WTF America?!?

What the shit is wrong with this country?!? I don't even know what to say about things like this. Apparently some Birkenstock wearing hippy fuck decided he was going to burn an American flag in an effort to protest the lack of due process for terrorists (are you fucking kidding me?) and another LSU student who has been accused of vandalizing the school's War Memorial (to the tune of $7.5k) and partially burning the flag that flew above the aforementioned war memorial.

Thankfully we do have some sane people still residing within this country's borders and upwards of a couple thousand students came out to protest this d-bag's flag burning "ceremony".

https://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/11/lsu-student-surrounded-thousands-…

What are your thoughts? Obviously I think it's disgraceful that someone would even feel they have the right to do this. Some claim this is just free speech and that it is Constitutionally protected by the First Amendment. If such is the case, should burning the American flag be recognized as something not included in your right to free speech? Is this the equivalent of pissing of the Constitution and then demanding the rights which are afforded to you by that very piece of parchment?

I recognize that restricting "free speech" is a very, very slippery slope and I think people should generally have the right to say what they wish, I just don't know if destroying the symbolic emblem of the nation you live in should be included in that definition.

Additionally, it appears that the only reason the flag wasn't burned, besides the thousands of people who would have rioted, was because the protester didn't have a burn permit from the local government. Should this be something schools should be allowing on campus or do they have the right to restrict such demonstrations?

Regards

44 Comments
 

This is what happens when people think that their "civil liberties" take precedence over patriotism to their country. Goodbye America...

"Cut the burger into thirds, place it on the fries, roll one up homey..." - Epic Meal Time
 

First Amendment protects his right to burn the flag. First Amendment protects our right to call him a dirtbag piece of shit.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 
D MFirst Amendment protects his right to burn the flag. First Amendment protects our right to call him a dirtbag piece of shit.
Yep. Same as the wacky pastor protesting military funerals. [Personally, I don't know why anyone hasn't shot him yet, but I digress.]

As for desecrating the veterans memorial, that's a different story. AT MINIMUM, it's vandalism. More to the point, it is totally unacceptable to disrespect the soldiers like this: there is no ethical justification for this behavior. Our troops serve an honorable cause, and should be given their due respect. Burning the flag in this case is also vandalism, as it is not HIS flag to burn, and I hope the judge throws the book at him in this case. LSU will probably terminate this student's enrollment and he deserves it. The law will also be unkind, as this is not a liberal area. He doubly deserves it in this case 1: for being a douche and 2: for being stupid enough to act like this in a very conseverative area.

Get busy living
 

Why would LSU to let this go on? I am a full believer in free speech and accept the fact that someone may have a different view as you, but you can take it to far. If you are pretty much going around saying down to America and the constitution then yes you have crossed the line and should no longer be protected by its liberties.

But I have to say this is nothing new. Riots and strikes against the government happened constantly throughout the 1800s and are we forgetting about the anti government and Vietnam rallies in the 70s. (Also mostly done by hippies)

 

Does anyone else find it ironic that the reason he refrained from burning the flag was because he didn't have a burn permit from the government and didn't want to get into trouble?

- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 
CaptKDoes anyone else find it ironic that the reason he refrained from burning the flag was because he didn't have a burn permit from the government and didn't want to get into trouble?

I would honestly say that he is very lucky. I can't condone any violence against the guy, but I would also find it very difficult to think too poorly of someone that did. I know the cops were there, but had that guy decided to burn the flag, there would have been a full scale riot...and the police were sorely outnumbered.

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 

Isn't one of the provisions of the first amendment that you can't demonstrate/speak in a manner that might incite a riot? Burning a flag in the middle of a fairly conservative state college certainly qualifies in my book.

Here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, you are the sucker.
 

They were actually two different people, but the other guy who burned the flag at the memorial should be hit with everything in the book (and, it being Louisiana, he probably will).

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Dude this could have ended badly and I'm surprised it didn't. I'm am also surprised he didn't end up at the end of a rope hanging from a tree.

 
txjustinI'm am also surprised he didn't end up at the end of a rope hanging from a tree.

The week isn't even out yet, give it time.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

LOL, he is nuts doing this at LSU!

"One should recognize reality even when one doesn't like it, indeed, especially when one doesn't like it." - Charlie Munger
 
cplpayneLOL, he is nuts doing this at LSU!
Seriously. There are a lot of places with a high tolerance for crazy, LSU aint the place. I wonder if he's just stupid?
Get busy living
 

The comments expressed here are just exactly the kind I expected.

" A recession is when other people lose their job, a depression is when you lose your job. "
 

Please post another source besides Fox News. I don't even know if this story is true.

If it is true (and believe it not Fox News does report facts sometimes), let him burn it. If the pastor can burn the curan/koran/quran let him burn the flag. Let the crowds f him up and maybe no one at LSU will do this again.

 
Best Response

Honestly, what I find worst about that video is that 90% of the crowd is holding up their phones to get videos instead of assaulting that fucker.

That said, I fully support his right to burn the flag. When Jefferson said "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants," he wasn't speaking about the revolutionary war; he was discussing Shay's rebellion, an anti-tax revolt against the US government.

I completely disagree with whatever opinions he holds, but I recognise that it is good that the government doesn't stop him from expressing them. "When you make peaceful revolution impossible, you make violent revolution inevitable."

That said, I don't think he genuinely holds any political beliefs; he's just a stupid hippie. If he wasn't, he would have burned the flag; Thoreau would probably have a thing or two to say about his not doing so. If you have a belief, at least have some damn integrity in it; look at Ali, for example.

I also think LSU needs to reflect on the fact that 95% of the guys in that crowd would gladly beat someone up in a bar for insulting the Tigers, but won't do so in public for insulting America.

 
drexelalum11Honestly, what I find worst about that video is that 90% of the crowd is holding up their phones to get videos instead of assaulting that fucker.

That said, I fully support his right to burn the flag. When Jefferson said "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants," he wasn't speaking about the revolutionary war; he was discussing Shay's rebellion, an anti-tax revolt against the US government.

I completely disagree with whatever opinions he holds, but I recognise that it is good that the government doesn't stop him from expressing them. "When you make peaceful revolution impossible, you make violent revolution inevitable."

That said, I don't think he genuinely holds any political beliefs; he's just a stupid hippie. If he wasn't, he would have burned the flag; Thoreau would probably have a thing or two to say about his not doing so. If you have a belief, at least have some damn integrity in it; look at Ali, for example.

I also think LSU needs to reflect on the fact that 95% of the guys in that crowd would gladly beat someone up in a bar for insulting the Tigers, but won't do so in public for insulting America.

More or less agree - I always question the stupidity of people who film a tragedy/travesty but do not intervene.

Given the existence of mass media, it's more effective to expose people like this for the ass that they are: this is an innovation that did not exist in colonial times and open coverage can only help the cause of freedom. Something like the Kent state shootings garners sympathy for stupid people. Perhaps the coverage did more good than an ass whooping?

Public humiliation is very effective reworking of an old Russian saying: "Tyranny of the mind is the best way to control people."

Get busy living
 

What does it matter worrying about what some guy is doing in Louisiana. We will never see this guy nor be affected by anything he is doing. Too many people are concerned about nonsense like this that they see in the news they turn a blind eye to what's actually going on

Patriotism is having the judgement to oppose and speak out against your government when you know it's doing something wrong, but also supporting and advocating out country when it does something right. Sadly, we spend all of our time supporting it when we know what it's doing is wrong

 
Mr. CheeseWhat does it matter worrying about what some guy is doing in Louisiana. We will never see this guy nor be affected by anything he is doing. Too many people are concerned about nonsense like this that they see in the news they turn a blind eye to what's actually going on

Patriotism is having the judgement to oppose and speak out against your government when you know it's doing something wrong, but also supporting and advocating out country when it does something right. Sadly, we spend all of our time supporting it when we know what it's doing is wrong

I don't spend a lot of time supporting my government if I think what it is doing is wrong. I spend an awful lot of time supporting my country regardless of what it does.

 
drexelalum11
Mr. CheeseWhat does it matter worrying about what some guy is doing in Louisiana. We will never see this guy nor be affected by anything he is doing. Too many people are concerned about nonsense like this that they see in the news they turn a blind eye to what's actually going on

Patriotism is having the judgement to oppose and speak out against your government when you know it's doing something wrong, but also supporting and advocating out country when it does something right. Sadly, we spend all of our time supporting it when we know what it's doing is wrong

I don't spend a lot of time supporting my government if I think what it is doing is wrong. I spend an awful lot of time supporting my country regardless of what it does.

So you blindly support your country? Nationalism/ ultra-patriotism are BAD things. They inevitably lead to fascism, territorial aggression, and domestic discrimination/persecution.

I support America when I think it's in the right and denounce it when I think it's in the wrong, just like I would any country. I always laugh when people say "America #1"!!!! #1 in what? Not the wealthiest in per capita terms, not the healthiest, not the happiest. I always find that the more traveled and cultured someone is, the less patriotic/nationalistic they tend to be. There are some things I really like about America and some things I really dislike. I could say the same of many countries and while I would currently rather live in the US than anywhere else, that doesn't mean it's perfect or the best country.

 
Mr. CheeseWhat does it matter worrying about what some guy is doing in Louisiana. We will never see this guy nor be affected by anything he is doing. Too many people are concerned about nonsense like this that they see in the news they turn a blind eye to what's actually going on

Patriotism is having the judgement to oppose and speak out against your government when you know it's doing something wrong, but also supporting and advocating out country when it does something right. Sadly, we spend all of our time supporting it when we know what it's doing is wrong

Dude, where's your profile picture form? It rings a bell but I can't put my finger on it.

 

"The stinky cheese man and other fairly stupid tales"

Damn cheese has been fighten the government since '87

 

Is this guys till alive?

The answer to your question is 1) network 2) get involved 3) beef up your resume 4) repeat -happypantsmcgee WSO is not your personal search function.
 

I miss seeing this. Not the clueless hippie - I see plenty of that, but a crowd forming, staring, and chanting this fucker down. I'd be shocked if he makes it through the week unscathed.

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art - Andy Warhol
 

I can only imagine how much better this would have been if there hadn't been so many people around. All it would have taken is one spread toothed gator fisherman from the Bayou spittin some beachnut in this dudes eye and it would have been over.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
happypantsmcgeeI can only imagine how much better this would have been if there hadn't been so many people around. All it would have taken is one spread toothed gator fisherman from the Bayou spittin some beachnut in this dudes eye and it would have been over.

nice play on the hank williams song.

 
prop86
happypantsmcgeeI can only imagine how much better this would have been if there hadn't been so many people around. All it would have taken is one spread toothed gator fisherman from the Bayou spittin some beachnut in this dudes eye and it would have been over.

nice play on the hank williams song.

I like your taste in music my friend.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
prop86
happypantsmcgeeI can only imagine how much better this would have been if there hadn't been so many people around. All it would have taken is one spread toothed gator fisherman from the Bayou spittin some beachnut in this dudes eye and it would have been over.

nice play on the hank williams song.

Hank Jr. to be precise

 

Anyone notice that the hippie girl is a fugly?

In case you all were wondering, flag burning is legal. However there are strict guidelines by which is to be done. Also one is not permitted to burn a flag that has not reached the end of its useful life. I am not sure if these are stated laws or if they are merely guidelines that are to be followed in the respectful burning of the US flag.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 
ArgonautWhat hippie girl? Both the alleged and the would be flag burners are dudes.

The fat girl that was standing next to the dude the through out the whole video that was escorted away with him.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

The fun part is that these dumb kids' faces are all over the internet and everyone who knows them knows they are douches. Like Willie Nelson said, "Boy, the first amendment protects you're right say what you want, but it won't stop me from kicking your ass." Stupid people: I'd put this on par with being a resident in Newark, NJ and getting caught on film burning a cross.....

Get busy living
 

How do we even know that the first guy burned the flag? There's no solid evidence of it and there's no evidence whatsoever as to him being a terrorist (as opposed to a dumbass on a bad mushroom trip, if he indeed burned the flag) The media doesn't spend a tenth of the resources for a hunt for killers and child molesters they spent on the circus that ensued in a search of an alleged vandal. The cops supposedly saw him at the scene, but failed to apprehend - wtf, how do you fail to apprehend an unarmed pothead ?

I'm all for terrorists experiencing the full wrath, but branding an alleged criminal a terrorist - that's really smells of big brother. The whole event does. It's like media concocted a smoke and mirrors distraction to draw attention from some other issue. Wonder what that could be...

More is good, all is better
 

What's most disturbing is this guy (and others like him) are given a platform to deliver their insane rhetoric in the first place. Those were expensive production cameras he was prepared to speak to, before the water balloons. Water balloons...awesome.

This ideology sweeping through universities and state schools as a new generation of hippies, misguided and lazy relative to their predecessors, is just scary. They are lemmings, as much as they would like to accuse others of being. Starved for attention, looking for anything to get behind as long as it goes against the machine. If they had it their way, we'd all live a life of depravity and debauchery.

War criminals during times of war are not entitled to due process. Due process is a luxury provided to citizens living in a free society, in a free country, with rights and freedoms, like this douche Joaquin Phoenix-look-a-like is privileged enough to be protected by and to exploit.

Irony has no bounds.

 

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"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 

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"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee

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