Burn Ban - The Road To G-d US Ban on Flag Burning Leads to Ridiculous Extremes

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The prroposed ban on flag burning are controversial just on the basis of Free Speech Rights and the constitutional underpinnings of the US, but there are pragmatic reasons to oppose it as well. One such reason is that there is no clear limit to such a ban and it can lead to ridiculous measures.Many people oppose the proposed ban just on the basis of Free Speech ("I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."). As a soldier stated in a recent Time Magazine article, some of those opponents literally put their lives on the line in the name of freedom every day. My father, grandfather, uncle, etc., risked their lives in foreign wars and I myself have served as a civilian with the Air Force. Burning a flag (as a protest) may be crass and juvenile, but it is still speech, still free, and still a part of our political process. You cannot get the Good without the Bad.Even if this argument is not enough, what does a ban mean and where does it stop? For example, can I burn an envelope which has a stamp on it which contains an image of the flag? How about a T-shirt? Trash from a 4th of July parade? What defines a "flag" and makes it different from an image of the Stars and Stripes?Jewish folks have a habit of spelling God as G-d. Why do they do this? Because they have a religious injunction against defacing the name of God. If "God" is written out, and that paper is later defaced or destroyed, they have broken that injunction. Therefore, outside of sacred texts, they only write some adaptation of the name of God which is close but not exact. "G-d" is one of the popular forms of this.Are we headed in the same direction with the image of the flag? Will we have to print an altered form of the flag on all of our stationary and T-shirts just in case they will be burned? before you say "No one will prosecute someone for burning a stamp," consider that we have a history of using inane laws to prosecute people who cannot otherwise be punished, either because their crimes cannot be proven or because what they are doing is not really a crime (think Al Capone and MLK, again cannot have Good without Bad).Can I burn a damaged flag? I was raised that it is right and proper to burn a flag which has become damaged or soiled. What is the alternative? Letting it moulder in the trash? Is that better?The only way to resolve even some of these issues is to specifically outlaw flag-burning as a *protest*. This, of course flies directly against free speech and sets a president (oops, I mean "precedent") for outlawing other types of lawful protest. And there lies madness. Besides it still does deal with some border cases: can I burn a letter from the IRS as a form of protest which happens to have a flag printed on it? You can bet the IRS will claim I cannot.The whole issue of the ban opens up a smelly can of worms at a time when the country should be concentrating on more important issues: the economy, soldiers dieing in Iraq (and Afghanistan), North Korea, Iran, domestic spying programs, etc. What are we telling our people, our soldiers, and the world about our priorities?