[Wizwad]

At the risk of stirring things up again (though that is truly not my intention), it seems to me that the burning of a flag is just another valid form of political expression, a statement that one is in strong disagreement with the current government or administration. Granted, there is the aspect of vandalism for destroying a piece of cloth, but it is only a symbol of an artificial political construct, for better or worse, and one which is likely to change again anyway in the very short term.

What scares me far more is the occasional practice of book burning, with the accompanying implication that ignorance is better than knowledge, that superstition is better than wisdom, and that one belief system has the right to anihilate another belief system. That way lies fanaticism, and that's when the trouble *really* starts.