Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is beginning to feel better after his viral bout of the past few days. But there are other headaches troubling him now. This has not been a good fortnight. (But Sadie at Fist Full of Fortnights is always delightful…) Anyho…

Now your Maximum Leader (except for that whole Mike World Order thingie) is just as patriotic as the next American. And perhaps he is more patriotic than some Americans. But one issue on which many patirotic Americans differ with your Maximum Leader is the issue of an Amendment to the United States Constitution to outlaw burning of the American flag. Every time the issue comes up in the House of Representatives your Maximum Leader cringes. Why? Why? Why? Must we continually revisit this tired, useless proposal year after year. And why, when we have many more serious issues facing our Republic, must our elected representatives continue to waste time passing said Amendments?

Think of the time. Committee Hearings. Three Readings on the Floor of the House. Floor debate. Printing and Reprinting of the Amendment in the Congressional Record. 435 House members salaries. Their Staff’s salaries. Congressional Support Staff Salaries. All used to push through an Amendment that will likely fail in the Senate. And if not there, surely fail to be ratified by the requisite number of States.

And you know… Let your Maximum Leader pull out that old canard argument about disposing of old, threadworn flags. You are supposed to burn them (with respect) to dispose of them. How does an Amendment address that? Are we going to have a special landfill for old US Flags.

Your Maximum Leader loves our flag. (Although he would make some stylistic changes if he could.) He respects the flag and the ideals it stands for. He would never burn or desecrate it to make a public protest (or private protest) statement. But don’t we have better things to do?

Your Maximum Leader would prefer that Congress do nothing (indeed, that is his avowed position on most policy) than pass bad laws or Amendments.

Carry on.