Rustmeister Says: I’ll just carry a really big fire extinguisher to any anti US rally I might be close to and do my duty as a citizen and put out any fires I might see.

Here’s your chance. Your fire extinguisher should make for some great political theater. plus it is not against the law.

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/134457/index.php

Halon, however, is against the law. I’m not sure how much ozone it kills if any of the the super heavy molecule actually manage to get up there in the upper atmosphere, but it’s probably far less than one shuttle launch on a “Mission to Planet Earth“.

I’ll just carry a really big fire extinguisher to any anit US rally I might be close to and do my duty as a citizen and put out any fires I might see.

Do they make high capacity halon fire extinguishers? =)

Thrice. First time at a rally after 9/11, some hippy decided to take his zippo to Ole Glory, and got monkey stomped by about 4 guys for it. Second time at a campus protest (this is SoCal) where someone torched US and Israeli flags. That time, no one was immediately around the flags when they went up, so no one got curb stomped. Third time was when I visited my old HS JROTC unit. The AI’s were disposing of a flag in the proper manner after it was apparently defaced.

The amendment was stupid. It’s not a matter of quantity of flag burning, or if it’s offensive, which it certainly is. It’s more a matter of leaving people the hell alone to do as they wish. Is it a pervasive problem? No. Personally, I’d like to think the .gov has better things to do than push this legislation. Lots of other, more pressing matters on the agenda, I’d like to think, but I don’t walk the halls of power.

Back on-topic, pop quiz: How many times in your life have you seen someone on American soil burning an American flag? For me, that answer is “zero.” It’s not exactly a pervasive problem that we need to rush to solve.

But I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: I’ll actually support an anti-flag desecration amendment just as soon as it includes commercial and other exploitation in its definition of “desecration.” That guy who wraps himself (literally) in a flag at a sporting event or parade? Arrest him. Fox News has to get rid of that little wavy-flaggy thingy in the corner, or face stiff fines. Ditto the other cable news networks.

Too many people get all worked up about the flag itself without even bothering to respect the flag, not to mention any of the stuff it’s supposed to stand for.