I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice this travesty

Man sentenced to 16 years for burning an LGBT rainbow flag.

I went to the original newspaper reports of this incident to see if there was more to the story, such as setting the flag afire while it was attached to the building, armed use of force, something. But no — grabbed the flag and burned it on a sidewalk, period.

There is no penalty for burning an American flag. Somewhere between no penalty, a misdemeanor fine, and sixteen years in the penitentiary, some sort of appropriate punishment might be found.

UPDATE: The flag burning took place in Iowa, but in another corn belt state beginning with I, Indiana, a woman who failed to stop for a school bus and killed twin boys, 6, and their sister, 9, and critically injured a 12-year-old who has undergone 21 operations in the past two years was just sentenced to four years in prison. “There was no evidence that any of the victims were gay”, Indianapolis prosecutors told FWIW, ‘or boy, would we ever have been mad!”