This proposed amendment was idiotic when Republicans first came up with it twenty years ago, and it's idiotic now. Pure PR, pure pandering to the know-nothing vote.

Some headline-hungry protester burns a flag (and when was the last time you herad of that happening?), some patriots fly into a rage when they see it on TV - and to protect their tender feelings we need a Constitutional amendment, one right up there with the Bill of Rights and the abolition of slavery. (Oh, and no gay marriages.)

Since there's so much concern about how "our enemies" gloat over public debate on policy in Iraq, I can see Al-Jazeera reporting that flag-burning and violent oppposition are now so rife in the US that Congress has had to stop it by amending the Constitution and "revoking free speech." There's a message to send to infant democracies!

If we need an amendment right now, we need one to counter yesterday's Supreme Court's extension of eminent domain to private, for-profit entrepeneurs.