A Burning Issue
When is burning an American flag more than just bad taste. Glenn Reynolds knows: "what makes it a crime is that the flag belonged to someone else -- and was, in fact, attached to that someone else's house at the time..."
The three men, all of foreign origin, were charged with offenses ranging from reckless endangerment to arson and were held in jail Tuesday night after a judge refused to release them without bail.
According to the newspaper, the New Haven police said the men — two freshmen and a senior — first attracted police attention at about 3 a.m. Tuesday when they asked two offcers for directions back to their residence. They were identified as Said Hyder Akbar, 23, Nikolaos Angelopoulos, 19, and Farhad Anklesaria, also 19.
The moral of the story is never ask the police for directions. Or maybe it's something else. Arson, eh.
posted by wretchardthecat at 4/04/2007 08:10:00 PM
25 Comments:
Well its ok to burn flags even when they are attached to someone elses home because their need to display their first amendment rights outweighs the rights of property.
Need is everything these days. It even justifies Giuliani funding abortions for women too poor to afford them. Oops.
Need trumps all...pretty soon the Islamic nutjobs will figure that out and we will really be in trouble.
Giuliani has been trying to slide by on abortion…today he got cornered. Oops.
Seems everyone's tryin to slide somewhere these days.
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OT
Around Baghdad today, there’s a notable increase in the presence of armored vehicles on the streets, — and I mean heavy armor. Humvees are usually everywhere. Stryker vehicles come second and are quite occasionally spotted. The much more serious Bradley’s and tanks are usually quite rare, but today they too are abundant particularly in Rasafa, the eastern half of the Baghdad.
We’ve witnessed patrols of three to four Bradley vehicles rumbling through the streets; at times passing the same street more than a few times. Exactly what this increase in activity portends is always difficult to know until afterwards. The security forces do not share their motives and movements beforehand...
Sorry, that's from Iraq the Model and at PJ.
Interesting that these were foreign born students (I think one had a US passport but was born in Pakistan). Can you imagine if a US student studying at the American University in Cairo burned a flag there? He'd already be hanging from the gallows.
As it is, these students will probably receive hot shot lawyers from Yale so that the school doesn't look too bad, and they will try and hush this as much as possible.
Amazing that Yale is actively recruiting students who absolutely hate America. Kinda like the Taliban man they admitted. When the NY Times broke that story, Yale's dean of admissions talked about how hard they worked to get him because they "had another foreigner of Rahmatullah's caliber" but "we lost him to Harvard." I wonder if Rahmatullah knew these students who burned the flag?
"Yale is actively recruiting students who absolutely hate America"
Birds of a feather...and I say that based in part on the many academics I have known.
Doug: We’ve witnessed patrols of three to four Bradley vehicles rumbling through the streets; at times passing the same street more than a few times.
American troops are dying at a rate of 900 per year. Expeditures have risen from $4.4 billion to $8.4 billion without a corresponding decrease in the overall rate of violence (even if there are temporary local successes following tactical shifts in emphasis). Cities that are pacified to much fanfare must be retaken, sometimes several times. The Bush Administration has resorted to a policy of "kill the messenger", sacking any general who admits we cannot win another country's civil war and putting in place the lone general who thinks we can win this civil war, General Petraeus. One by one, our allies in the "Coalition of the Willing" have dropped out, and we are even witnessing the gradual departure of the United Kingdom from the southern theater. Bush got congressional authority to wage war on Iraq by certifying that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction and posed an existential threat to the United States, yet the WMDs were revealed to be a chimera and the only existential threat is to the Republican Party itself, as more and more Americans grow weary of the war.
"American troops are dying at a rate of 900 per year..."
And *how* many died per year in all the other wars, Teresita? Hmmm? o_O
Please refresh our memory! :P
You can have your own opinion but you cannot have your own facts. Try reading the actual Congressional Resolution authorizing use of force in Iraq sometimes. If you are incapable of that then try looking at a map of the region. Any clue on the meaning of strategic geography?
I will answer TP's question to Teresita. For the entire history of the US before 9-11, the everage death rate of US soldiers in war was 17 per day. This is the number averaged across all 220-odd years. Since 9-11 the death is about 2 per day.
buck, tsk tsk. How uncivil of you to expect teresita to conduct a relative examination of her information before posting it!
"Expeditures have risen from $4.4 billion to $8.4 billion "
Making it one of the cheapest wars in our history, in terms of percentage of GDP.
"One by one, our allies in the "Coalition of the Willing" have dropped out. . ."
Which was the plan, if I recall correctly.
"Bush got congressional authority to wage war on Iraq by certifying that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction and posed an existential threat to the United States, yet the WMDs were revealed to be a chimera and the only existential threat is to the Republican Party itself, as more and more Americans grow weary of the war."
Well, he got congressional authority by virtue of the votes of many senators/congressmen who certified that Iraq had WMD's, based on the same information Bush had available. . .but it's easier to blame him if you say "he certified this, or that". If the Dems continue in the manner they are conducting themselves now, they will perpetuate the alienation of our military, who will feel betrayed. The far left-ers already fell betrayed that their new Democratic congress hasn't done more to end the conflict. I contend that if this situation persists, the Dems will find the existential threat that Iraq poses, is to their party. . .not the Republicans.
I do not favor laws that would forbid flag burning as a menas of protest - as long as it applies to your own flag.
However, I do favor laws - or even a Constitutional Amendment - that would permit you to absolutely kick the crap out of anyone caught burning the U.S. flag.
After all, if First Amendment Rights are so important, how can you exercise yours to protest a flag burning? There is no way to "unburn" a flag - and I have a right to express my views as much as the flag burners do, maybe more - I got guns.
Now, for the flag of the Confederacy, State flags, military service banners, POW flags etc, the counterprotest allowed should be somewhat less intense. Say, being tied to the rear bumper of my pickup and forced to run behind it - in 4 wheel drive - off-road - for 4 or 5 miles - in the rain - at night - in December - uphill - carrying a John Deere lawn tractor.
Between General Congresswoman Pelosi's idiot pronouncements on her Mideast trip and the gaggling gang display of near lunacy on the View one has to wonder if today's women are really capable of handling serious and consequential matters.
Peterboston,
Carter, Gore and most of the leftist MSM and Hollywood king-and-conscience makers aren't female--- or are they?
The View is an abomination whose only saving grace is that its participants talk over each other, making it impossible to figure out what they're trying to say. I've set my TV to zap anyone who even turns that show (of chatty/catty imbecility) on. I can manufacture enough of that on my own :)
Pelosi is the face of today's "America Last" Dem Party, to include males and females. Hillary is its Machiavellian-Marxist-"me first" mind.
I always giggle a little bit when these furriners get hauled into court for their various misdeeds. Invariably they are described as "stunned" - as if the full weight of the American justice system has just sat on their chest and they can't believe they're actually going to be held responsible for their actions.
Good.
I wonder if CAIR will have any words of wisdom for us overly-sensitive Americans.
"Yale is actively recruiting students who absolutely hate America"
Yale is in a really run down neighborhood. If one wants to get an Ivy League education and simultaneously experience the joys of the 3rd world...then Yale is the University of choice.
Free speech must be protected. Mind if I burn MY cross on your front yard?
Sec. 53a-112. Arson in the second degree: Class B felony.
(a) A person is guilty of arson in the second degree when, with intent to destroy or damage a building, as defined in section 53a-100, (1) he starts a fire or causes an explosion and (A) such act subjects another person to a substantial risk of bodily injury; or (B) such fire or explosion was intended to conceal some other criminal act; or (C) such fire or explosion was intended to subject another person to a deprivation of a right, privilege or immunity secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of this state or of the United States; or (2) a fire or explosion was caused by an individual hired by such person to start such fire or cause such explosion.
(b) Arson in the second degree is a class B felony.
I’m all for keeping flag burning legal. It’s more offensive for being so mindless.
At least papier mache protest puppets and Bushitler signs require a little artwork and spelling effort on the part of developmentally delayed, delinquent types.
I asked a cop for directions one time, I had to because my brakes were locking up so it was kind of hassle driving in cross-town traffic in Manhattan. (What with the Mrs. 'advising' me in the passenger seat.)
So I ask the cop, "Officer, where is a gas station with a garage around here?"
The Cop says, "I don't know, I'm not from around here, I'm from Brooklyn. My advice would be to get through the tunnel and over to Jersey."
I once heard that a Parish in Louisiana, upon reflecting that it was impossible to ban flag-burning, decided instead to make the battering of a person burning a flag an offense punishable by a $5 fine.
For once- innovation in legislature.
Texas.
Actually, it's pretty funny. Asking directions to the place where you gonna burn someone else's flag! It's like trying to collect on your deposit for the rental truck you blew up in the world trade center basement.
Has anyone ever noticed how easy it is to get a flag from the US or Israel (or any Western nation for that matter) in the ME.
I for one would have an extremely hard time finding a Iranian flag or a...
Dutch flag for the matter.
Anyway, stupid is as stupid does.
Peter: owwwwie
Those flags are generally made of a nylon thread.
As a child, I nearly burned my left hand off playing with matches and nylon rope.
It's like napalm.
And, it doesn't go out, and it doesn't stop hurting.
Poor guy... that may have led to disfigurement.
If you're gonna ask for directions, stop at a fire house and ask the firefighters.
They're terribly eager to assist, are usually bored and looking for something to do, are intimately familiar with the neighborhood, and there's a firehouse on every other corner.
Of course, if they catch you burning a flag, they're also less likely to be civilized about it than a cop has to be.
Teresita:
Well, Lincoln went through a lot of generals before he found one who "thought we could win this civil war".
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