Guts and Old Glory

Insurgents once again demonstrate an entirely new meaning for the term "last throes:"

A series of car bombs exploded after dusk Wednesday in Baghdad, killing at least 23 people and wounding about 56, police said. Separate attacks earlier in the day killed seven others.

Meanwhile, three U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday by small-arms fire during combat operations west of Baghdad near the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, the military said. At least 1,727 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Gunmen also killed a former judge whose name once was on a list of Sunni Arabs joining a parliamentary committee to draft Iraq's new constitution, officials said. Separately, a Filipino hostage was released after almost eight months in captivity.

While this was happening, the US House of Representatives took up what they must think is obviously a more pressing issue than the war:

Voting once again today on an issue blending emotion, patriotism and politics, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly endorsed a constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to outlaw debasing the American flag.

The House has repeatedly passed the measure in earlier sessions, so today's 286-to-130 vote, well over the required two-thirds margin, was not surprising. The focus now will be on the Senate, where the measure has never passed. But lawmakers and lobbyists on both sides say the conservative tilt of that chamber gives the measure its best chance of Congressional approval since the Supreme Court ruled 16 years ago that flag burning was a form of protected speech.

Boy, that's a real gutsy stand. Next thing you know, they'll pass a resolution unequivocally in support of freedom. And maybe another one strongly affirming that the sun rises in the east.

Or, the Senate might unanimously apologize for failing to pass legislation outlawing lynching...or maybe not.