[nmh]

"Burning a flag is speech, it's stupid speech, but it's speech."

Burning a flag is NOT speech. It is an ACT.

[Piedra79]

You mentioned god in an earlier post....isn't practicing idolatry breaking one of the commandments?

[discostu]

Acts can be speech. Sit-ins, marches, hunger strikes, these are all acts that are also speech.

[Graymatter]

>>Burning a flag is NOT speech. It is an ACT.

Fine, and a flag is somebody's property, not a national landmark or a controlled substance you need a license to purchase.
If a jerk wants to burn his own flag, he has a right. If he does it next door to me, my husband and his buddies will merrily beat the crap out of him.
If you make it illegal and have to call the cops, you give the fool MORE rights to abuse, like the right not to get his ass kicked for burning the flag.