Quote Originally Posted by TitoFan View Post
Both your points are well taken. However, let's construct an entirely hypothetical situation:

A man murders the whole family of someone away at work, and is convicted. He serves his prison term, maybe getting out a little early through good conduct or other such B.S. He then decides to move next door to the murdered family's father, and for the hell of it has a flag made with the pictures of each of the victims, each with a big red "X" through their faces. He then decides to fly this flag in his own front yard, in plain view of his neighbor and the other neighbors.

How do we quantify that offense? Other than the victim's father/husband, his friends and family, who else will find it offensive enough to warrant authorities to demand the murderer take it down? What about the murderer's right to Free Speech and expression? How is this any different to someone flying the Nazi flag when there's millions of Jews who were touched either personally or very closely by this tragic holocaust?

Why is it necessary that decisions have a numeric criteria attached to them? As much as we've progressed in the field of computers and artificial intelligence... we still cannot completely program the complexities of human emotions, nor can we expect to have a perfect playbook for every decision that must be made.

People will always try to push the envelope. If you've ever been a parent, you know how children will constantly push that envelope to test just how far they can get away with stuff. Then they'll do it again... just to make sure the response (and limits) are repeatable.

As ludicrous as my example of the murderer may sound, what is so different between that and the Nazi flag? I've already asked (and not received a good answer) what possible useful purpose flying a Nazi flag has. None. Miles, of course, goes off on his tangents trying to comically equate that flag with the country flag of Japan. Thus, no real argument there. But back to my question.... what useful purpose does flying this flag have? We can't just run and hide behind the 1st Amendment every time a controversial issue pops up. Someone's got to exhibit a good set of "cojones" and say... you know what... screw what the Amendment says. You're not interpreting it the right way and therefore you cannot do that. Period.
Well see your example can be classified as "harassment" and of course could be remedied with say a restraining order and the father would have just cause to fear for his own life seeing how that hypothetical person killed his family members.



Comically equate with the flag of Japan Dude, Japan wasted 22,000,000 Chinese in the Second Sino-Japanese War which included 17,000,000 civilians. And that was JUST China. I don't mind Japanese folks waving that flag if they want to...now Chinese people probably don't much care for it, but it's the same flag that ships flew during the attack on Pearl Harbor....still not offended by the flag, the actions yes, the flag no.


I don't much care for illegal immigrants showing up to immigration rallies waving Mexican flags....because it's stupid AND it's counterproductive. They're free to do it, but they're stupid for doing it. If they want to be Americans wave the American flag....it'll endear more people to your cause....and if they don't want to be American then they are free to leave or remain here lawfully until their Visa expires and go back to where they want to be.

I REALLY despise lefties waving Communist flags all the time, but hey, they can do what they want because banning those flags would be exactly what a Communist would do to anyone waving an American flag...the liberty offered by this nation should be stronger than anything attempting to attack it. I'm free to be offended, I'm free to NOT be offended, I have the personal choice, I can turn my back, I can avert my gaze, I can embrace something, or I can fight back with my own views....It is my liberty to do so.