Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) recently wrote about the proposed flag burning amendment. It's worth repeating in part:

I was delighted to learn that American politicians are trying to make it illegal to burn the American flag. That can only mean that my dedicated public servants have finally solved the problems of crime, drugs, war, poverty, terrorism, healthcare, immigration, and the mystery of why our children are such idiots compared to Norwegians. Evidently those issues are now under control. I was starting to worry that Congress was wasting my tax dollars doing stupid shit. I heard Senator Frist compare the flag to a national monument. His point was that you wouldn't want people to deface our one-of-a-kind historical treasures. Therefore we shouldn't let people burn an American flag that is one of millions churned out every year by Chinese manufacturers. I think that was his best argument.

Look, I'm not a fan of flag burning, or most of the people who might engage in it. But banning any form of protest which doesn't cause financial or physical harm to the guy who sat next to you on the bus this morning smells a little Eau du Kim Jong Il to me. With a couple of seconds of research, I found that the other countries which have banned flag burning include Cuba, China, and Iran. Well hell, why didn't you say so? That's a club we want to be members of, alright. (Interestingly, it is illegal to burn the flags of foreign nations in Denmark, but perfectly legal to burn the Danish flag there.) The last time I checked, the flag is a symbol of what we stand for as a nation. Which, I'm told, has something to do with freedom and liberty and apple-filled pastries. It would seem pretty ironic to bind up that symbol of freedom in a restriction of our liberty. Hey, I joined the Army and served five years of quasi-discomfort in an air conditioned room in middle Georgia so that you could burn whatever piece of cloth you wanted in protest of the latest White House fashion faux pas that caught your fancy. Which makes me wonder - what do they do with all those little flags they set out in cemeteries every year? If they throw them away, wouldn't that be desecration? Or what about those little flags on top of the toothpicks used to hold my hamburger bun down at Shoney's Big Boy restaurants - if I dropped it in the pickle juice, would I be subject to arrest? Please, dear Congress, go back to trying to figure out a way to reduce the deficit, or salvage social security or something useful and quit trying to put a crimp in liberty, 'kay?

The EU has launched a new initiative to try and re-brand itself as the cooler, hipper collection of nation-states on the block. A new slogan for Europe

Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, will this week launch a "new slogan for Europe" competition aimed at re-invigorating the stalled European integration project. Francis Gutmann, who heads the European parliament's public events department said: "A logo and slogan competition for young European designers will be launched on July 6. We will reach everyone via a website and there will be a cash prize for the winner."

The winning entry will be rolled out during the EU's golden jubilee celebrations next year, together with a new logo to replace the blue EU flag with its ring of gold stars (it represented "perfection, completeness and unity"). On March 25 next year, the Treaty of Rome, on which the EU is founded, will be 50 years old. European leaders will be using the occasion to rebrand their supranational model of government.

Because this is Europe, and God forbid any decision be made which quickly or at risk of offending anyone, you know that the winning suggestion will be decided on by a committee consisting of representatives of every country, including at least one Parisian who insists that the logo be translated into French and include a subsidy for French farmers. However, I've been thinking of a few suggestions:

The EU: Less unified than you might think. More unified than you might wish

Europe: We've got more castles than Disney World

Now with extra VAT!

Europe: We make the best cheese

Bureaucratic by design. Ineffective by happy accident.

Europe: We won't let Dick Cheney hunt here And my current favorite:

The EU: We hate France too

My (also American) neighbor really knows how to make the English comfortable. They just call it "Happy To-Be-Rid-Of-You-Lot Day"