When did you last hear of someone burning a flag?

[Oeditpus Rex]

Thread inspired by this: http://www.testycopyeditors.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6787

The last one I recall was the failed attempt at Dodger Stadium in 1976, which vaulted then-Cubs outfielder Rick Monday to "patriot" and "hero" status.

Point being, of course, if flag-burning is the rarity it seems to be, why do we need a fucking amendment banning it?

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. This one burns every day

http://bushspeaks.com/home.asp?did=122

[Hekate]

2. 40 years ago? It's really not a very effective form of protest

You end up making more enemies than you had before, so it ends up being counterproductive in every sense of the word. People have really long memories for that kind of image.

Bringing it up is just raw meat for the base -- a Constitutional amendment would be even more stupid and unAmerican than the "problem" itself.

Hekate

[magellan]

3. Last time was somewhere in Pakistan

I'm sure Bush** and the Repugs will get on that right away. :sarcasm:

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. That may be the one mentioned

in the thread linked in the OP — the one made to look like it happened here.

[magellan]

9. I honestly can't remember the last time I heard of a flag-burning here

No one I know thinks it's appropriate. And besides, since Bush** came to power, you'd have to have a death-wish to even try it.

[KitchenWitch]

4. Back in the late 1980s

I was at some protests of US involvement in Nicaragua. Most of us were very peaceful. But the RABL folks were burning flags and throwing bowling balls through windows at the Army Recruitment office.

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. RABL?

Sorry, Kitchy, I'm not familiar.

It occurs to me, though, that some flag-burnings at protests could well be the work of right-wing infiltrators wishing to make the protestors look bad — or charged by their superiors with doing so.

[KitchenWitch]

10. RABL

Revolutionary Anarchist Bowling League. They were mostly punk rockers, whose main form of protest was bowling balls through windows.


There is some information about them in this link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_and_Rage

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. ROFL!

I adore the name. :rofl:

Hey, since they were punks, I wonder if their theme song was the Dickies' "Bowlin' with Bedrock Barney."

[KitchenWitch]

12. I would not be surprised!

[Canuckistanian]

5. There was this one time

No, wait... OK, once there was this guy who... no that doesn't count because he was a mental hospital escapee.

Yeah, I got it! But... it was.... sorta lame.

Hey, but I've seen lots of foreigners do it! Does that count?

[izzie]

8. Never but on TV and usually over seas

Even old ones that are said to need to be burned. They are on old trucks and in yards as far as I can see. It is the same old thing that 'cut and run' is doing. And it does seem to work. Dem. in Congress should have walked out. It is just silly but the GOP works it very well. Now we have 'kill the massager' kill off any paper that prints any thing Carl, George and Richard do not like. It all worked once so why not a second time. You would think their base would be up tight about the burning of the Constitution

[ClintonTyree]

13. Back in the 70s for me............

but what about all of those "patriots" that make clothing out of old glory? I think that desecrating the flag by making shirts, hats and trousers out of our dear, national symbol is a much larger problem the flag burning. Why aren't the RepubliCONS, those thankless guardians of all that is good and holy in America, upset about THAT? :shrug: The Democrats should play a bit of "oneupmanship" with the ridiculous right and demand that ANY flag desecration be punished. I believe that would shut the RepubliCONS down in their grandstanding tracks. :shrug: Just a thought.

[B Calm]

14. If you listen to republican politicians, it's happening all over

the country...People are starting to wake up to their do nothing but create wedge issues agenda!

[China_cat]

15. The last time they tried to push an amendment

criminalizing the burning of the flag. That would have been during the reign of Bush 1.

[havocmom]

16. Been a long while. Lots of videos of bush WRITING on them though

No need for constitutional amendment though, it's already illegal, called flag desecration. Put it on the long list of laws bush has broken.

We need to put an end to this business of them hiding behind the flag. We need to burn the image of bush WRITING ON FLAGS into the conscious of every person into this country! We need to plaster that image EVERYWHERE, along with the question put forth in the OP.

The GOP is good at instilling, in the minds of the people, connections which really do not exist: Saddam/9-11, Liberals/unpatriotic and so on. We need to show them we will connect them with WHAT DOES EXIST: bushco/destruction of what is important to Americans, bushco/cronyism, bushco/death of environment, bushco/abuse of our military troops and vets/...

bush things the flag is just a token gimmick that he can WRITE HIS NAME ON!

The son of a philandering upper class hoodlum, the drunkard who went AWOL when he faced the responsibility of at least pretending to defend the flag WRITES HIS NAME ON THE FLAG.

Where's Hatch's outrage about THAT?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

17. Flag burning happens more overseas

in many protests in the last year, the US flag (usually not a real flag, but a poorly made facsimile) has been burned. So if there's an amendment against flag burning, I don't see the point, as people overseas aren't subject to the US Constitution-or does the CIA plan to attend all anti-US rallies and kidnap the burners and send them off to some undisclosed location? Don't see that helping our image internationally.

[distantearlywarning]

18. Actually, I saw a show on A&E the other night

It was about a bunch of backwoods, racist stumpjumper white supremacist types down in Alabama. They had a protest rally one night because they were mad that the FBI was investigating their leader, so they burnt a US flag as part of their rally. It burned fairly well, but they already had a lit cross going and it was quite a good fire. I believe this documentary was filmed fairly recently, probably within the last 2 years.

So there you have it. Freepers burn the US flag when they get pissed off.

[TAPat]

21. Saw that too. And WE hate America? nt

[Sabriel]

19. I lit an "American Spririt" firework last weekend

It had a flag backdrop. Does that count? And would it get me arrested, or does it have to be a fabric flag?

What about right-wing junk mail with flags? Can I burn that, as usual?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[Paulie]

20. Last week or so?

There was an article in the paper about the VFW properly destroying old flags. You only burn PART, you burry the rest.

[blm]

22. GOP operatives, DelGaudio Bros, burned flags in cities on campaign trail

for Bush1 in 1988. Nice way to keep down headlines of the S&Ls, IranContra, etc....

They had a small group of young REpubs dressed like scruffy college students who would burn the flags within days of Bush showing up to campaign.

[applegrove]

23. Footage of Americans burning a flag I saw.. included a girl in a pageboy

haircut. That would be about 1977.