There was a federal law banning the desecration of the flag from 1968 to 1989. 18 USC 700 stated: "Whoever knowingly casts contempt upon any flag of the United States by publicly mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning, or trampling upon it shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both."

It was later amended to include: "The term 'flag of the United States' as used in this section, shall include any flag, standard colors, ensign, or any picture or representation of either, or of any part or parts of either, made of any substance or represented on any substance, of any size evidently purporting to be either of said flag, standard, color, or ensign of the United States of America, or a picture or a representation of either, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and the stripes, in any number of either thereof, or of any part or parts of either, by which the average person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag, standards, colors, or ensign of the United States of America."

So basically, burning a photo of the US flag was deemed to be the same as burning an actual flag and carried the same punishment. Luckily, the Supreme Court struck down the law in the case of Texas v. Johnson.

I'd be interested to read the exact text of the Amendment as passed by the House. It wouldn't suprise me if it made, say, American flag boxer shorts or cutting a flag-themed cake illegal, as the old law did.

If this isn't completely ridiculous, I don't know what is.

And as an aside, why is it that the people whose religion bans idolatry are the ones so up in arms over the symbol of the US? I realize that there isn't a direct connection between the First Commandment and burning the flag, but I do see it as being an ironic parallel.

The flag is just a flag. It's not the nation. Stop worshipping it.