The legislature of the state of Florida, in its infinite wisdom, has decreed that all classrooms in all public schools and publicly supported colleges and universities within the state shall have a US flag on display. Furthermore, said flag shall be no smaller or larger than exactly two-feet by three-feet. (Related news article here.)

Now, I have no problem with US flags being displayed in classrooms. There was one in every classroom I was in for twelve years. I pledged allegiance to it every morning and still grew up to be a pinko hippie radical. The problem is the two-foot by three-foot size thing. Most classrooms currently have flags of about half that size. That means everyone's gotta buy new flags or face a penalty. And, in its never-ending quest to have Florida proclaimed the home of the unfunded mandate, the legislature provided absolutely no funding for purchasing these new flags. "We can say you've gotta do it, but we don't have to give you the money to do it with!" It's up to the individual schools or school districts to find the money. Of course, no school system has a dime to spare so the school principals will probably go begging to the PTA.

But here's my real beef: Who says a larger flag is more patriotic than a small one? Don't they all have the same number of stars and stripes? Don't they symbolize the same thing regardless of size? Don't my elected representatives have anything better to do with their time?