American Legion Interviews The Candidates

[ronwill]

Video responses by the candidates during an interview by the American Legion. I think the question concerning the Flag Protection Amendment is interesting.

LegionTV | American Legion

[tattedupboy]

I looked at the portion about each candidate's position on protecting the flag and while each said they believed the flag needed to be respected, I also noticed that each candidate specifically avoided endorsing a flag protection amendment. Being the libertarian I am, I don't support amending the Constitution simply to outlaw a bad behavior, which, in and of itself, does very little, if any, actual harm to anyone. Sure, it offends some veterans and uber patriots, but there is no constitutional guarantee against being offended, and I don't think we need to start amending it for that purpose. I can think of things that are a lot worse than flag burning that we need to concern ourselves with, such as figuring out how to get the economy out of the mess it is currently in.

[ronwill]

I looked at the portion about each candidate's position on protecting the flag and while each said they believed the flag needed to be respected, I also noticed that each candidate specifically avoided endorsing a flag protection amendment.

I guess you must have missed the first words of McCains, "I'm for it and I've always supported it." I'm not for changing the Constitution just for the change either. I do believe there are certain things that should be held sacred when it comes to patriotism. The flag is one of them. When I see a foreign flag flown above the U.S. flag it bothers me. When I see someone desecrating the U.S. flag, either by wrongfully burning it or in some other ways, it bothers me. By the way, did you happen to look at the other areas?

[tattedupboy]

I guess you must have missed the first words of McCains, "I'm for it and I've always supported it." I'm not for changing the Constitution just for the change either. I do believe there are certain things that should be held sacred when it comes to patriotism. The flag is one of them. When I see a foreign flag flown above the U.S. flag it bothers me. When I see someone desecrating the U.S. flag, either by wrongfully burning it or in some other ways, it bothers me. By the way, did you happen to look at the other areas?

I pretty much know each candidate's positions on all the other issues, so no, I did not look at the other areas. I looked only at their responses to the flag desecration issue because it was intriguing to me.

By the way, yes, it does bother me that someone could hate their country enough to burn the flag. But, as I said in my previous post, the act of burning a flag, in and of itself, is not harmful to anyone, and should be treated as such. There are a lot worse things in the world than flag burning, but you don't see us amending the Constitution for any of those things, do you? I personally would never burn a flag, and would secretly denounce anyone I saw doing it, but passing a law or a constitutional amendment to ban the act is a bit extreme, in my opinion, and I would oppose it if my state ever convened a constitutional ballot initiative for it. I'm pretty sure that the other Libertarians on this board agree with me.

[ronwill]

I pretty much know each candidate's positions on all the other issues, so no, I did not look at the other areas. I looked only at their responses to the flag desecration issue because it was intriguing to me. I personally would never burn a flag, and would secretly denounce anyone I saw doing it, but passing a law or a constitutional amendment to ban the act is a bit extreme, in my opinion, and I would oppose it if my state ever convened a constitutional ballot initiative for it. I'm pretty sure that the other Libertarians on this board agree with me.

I don't secretly denounce those who desecrate the flag. I do so openly and with great pride. I'm closer to being a libertarian than you think and disagree with the thinking that they would denounce putting an end to it.

[tattedupboy]

Be prepared for what I like to call the law of unintended consequences. Remember Prohibition? If we amend the Constitution to ban flag desecration, we'll be filling jails with people for burning flags, thus taking away valuable manpower that would be put to better use going after real criminals. I personally abhor the act, but if someone wants to burn a flag, as long as their on they're own property and the flag is theirs, let them.

[Canis-Lupus]

I do hold our flag in deep respect, for 20-years I served the symbol it represents, so sue me for being a patriot, it will be the last piece of cloth that ends my time on earth at my interment ceremony.
The Taliban sell opium to any buyers to refine into heroin to feed the veins of a world-wide market, get very rich doing it and buy better weapons to kill more of our troops. Fact. So here's is a 'get-rich-scheme' that is sure to catch on and any entrepreneur could make a wad of $$$'s providing they have the ethics to divert the profit to those who deserve it.
All the junker U.S. flags I have seen in thrift chain stores are made in China anyway right? So place an order for a million U.S. flags with 51-stars and 14-bars on each thru a vendor, @ 10-cents a pop, not a big deal & certainly NOT a true stars & strips that will ever be a true rendition of one. Then think about how many flag burning masses would pay $10 (or the local in whatever coinage) a pop for their very own ersatz flag to burn, it never touches U.S. soil and moves from China to an outlet in name a country where 'Old Glory' is smoking and you made a LOT of cash off folks who coundn't tell a real from a phoney, then take that money, absorb your capital and gift the profit made to the families of those who have lost a loved one probably to the same flag-burning muj is capitalism at it's very finest form and a patriot's pay-back for their ignorance & burning desire to show their hatered at U.S.
With say only a million sold a year (lo-end estimate) that's $10 million in sales for an investment of $10,000 plus S & H say $15K, that still leaves $9,990,000 or about enough for many families to help them thru c/o the same sods who prolly took the life of their lost one or had that person come back disabled.
Then the next time I saw a raging mob burning the flags I sold them I'd be laughing, calling my vendor and ordering another million or so to keep the money rolling back in an ironic and very useful way without dishonoring anyone but fooling millions every day. This is an open idea so if anyone wants to run with the idea the patent is yours my friend.

Canis-Lupus

[Glock Fan]

I do hold our flag in deep respect, for 20-years I served the symbol it represents, so sue me for being a patriot, it will be the last piece of cloth that ends my time on earth at my interment ceremony.
The Taliban sell opium to any buyers to refine into heroin to feed the veins of a world-wide market, get very rich doing it and buy better weapons to kill more of our troops. Fact. So here's is a 'get-rich-scheme' that is sure to catch on and any entrepreneur could make a wad of $$$'s providing they have the ethics to divert the profit to those who deserve it.
All the junker U.S. flags I have seen in thrift chain stores are made in China anyway right? So place an order for a million U.S. flags with 51-stars and 14-bars on each thru a vendor, @ 10-cents a pop, not a big deal & certainly NOT a true stars & strips that will ever be a true rendition of one. Then think about how many flag burning masses would pay $10 (or the local in whatever coinage) a pop for their very own ersatz flag to burn, it never touches U.S. soil and moves from China to an outlet in name a country where 'Old Glory' is smoking and you made a LOT of cash off folks who coundn't tell a real from a phoney, then take that money, absorb your capital and gift the profit made to the families of those who have lost a loved one probably to the same flag-burning muj is capitalism at it's very finest form and a patriot's pay-back for their ignorance & burning desire to show their hatered at U.S.
With say only a million sold a year (lo-end estimate) that's $10 million in sales for an investment of $10,000 plus S & H say $15K, that still leaves $9,990,000 or about enough for many families to help them thru c/o the same sods who prolly took the life of their lost one or had that person come back disabled.
Then the next time I saw a raging mob burning the flags I sold them I'd be laughing, calling my vendor and ordering another million or so to keep the money rolling back in an ironic and very useful way without dishonoring anyone but fooling millions every day. This is an open idea so if anyone wants to run with the idea the patent is yours my friend.

Canis-Lupus

I've got some contacts overseas. I'll make a few phone calls and see how we can make this happen.


gf

[tattedupboy]

I've got some contacts overseas. I'll make a few phone calls and see how we can make this happen.


gf

Who cares if the flags they burn are real or fake? As long as they're burning flags, they're not taking away our guns.