LttE - Jefferson and free speech

Submitted to the Orange County Register on 6/22/2006:

Given that Thomas Jefferson said, "were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter," I think we know for certain where he would stand on a flag-burning amendment, letter-writer Jerry Hoosier’s incredulity notwithstanding. He’d probably just ask the "beer-swilling ignorant person" which of Ben Franklin’s brews he wanted to sample next!

Consider also that the federal government has taken us from a Constitution that details a grand total of three federal crimes (treason in wartime, counterfeiting, and piracy) to a federal criminal code that lists over 4000 federal crimes. Do we really need to add the nebulously-defined thoughtcrime of "being anti-USA" to that monstrosity?