Over the years, one of the biggest fucking wastes of time that I've seen is the never ending desire to ban flag burning. This drive is a total fucking disgrace when you consider the time and energy wasted on something that is completely fucking pointless. Someone somewhere burns the flag. Unless if it causes something else to catch fire, who gets hurt? Not a single fucking person. It's a goddamn symbol, you stupid fucks. Burning the symbol is not the same as burning the thing that's being symbolized. Oh, and free speech and all, but who really cares for that these days.

From the Senate floor Monday, Specter compared flag desecration to libel and child pornography, forms of expression he said have no "social value."

Give me a break, Arlen. Child porn? Can you really say that burning the flag is as harmful and insidious as child porn? When it comes down to a choice between burning the flag and exploiting children, you have to stop and think about it?

"The First Amendment never needs defending when it comes to popular speech," Leahy said. "It's when it comes to unpopular speech that it needs defending."

It's so embarrassing that someone has to stand up and say this when it should be taken for granted, but that's where we're at.

"Those are symbols, and I leave them to the symbol-minded."
- Carlin