening as I write this. TSA personnel are driving around, covertly giving you all free x-rays. Now let me ask: Which one of you clowns though that was a "good" idea?
I suspect none of you. Our republic isn't damaged, or merely corrupt, it's outright broken.
We certainly do get the government we deserve. The sheeple will accept any pittance of liberty the government sees fitting to bestow upon them and they will proclaim the loudest just how free we are. Meanwhile our nation's laws occupy 25' of shelf space in the library of congress. How many laws did you break today? When somebody tells me we need more regulation, I can't help but think they are a 100% pure idiot. Do you folks know that the organizations that make the laws, actually hire lawyers to interpret them into manuals for enforcement. Yeah it costs us hundreds of millions of dollars each year. That is; they pay people to interpret the laws, that they themselves passed, because they can't understand them. Take a moment and think about how absurd that is.
We also imprison the highest percentage of people per 100k, than even Iran and China. In fact at 1/5 of the world's population, we have the highest prison population in the entire world, accounting for 1/4 of earth's entire incarceration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate
Well on a good note we haven't given up manufacturing entirely, since it seems we are damn good at making criminals. To those burning the flag I certainly don't condone it, but I do understand some of that frustration. If it were effigies of Bush, Obama, Romney, Cheney, I'd be handing out torches and pitchforks. Alas that time has come and gone. If anyone was going to do anything they would have already.
Their ducks are all in a row and they are circling the wagons. Throwing the useless paper money at anything it can buy. Remember it's a debt China will never be allowed to collect. Whether it's through war or the declaration that the US dollar is now extinct. This government knows whats in the future and if they are scared, you better believe you should be too.
