BurntFlag.com

Soon, I’ll be resetting the stats so we can have a fresh start on flag burning. I should have done it on our 1 year anniversary…but I missed it.

By the way, we’re a year and a month old!

At last! A non-scientific data analysis!

As you can see, the United States is far and away the most burned flag, holding 28% of the top 10 burns…yet just 9% of all burns. What is interesting is that the Hezbollah flag was only put on the site on July 19, but has already accumulated 1360 burns. If prorated out to the length of time that the rest of these countries have been on the site, the Hezbollah flag would have been burned an astonishing 7175 times! Israel, to compare and contrast, fell into 13th place having only 310 burns.

The least burned flag on the site was of the Falkland Islands having only 4 burns during this time period. I suppose they’re too small for anyone to hold a grudge against them?

Targeting civilians under the pretext of fighting terrorism is unacceptable and unjustified. Israeli practices violate international law. - Aboul Gheit, Egyptian Foreign Minister

I happen to agree.

We call on the powers in the region to seek to bring about a de-escalation of the situation. We cannot confuse cause and effect. The starting point is the capture of the Israeli soldiers.

It is important that the government in Lebanon, which is on a peaceful path, should be strengthened, but it must be made clear that the capture [of the soldiers] cannot be tolerated. The attacks did not start from the Israeli side, but from Hezbollah’s side. - Angela Merkel, German Chancellor

Also very true, although I’m sure from an Israeli or Palestinian standpoint, the attacks started long ago, but that is just a small nitpick.

So, neither side can claim innocence, and neither side wishes to give an inch, what must happen to cause the fighting to stop?

Talking doesn’t work; they immediately start in on the hostilities after they finish with the talks. Death doesn’t work; it just causes more death.

World War III will be held in the Middle East, and it isn’t going to be pretty.

In celebration of such a wonderful revelation, I present to you the first ever dual-flag burning to be held on BurntFlag.com:

So I was doing a bit more thinking on the remains of the Flag Desecration Amendment, and came to another realization or two.

First, it should be named Anti-Flag Desecration Amendment since they are trying to make flag desecration illegal, not legal.

Second, the dictionary definition of desecration:

desecrate

v 1: violate the sacred character of a place or language; “desecrate a cemetary”; “violate the sanctity of the church”; “profane the name of God”

This implies that the creators of the term “flag desecration” believe the flag to be sacred. Inaccurate and misleading, to say the least. I respect what the American flag stands for, but I don’t worship it.

Originally, this site’s message wasn’t about politics. I created it to have a bit of fun in response to childish ravings in the Islamic world about the Danish Muhammad cartoons. Obviously, it caught someone’s eye and was quickly defaced.

More recently, however, my thoughts seem to have turned toward the negative political actions of governments around the world, and thus the postings on the homepage took a turn from poking fun at the French to random musings about government oppression and corruption.

So, I’m in a bit of a quandry. Do I want to continue on with humor, or do I want to be a politically-charged website with a twist? Any thoughts?

I have purposely put off commenting on this issue before this day–in an extremely close vote, the Senate barred the flag desecration amendment.

Unfortunately, while a minor victory, this is still a melancholy day for me. The majority of the Senate still voted in favor of the amendment which implies that the majority of the Senate is all too willing to throw your basic rights granted by the Constitution to the wind. Therefore, in a move that pains me, I place the US flag here for the world to burn–not as an in-your-face-we-win move, but as a plea to those who might listen and realize that there is much more at stake here than red, white and blue fabric rectangles.

Read more here.

Tongans burn flag in Auckland
… New Zealand. Tongans burn flag in Auckland. 20 Aug 2005, 16:05 … Tongans burned their national flag and smashed a lock to the gates of their King’s Auckland residence on …

Soccer fans attempt to burn American flag - White Sox Interactive Forums
Soccer fans attempt to burn American flag WSI Roadhouse … Greek soccer club AEK Athens tried to burn the American flag before the team’s match against Scotland club … silence and tried to burn the American flag. “What badly disappointed …

(DV) Whitney: Show Your Independence on the 4th — Burn a Flag
… Show Your Independence on the 4th — Burn a Flag. by Mike Whitney … isn’t whether someone has the right to burn the flag but, rather, who really cares if they do …

People For the American Way - Hiding Behind the Flag
flag, patriotic, first amendment, free speech, freedom, civil liberties, flag burning, protest, civil disobedience, flag burn, american flag, anti-war … idea that using the United States flag as a means of political protest is … vote against the “Flag Amendment.” Tell them that they can call flag burning whatever they like …

The (Semiotic) Stench of a Burning Flag (Amendment)
The proponents of a flag-burning amendment claim that burning a flag is not … The burning flag itself is a semiotic sign in which the earlier levels of …

Senate vote looms on amendment banning flag burning - March 28, 2000
The White House remains opposed to the flag burning amendment, and in a statement, … “I don’t think the flag burning amendment will be a real issue in the …

Our Flag
Burn that flag… just ask permission… Written by Tom Adkins (7/1/98). What do we do about people who want to burn the American flag? …

In my browsing tonight, I stumbled across another flag-burning website. This one is solely directed at the American flag, but provides a bit more insight into the actual whys of burning a flag.