Well, as Lenny Bruce once said, "If you can't say 'fuck', then you can't say 'fuck the government'".

Or as Utah Philips said:

"I learned in Korea that I would never again, in my life, abdicate to somebody else, my right and my ability to decide who the enemy is."

Flag burning is a superficial issue, people waste time bickering over what that symbol actually means to everyone. Meanwhile, the government has just set a precedent -- a precedent established on 500 years of western law -- that the Writ of Habeas Corpus no longer applies to certain categories of people.

Habeas Corpus -- "show the body" -- means that the accused has the fundamental right to respond to the charges AND evidence against them. Seems pretty basic, right? If someone says "you murdered my child" and you didn't, you'd better be able to see the evidence and show it is wrong.

Not if Congress finishs passing this new bill. And not if you are a second-class citizen of some sort. You will be able to be incarcerated w/o charge, and potentially without being brought into a court. And you will be able to be charged with evidence that you cannot see and argue.

Oh well. Looks like the bricks of the post-modern police state are being put in place.

"First they came for the arabs, because they were probably 'enemy combatants', and that seemed reasonable to me. Then they came for the mexicans, because they were 'illegals', but again I did nothing because I was not a mexican. Then they came for the blacks, but I was not black and did not stand up. Then they came for the hippies, but not being a hippie, I did nothing. Then they came for the 'activists', but stood for nothing, so they did not take me. Then they came for me, but there was no one left to stand up anymore."