Check this shit out. Leonard Pitts, my personal favorite columnist these days, has taken the fight to Right Said Fred.
Oh, suh-nap!
Here’s the point:
For example?
Well…okay.
After listing some of the tamer things that the Phelpsists put on their signs, he says,
Damn.
Oooooh, damn!
How’s that for a taste of free speech? I wonder when the protestors will show up outside the Miami Herald telling Pitts to burn in Hell. Man, I love this guy.
Awesome description of crazy.
I think I’ve read Leonard Pitts’ stuff before. He is one to look out for.
Gary Cooper Gay? Did I miss another memo?
I don’t think he’s that Gary Cooper.
It’s funny, although I’m not sure it’s productive or if it’s a good idea to pay attention to Psycho Phred in the first place. But it’s funny.
“But not the Gary Cooper who’s dead!”
20 points for the reference.
Pitt’s article is funny, but I think inaccurate. I don’t think Phred is gay. I think he’s just stumbled onto a really bizarre way to make money. A sick and twisted and hurtful way, but a lucrative one.
Is it that lucrative? It’s a small church. I figured he’s a crazy man who just loves attention and having power.
From everything I’ve read, he seems to be pretty comfortable, and nearly all of his income is from lawsuits.
Well, there’s no way to really no for sure, but from accounts I’ve read, the answer is “yes”. It’s lucrative because his primary goal is to induce some sort of behavior to which he can respond with a lawsuit. He succeeds in provoking such behavior surprisingly often, and succeeds in winning or settling to his advantage even more surprisingly often.
The hate and attention and power thing is just a fun side benefit for his twisted little mind.
Ahem. That should be “there’s no way to really know for sure”, dangnabbit!
Sadly, as funny as that article is, I have to disagree with Pitts. Fred is crazier than a shithouse rat. Addicted to Hate
The man is psychotic.
You know I have has my suspicions on Mr Phelps. That kinda hatred has to come from somewhere and needs fuel to keep burning. Best place is from within.
Maybe Granpa Phelps beat into Fred’s head (Likely literally if reports of Fred’s abusive behaviour are valid) that “them there Queers is evil” so Fred began a cycle of self loathing that got to the point where he had to share the love.
Or maybe he is a pure and honest Nutter
The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
So what about the 1st Amendment issues with military funerals? It’s interesting that the columnist thinks Fred has a point about that. Aren’t funerals supposed to be mostly private events anyway?
BTW, has Phreddy ever responded to accusations that he’s gay? I wonder what he’ll do if he sees the column.
Seriously thought the article was lame. The only rationale explanation for Phelps’ behavior is the most obvious. Occam’s razor if you will:
**Fred Phelps is the incarnation of Andy Kaufman. **
Think about it. Andy promised to return 20 years after his death. Yes, we know Phelps has been around longer, but can’t you see the excitement building around the cult of Phelps? Only Kaufman could whip up that hysteria in such a slow controlled way.
Protesting at soldier’s funerals? That’s insane. That’s pushing the boundaries of taste, societal boudaries, mores, and common sense. That rings the Kaufman bell loudly to me!
Another vote for the “Phelps not gay” theory. He’s just a psychoticly cruel bully who’s latched on to the one minority it’s still sort of okay to hate. In another time and place he’d be organizing lynch mobs, working as a concentration camp guard, or rounding up class enemies of the Soviet state.
Except he doesn’t actually go after that minority much anymore. He goes after soldiers and astronauts. In many cases, clearly straight people. To me this sounds less like bullying and more like trolling.
In some ways, I think it’s fucking marvelous, and I’m glad the Phelps clan has been getting more exposure on CNN and the like.
Seriously – it was one thing when they were sticking to strictly anti-gay leaflets and picketing funerals of AIDS patients and victims of gay-bashings. It’s nasty, but take the position of “Matt Shepherd deserved to die,” and you probably won’t have too much difficulty finding people who agree with you or can be persuaded to agree with you. They were more dangerous then.
When they registered godhatesamerica.com, I thought it was a piss-take set up by anti-bigot guerilla activists.
“Hey, everybody! This is what homophobia looks like! Gibbering, pathetic, irrational bile.” They now take homosexual people and put them (irony of ironies) in a larger set comprised of the very things good Americans are supposed to hold dear. Hating homosexual citizens is equated with hating traditional American values. Church; the progressive, pioneering spirit; and the young men and women who defend the nation. Which is of course just as it should be.
I hope they go after Motherhood next. After all, it’s always the mothers who sissify their boys, isn’t it? Picket the funerals of random mothers, claiming God is punishing American mothers for not being more diligent about making sure their kids aren’t queer.
Much better that the Phelps clan gets as much attention as possible. That way, when people see the Anita Bryant variants who are able to put a slightly more attractive face on their hatred, more of them will be able to see through the surface to their inner Phelps, and ask “Why do you hate America?” 
That’s one of the few positives, I agree. It’s the same thing with Pat Robertson. I love that I’m actually able to say “Why does the religious right hate America?” 
Nobody could marginalize these dumb fucks more effectively than they’re marginalizing themselves. Attacking dead soldiers? “Thank God for IEDs?” I’m just waiting for them to go after Betty Crocker with signs reading “God Hates Fag Apple Pie.”
I’ll bite. Tim Robbins to John Cusack in The Sure Thing.
Tim Robbins, in The Sure Thing. I love that movie. “Consider outer space…” 