Those fuckers from Westboro Baptist plan on protesting funeral for 7 kids

[LynneSin]

Man this really ticks me off because it hits close to home. I'm originally from Perry County although I am from the other side of the county (right over the border from Dauphin & Cumberland). This story is tragic, the Clouse family was your basic rural family, the mother was out milking the cows when the fire struck. Of their 8 kids only one survived (the one that ran out to mom to tell her about the fire). Now I find out Westboro is protesting this? Why are these assholes protesting this funeral other than the fact that it was so tragic. Hell in that part of Perry County you are more likely to find supporters of Westboro/anti-gay folks. But I highly doubt this protest will endear the folks of rural Perry County to Westboro and the Phelps family.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/03/westboro_baptist_church_plans_1.html

Westboro Baptist Church plan to picket fire victims' funeral met with shield efforts
The family wants everyone — family, friends and complete strangers — touched by the tragedy in this small farming community to have one, grandfather Noah Sauder said.
Funeral is Tuesday. But not all who show up will be welcomed.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church have threatened to picket the service, and that has incited a huge backlash from people who want to shield the hateful protests from the grieving family.
“We just think it’s wrong. It’s just absolutely wrong,” said Kendra Shaffer, who plans to drive to the service in Perry County from her home in Newville and form a human chain to block Westboro’s signature signs and parody songs.

<<<snip>>>>

Even Sen. Bob Casey Jr. encouraged push-back.

“If this protest goes forward, I hope that the people of Perry County and the midstate will come out to support the family,” Casey said.

BTW where is Toomey - why isn't HE speaking out against this?

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. It boggles my mind how those inbreds have not been shot yet.

[LynneSin]

2. well that part of Perry County, I wouldn't be shocked

Guns are big in rural Pennsylvania

[Shagbark Hickory]

4. Whatta u gotta say in this country to drive someone mad?

You tell them you want to give them health coverage, they come out armed.
Tell them god hates dead soliders...
Nothing.

[LynneSin]

6. This is even worse - WBC is saying God hates 7 innocent dead children

:grr:

[NoTimeToulouse]

12. Which god do these miscreants worship BTW?

Godzilla Jesus?

Manson Family Jesus?

[jberryhill]

23. You really don't get this thing, do you?

Yes, their message is "God Hates Everyone". God killed those kids because our society tolerates sin.

Their intent is to attract attention, shock and enrage. So they intentionally pick sympathetic situations so that volunteer publicity agents like you are sure to let us all know that the Phelps' are up to.

[unblock]

25. they get their directives from rush. if rush doesn't tell them to waive their guns, they don't.

pretty simple.

[NoTimeToulouse]

10. The people that they are picketing apparently aren't crazy

enough to do such a thing. Coupled with their grief and the action of trying to get their loved ones a decent funeral takes precedent.
Westboro plays off of that grief. Sick.


IF there were to be gun play I would expect it from one of the Westboro nut jobs.


I would expect that kid of thing from the mentally unhinged.

[Shagbark Hickory]

20. They make national headlines everytime they do it.

How can a crazy person not see them?

There's gotta be at least 1 or 2 people that would be willing to stand up to these people.

Just think about how easy it would be to get shot in an inner city somewhere.

[NoTimeToulouse]

36. You may have answered your own question.

"How can a crazy person not see them?"

1 What is the percent of mental illness conservative to liberal?

2 Would the "crazy" person be more apt to side with Westboro?

3. A sane person might have the best crack at assassinating one of them, but in order to do that they would have to give up everything; potentially life, trust and support of family/friends and humiliation of family and friends.

So why would I want to ruin my life for any of these Westboro *holes and give them the potential for an even bigger following/press coverage than before? In addition they would most assuredly sue my family and probably win or ruin them for my actions.

[Shagbark Hickory]

37. Oh Gawsh. We got a rational thinker on our hands here.

nt

[NoTimeToulouse]

41. Sorry bout that Gov.

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. In the documentary about them, you see drinks being tossed on them from passing cars

They are so hated but them seem to thrive on the hate.

[Shagbark Hickory]

38. Maybe the A-Team can help. Or the Mafia?

Why doesn't the mafia use their skills for a good cause for a change?

[pipi_k]

3. And the probability that they'll not endear themselves...

to even some of the crazies is exactly why they should be allowed to continue their ass-holery.

Let them destroy themselves with no help from anyone else. Nothing better than seeing nasties hang themselves with their own rope...

[gratuitous]

5. Of course they are

They're vampires, who leech off the hatred of others. Their Bible begins and ends with "Blessed are you when others revile you." Treat them as you would any other particularly slow and hostile child. Speak softly. Smile a lot. Return their unbridled, unreasoning hatred with relentless kindness. Bigotry is thirsty work; offer them a bottle of water or a cold soda. It's like Nitwit-B-Gone. When they don't get their screaming opposition, they disappear.

[alphafemale]

17. I actually used that sort of tactic against somebody once.

I was at a rally in support of my LGBT brothers and sisters once. There was one counter protester with a really angry side held by an angry looking man.

I walked over to him with a bottle of water and said. "You look new to this sort of thing. You're supposed to bring water. Would you like one of ours?"

He no lie...was all red and the face and screamed or make that SCREAMED at me..."WHAT!!!???"

I held the water out to him and said. "You look thirsty. Would you like a water?"

He looked at me. Then at the water. Then back to me again. He blinked. "uhhh...thanks."

After awhile he sidled over to our group.

And we discussed the issue at hand. He ended up understanding our point even if he didn't completely agree with it.

The point of contention by the way...was that locally the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) rents their headquarters from a publicly funded state college for the sum of $1 a year. If the BSA wants to be declared as a private club and therefore able to discriminate well...fine. Well...not fine. Repulsive, but in their legal rights to do so.

What gets my nads in a twist is when they also take public funds.

[Bluenorthwest]

7. The straight community winked and nodded at Phelps for years

The last couple of years, they have gone after non gay targets, and of course that has upped the outrage, the spoken outrage at least.
It is just a great example of how standing up for the 'hated other' in the past would have kept this nastiness from happening. Could have nipped it in the bud, but the straights let it bloom fully.

[KittyWampus]

11. so totally off base. "Could have nipped it in the bud". Ridiculous assertion.

And I totally call you out for the assertion the straight community winked and nodded at Phelps.

From the very beginning, even the locals wanted nothing to do with their anti-gay drive.

Grind your ax elsewhere.

[WatsonT]

14. "the straights let it . . . "

That's pretty ridiculous.

Most everyone hates them and always has. Even people who might normally agree with their anti-homosexual message tend to despise them for protesting military funerals.

And saying "the straights" are to blame for this is no different than saying "the gays" are to blame for something else.

Besides, what were "us straights" supposed to do? These a$$holes have their rights too.

[dsc]

27. the point is they didn't start with protesting military funerals

they started with protesting the funerals of famous gay people which straights did, by and large, ignore until Matthew Shepard. Then straights noticed a little and they did alot with the military funerals.

[WatsonT]

34. Could it be that as long as they were unknown

most people didn't pay them any mind?

Hard to be outraged by something that you have never heard of.

And the thing that through them in to national prominence was their protesting of the Matthew Shepard funeral. Seems like if "the straights" were content to allow them to beat up on homosexuals that wouldn't have raised any interest among the majority of the population.

And what famous gay funerals did they protest that were ignored by the majority of the population?

You're doing the same thing they do: placing blame for nonexistant problems on "the . . . " whatevers.

[dsc]

39. among others they protested

randy shilts. He wrote Conduct Unbecoming. It should be noted that no laws protecting funerals were proposed, much less passed until they started protesting straight military funerals.

[WatsonT]

42. And how many people have heard of this individual?

I think you may want to revise your definition of famous.

"It should be noted that no laws protecting funerals were proposed, much less passed until they started protesting straight military funerals."

It should be noticed that people don't propose laws for problems they've never heard of.

[dsc]

43. they protest Shepard's funeral years before

they protested military funerals (Shepard died in 1998 while the first military funeral protested was in 2002.) In the four years not one law was proposed.

[blondeatlast]

15. No one has EVER "winked and nodded" at the inbreeds of WBC.

Utterly ridiculous. Even non-allies loathe them because they protest at soldiers' funerals.

[Ikonoklast]

30. Total and complete bullshit.

There were plenty of 'straights' that have been counter-protesting these loons for years since they started their campaign of hate, you just want to make shit up to blame others is not only sad, but a lie.

Blanket accusations such as this make one look foolish.


You need to re-think just where this is coming from, blaming 'the other' for a problem caused by a third party is a well-known tactic that does not re-enforce your position.

[fishwax]

33. actually people have been trying to pass laws against his funeral pickets since the early 90s, but

the big picture shows a shameful amount of support from the mainstream community as well as opposition.

Kansas passed state laws in response to their activity back in 1992.

Alas, the same year Phelps ran for Senate in Kansas and received more than 30% of the votes in the Democratic primary :puke: :grr:

From The Southern Poverty Law Center's Phelps Timeline

1992
Running for the U.S. Senate, Phelps gets a remarkable 30.8% of the ballots cast in the Democratic primary even as he terms his opponent a "bull dike" .

Largely in response to Phelps' and his followers' harassment of gays and others, the Kansas legislature passes laws regulating funeral picketing and penalizing stalking, and amends a statute outlawing telephone harassment to include faxes.

More:

1988
Phelps provides rooms for Democrat Al Gore's presidential campaign workers. Though the Phelps-Gore connection will grow increasingly distant, Phelps' oldest son, Fred Jr., is invited to the first Clinton-Gore inauguration in 1993.

By 1998, Gore will be seen as such an enemy by WBC that its members picket the funeral of Gore's father.

[fittosurvive]

8. If everyone and the media in particular, would ignore them, they would go away.

They exist to be noticed.

[PassingFair]

28. +1 ... There are just not that many of them.

Something like 26 people getting so much press!

Ignore the bastards.

If they showed up at the funeral of someone I
loved, I'd be proud to be on the opposite side.

[Zephie]

9. It's not about a religious message (even a hate filled one), it's about lawsuit money

Maybe it started as a truly religious pursuit (a hate filled, evil, vile, disgusting one), but it has evolved and changed to be about suing the people who are insulted and hurt by their hate speech. They're just ramping up the behavior because they know it will rile peoples feathers in hopes of being able to cry "But it's my first amendment right!" and get money from the incurring lawsuit.

[WatsonT]

13. Hey God, these people are acting in your name, mind dropping a meteroite

tornado, sink hole, or something along those lines in their path?

It would be greatly appreciated

-99.9% of Humanity

[ehrnst]

16. If progressives were as violent as right wingers, these people would be dead now. (nt)

[Forrest Greene]

18. Someday

...Fred Phelps will himself be needing a funeral.

[sensate2000]

19. Don't protest it.

His family would love it. They thrive on negative attention. It is what keeps them together.

[Mimosa]

21. Something really bad is going to happen to the Westboro/Phelps family.

I HOPE!

[jberryhill]

22. Well they got what they wanted from you, didn't they?

Why do people on DU continue to play along with the Phelps' game?

They do this to piss people off.

So.. You get pissed off.

Tell me, in that dynamic, who is the one calling the shots, and who is the one dutifully obeying?

[davsand]

24. Is protective custody possible?

I'm pretty sure that at some point or another SOMEBODY has offered a threat to the safety of the Westboro nutjobs. Why can't the local sheriff put them in "protective custody" during that funeral? You know--"protective custody" someplace well away from that poor family...

I'd think that if officials were attempting to "protect protesters from harm" that there would be very few voters that would fail to appreciate that even if there was an issue in the courts later--well after the time that poor family buries those kids.



What would Sheriff Andy Taylor do? I'm just sayin....





Laura

[Kolesar]

26. Who rents motel rooms to these creeps? They should refuse them lodging...eom

[LynneSin]

40. I was reading the forums at the PennLive discussion boards (harrisburg newspaper)

A few people suggested they follow them as soon as they are off the plane and then track every business that sells or helps them. Then publish the list so folks can boycott them.

[datasuspect]

29. this is how they get their name in the news

giving them more attention keeps them in the public eye.

[jberryhill]

31. And, every time, someone on DU volunteers to be their publicity agent.

[Zorra]

32. I have no doubt that these sociopathic lunatics would conduct a new Inquisition

and burn people at the stake with ecstatic glee if they could get away with it.

Anyone that is a member of Westboro Baptist Cult is a national shame, as is the cult collectively. No one with even a shred of ethics or decency would associate with such a group.

Their actions are beyond disgusting. If Jesus Christ himself walked into their culthouse and spoke of Love they would pray to their imaginary evilspirit for him to be beaten and hung on a cross as an example of what happens to people in a nation that at least permits GLBT folks to have the freedom to love whoever they wish.

I have no doubt that they are all conservatives, and most, or all, of them are Teabaggers and/or republicans.
:puke:

[Witchtrooper]

44. That's why I am well-armed

You can bet your butt that they could and would run an inquisition...if a government ever took power that would let them. You can be certain it would be a Republican one.

I fear our home-grown American Taliban far, far more than I do the Islamic jihadists. The Islamic nuts are all (for the most part)over there; our fundamentalist crazies are all over here. Besides that, the threat from radical Islam is not pampered or fawned over by one of the two major American political parties, nor does radical Islam have a major television network devoted to its promotion.

As an ex-Central Pennsylvanian, I can state that the only reason why WBC will be opposed in PA is because they are "outsiders" sticking their nose into the "locals" business. Harrisburg is a fairly progressive area, but Perry, Juniata, and the other counties in the area are, I estimate, at least 60-70% fundamentalist. The WBC morons would get a warm welcome if they came there for any reason other than protest.

I had a GF in Juniata County for about 4 years. Her background was Pentecostal, so I know a little whereof I speak. It was, shall we say, an interesting romance...