Flag-burning, American style

I'm home today with some nasty intestinal malaise that has me racing down the hall every few minutes. I enjoyed reading this little tidbit, however. It's a refreshing change of pace. While it would seem run-of-the-mill to hear of a flag-burning demonstration on a college campus, you don't often hear of it quite like this, at the University of Texas - Arlington:

UTA students' fiery protest stirs criticism

ARLINGTON -- Three University of Texas at Arlington freshmen sparked a small flare-up when they burned what looked like facsimiles of the North Korean and Iranian flags on campus Monday, the fifth anniversary of 9-11.

The flag images, which appeared to be printed on paper, and photos of the nations' leaders, were doused with charcoal starter and burned in a galvanized metal washtub on the sidewalk outside Arlington Hall as an estimated 50 to 100 students, administrators and campus police watched shortly after noon.

"This is the rally against the enemies of the United States," said Lance Kennedy, 19, of Coppell, who stood on a chair on the sidewalk between the student union and the nearby dorm to speak as the flames burned. "In no way are we demonstrating against the people of their two nations.

"Because of these two nations the world is a much more dangerous place," Kennedy said. "In 1939, would you have opposed me burning the flags of Nazi Germany and Japan?"

Yeah, Lance. They probably would. The appeasement crowd, full of lily-livered fraidy-cats who can't seem to bring themselves to take sides, are alive and kicking and channeling Neville Chamberlain.