Too Much Free Speech

We all have our boundaries. Mine is not being to the left of Hillary Clinton. But now I must take a long look in the mirror:

A constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to ban flag burning passed the House yesterday, and congressional leaders said it has a strong chance to clear the Senate for the first time, sending it to the states for ratification....

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said in a statement that she would "support federal legislation that would outlaw flag desecration, much like laws that currently prohibit the burning of crosses, but I don't believe a constitutional amendment is the answer."

Banning free speech via an amendment, bad; via federal legislation, good. It's a shame to see politicians covering themselves with Old Glory instead of plain old glory.

Not that Republicans are doing much better:

Specter plans to let Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a former chairman of the committee and longtime champion of the measure, preside over the hearing. Hatch said he believes the measure will pass and said he is motivated by relatives who have died in combat. "I think acts of flag desecration are offensive conduct we ought to ban in the interest of protecting the greatest symbol of our country," Hatch said.

I'm positive that the last time this First Amendment desecration was attempted, we usually weren't using the word "desecration" to describe the act of destroying the flag in political protest. There's some  psychological mechanism at work here -- hey there, crazy Islamist rioters, we can be desecrated too!