1 I have to say, as a person who would never burn a flag of this great country, I love living in a land where the freedom to be an idiot is treasured more highly than a brightly colored piece of cloth. But I admired the attitude of Texas the legislature in passing a law setting the fine for punching a flag burner at what was it, $5? But I'm glad the courts, when shooting that law down for essentially authorizing assault, asked "can I get 3 swings for $10?" as they shot the law down. By and large, more or less, the system does work. Or as Heinlein said (roughly), democracy is a horrible system of government. It's only saving grace is that it's about ten times better than any other system. But it is nice to know that terrorism, North Korea, Asian bird flu, and umpteen other priorities have been dealt with, right? I mean, Congress wouldn't waste time on this stuff if the big things were still hanging, right?

2 One quick correction... If I have to dispose of an old flag which is starting to get tattered, I will burn it as the law requires. Solemnly, as a better fate than being thrown in the trash. Other than that, no flag burning for me.

3 Well, of course, that also crossed my mind: the protocol for handling flags states that burning is the preferred method once the cloth is too tattered. So people who work at civic centers, military bases and post offices would be in trouble for disposing of old flags. Of course, I've been wondering what to with the dirty old tattered faux flag I had on my car for a while (the kind that sticks up from the roof). It's a cheap polyester thing that wouldn't burn, so my understanding is that I may cut it up with scissors to retire it. But it's not like there's this huge rash of disrespectful flag burnings all over the country--a wave of 'em that somehow has to be stopped. It's a solution, as they say, in search of a problem.

4 I believe the ceremony for retiring old flags is exempted under the Amendment as burning is not the only way to retire a flag, but it is the preferred of the dignified ways to do it. I did a few variations of these when I worked for the Scouts. I am not sure about just cutting it up, one of the ways the Scouts retire the flag is by cutting it and buring it in pieces. http://www.usscouts.org/usscouts/ceremony/flagret2.html