The decapitations will continue until you stop sinning!

[drachillix]

@Bookkeeper

Not a good idea. Aside from the fact that actual physical opposition merely validates their saintly martyrdom in their own eyes, it’s my understanding that their activities are at least partly funded by awards from the civil suits they file against people who have assaulted them, are thinking of assaulting them, or are on the same planet as people who have once dreamed of assaulting them. There’s a reason ol’ Phred made most of the clan go to law school. You don’t want to be legally compelled to fund their activities.

Still for far less than the price of them travelling to protest, you could probably hire half a dozen local hoodrats to wander up, bust a few beaks and scatter.

I wonder if it would be feasible to bait them somehow, is it possible to fake a funeral realistically enough to draw these idiots out. Getting them all chasing ghosts might be a worthwhile endeavor.

[Cat_Whisperer]

Well, it looks like the funeral went off without a protest. Good.

(They sent their protest signs by courier - maybe FedEx did everyone a favour by losing their signs - on purpose, or just as a matter of course. )

[Gorsnak]

The Winnipeg Free Press is reporting that the Phelpses were a no-show.

[Swallowed_My_Cellphone]

@featherlou

Possibly one good thing that will come out of all this is that Canadians might become more aware of the religious nuttery going on in the US. I don’t know how useful that will be, but being aware of a problem is better than not being aware of it.

Oh, Phelps is old news in Canada. He’s been here before trying to stir up shit for over 10 years now. He started his “God Hates Canada” schtick back in 1996 when “sexual orientation” was added to the human rights codes (officially saying you can’t discriminate on that basis).

IIRC, he nearly set himself on fire trying to burn the Canadian flag on the steps of Parliament, but in Canada, people just yawned (there isn’t a particularly visceral reactin to falg burning here) and, since Phelps came very close to setting himself on fire a Mountie diceded to write him a ticket for having an “uncontained fire in a public place”.

Kind of comparable to getting a ticket for drinking a can of beer at a bus stop.

ETA: But officials are getting more and more annoyed with each visit which is why they are starting to tell him: “Oh, just fuck ff already, you nitwit!” They used to just roll their eyes at him, but he’s starting to try everyone’s patience.

[Alistair_McCello]

@Baker

Ah, yes, the Lambeth Conference. Bishop Gene Robinson(bishop of New Hampshire, and out of the closet) and Presiding Bishop Katherine Schiori, head of the Episcopal church in the United States are probably who you are referencing.

Presiding Bishop is the title we Americans give to the head of our church. I understand most other Anglican national churches use Archbishop. She’s the only woman to head a national church, and I understand some of the really conservative ones, such as the African denominations that don’t even ordain women, are steamed about it.

[highjack]The pastor at my ex-girlfriend’s Episcopalian church was a lesbian. I imagine the people in some of these denominations would be livid if they knew.[/highjack]

[SuntanTigerTamer]

[QUOTE=FoieGrasIsEvil]
My thing is this: should I be convicted of assault if I were attending a military funeral for say, my cousin whom is currently in Iraq, and these guys were within sight/earshot and disrupting the service?

I can honestly say without an ounce of machismo bravado that I would willingly go to jail by simply submerging myself into their little picket line and swinging my tightly clenched fists at any head or body part that moved (unless it was one of their brainwashed children…then I’d just push them over).

I know the outrage over this group has been done ad nauseum as Marley points out earlier that it’s so bad that he can’t even muster a care anymore (paraphrasing), but…I care.

Whether or not you agree with the war is irrelevant. If someone I’m close to dies in a foreign land in ANY conflict, whether or not it’s popular, if these fag-hating people show up, I’m going to unleash every ounce of my physical anger at their hateful existence on their physical beings.

What are there, like a roving band of 20 people that follow this bullshit? I’m pretty confident in my chances if that scenario played out.

[QUOTE]
*

While I have a very hard time disagreeing with this sentiment, it brings to mind something a saw recently that really shook me. It was a short (maybe a half hour or so long) documentary about the Phelps Clan, done by a Brit, I believe. It detailed life on the compound, and follwed the clan to a couple protests. These people spewed hate with every word, and were very hard to feel bad for.

However, at the end of the film, the Phelps’ are protesting a a vet’s funeral, and someone in a passing car throws a bottle at them. It hits one of the Phelps’ children, a young boy, who had been holding a large “God Hates Fags” sign. The reaction from the boys mother was that of any other parent; you could see her pain at seeing her sons.

It’s very easy to forget that everyone of them are people too. Confused, ignorant, hateful, and divisory, yes. But still people. That short little documentary, which was far from sympathetic, helped me see that in a way that I wasn’t prepared for.

[Baker]

Yes, they are people too. But if that mother cared just a little more she’d have the guts to take her kid off of the firing line.

The WBC was picketing once at the church my parents attend. One of the little WBC kids saw, through a breezeway window, his teacher at school, who also attended that church. He started to wave to her, and she was waving back, when his mom, or aunt maybe, jerked him away. Some love and caring.

[Khampelf]

Ummm. Eris spoke to me through random snippets of song and lyric, like a poorly tuned radio.

“We’ll be fighting in the street, with our children at our feet,
and the Daleks that we worshipped will be gone.” Who said that?

Exterminate the fags!! Exterminate! Exterminate.

I remember a tangent to the whole flag burning thing that such desecration could be justification for assault. And there’s flags on the soldiers coffins, no?

If you love God, burn a church.

Yeah, something could be arranged… It’s not wishing harm if it’s god’s will, and I don’t think any Phelpsians post here.

Maybe a airship full of tools could dump it’s cargo onto the ‘demonstration’. A Phelpsian screwdriver or two could send a message. Throw a monkey wrench into that Assembly of Hate. Or with some dutch courage, throw wooden shoes until they leave. Elderly dutch shoes, splintery and useless for footwear. Yes, mind your Sabot-Age. Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes, and don’t throw the second shoe until you have their attention and see the effects of the first. Wait for the second shoe to drop.

I’m done for now. That’s all I have to say about that. The topic makes me Gumpy.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Swallowed My Cellphone

Oh, Phelps is old news in Canada. He’s been here before trying to stir up shit for over 10 years now. He started his “God Hates Canada” schtick back in 1996 when “sexual orientation” was added to the human rights codes (officially saying you can’t discriminate on that basis).

IIRC, he nearly set himself on fire trying to burn the Canadian flag on the steps of Parliament, but in Canada, people just yawned (there isn’t a particularly visceral reactin to falg burning here) and, since Phelps came very close to setting himself on fire a Mountie diceded to write him a ticket for having an “uncontained fire in a public place”.

Kind of comparable to getting a ticket for drinking a can of beer at a bus stop.

ETA: But officials are getting more and more annoyed with each visit which is why they are starting to tell him: “Oh, just fuck ff already, you nitwit!” They used to just roll their eyes at him, but he’s starting to try everyone’s patience.

I dunno; most of the Canadians I know are fairly well-informed as your average person goes, and they are always surprised when I tell them about the things I hear about on the internet with regard to religion in the US.

[Jragon]

@FoieGrasIsEvil

My thing is this: should I be convicted of assault if I were attending a military funeral for say, my cousin whom is currently in Iraq, and these guys were within sight/earshot and disrupting the service?

I can honestly say without an ounce of machismo bravado that I would willingly go to jail by simply submerging myself into their little picket line and swinging my tightly clenched fists at any head or body part that moved (unless it was one of their brainwashed children…then I’d just push them over).

I’m a little rusty on my court doctrines, been out of AP Gov for a while and all, I’m not even sure if this still exists. But by the “fighting words doctrine”, if someone is saying something that a reasonable person could get (essentially) very, very angry over (i.e. insulting your family or religion) and not desisting when you asked, you’re given the benefit of the doubt because you’re not considered in your right mind when you get angry enough to hit them. Following sentence not necessarily related to the Phelps It’s kind of funny because the right to burn a flag in protest was also protected, so others have the right to burn a flag and you have the right to punch them for it.

You’d probably get convicted by the initial jury though, the appeal is where I think you’d get off.

Not that I particularly advocate doing this, but still, as far as I know, you are technically allowed. So long as you don’t follow them around looking for things to get pissed off about so you can beat them of course.

Lawyer to correct me in
3…
2…
1…

[Scoundrel_Swanswater]

@SuntanTigerTamer

While I have a very hard time disagreeing with this sentiment, it brings to mind something a saw recently that really shook me. It was a short (maybe a half hour or so long) documentary about the Phelps Clan, done by a Brit, I believe. It detailed life on the compound, and follwed the clan to a couple protests. These people spewed hate with every word, and were very hard to feel bad for.

However, at the end of the film, the Phelps’ are protesting a a vet’s funeral, and someone in a passing car throws a bottle at them. It hits one of the Phelps’ children, a young boy, who had been holding a large “God Hates Fags” sign. The reaction from the boys mother was that of any other parent; you could see her pain at seeing her sons.

It’s very easy to forget that everyone of them are people too. Confused, ignorant, hateful, and divisory, yes. But still people. That short little documentary, which was far from sympathetic, helped me see that in a way that I wasn’t prepared for.

That would be Louis Theroux, which gave a shocking inside into the deceased minds of the Phelps clan.
And though I felt a bit sorry for the kid (a very, very, very small bit I should add) the mother had it coming.
As far as I am concerned anything that happens to the Phelps’ is pure karma and they have it coming.
I wouldn’t loose any sleep if all of them got burned at the stakes for the miserable disgusting excuses for living beings that they are.

[Swallowed_My_Cellphone]

@featherlou

I dunno; most of the Canadians I know are fairly well-informed as your average person goes, and they are always surprised when I tell them about the things I hear about on the internet with regard to religion in the US.

Actually, now that I think about it, I will concede that my family may have been a bit more aware than the average Canadian. My sister is gay and my mother and I were members of PFLAG when Matthew Shepard was killed and Phelps first started his dumbass picketing schtick.

When Phelps did his flag-burning, most Canadians probably didn’t really know or care who he was (in the same way that in the U.S. he wasn’t a big deal when he was picketing the funerals of gay men, but once they started picketing dead soldiers, it was a different story).

I think there has been a longer-standing awarenss of Phelps’s shenanigans in the gay community and their families.

[Baker]

@Swallowed My Cellphone

Actually, now that I think about it, I will concede that my family may have been a bit more aware than the average Canadian. My sister is gay and my mother and I were members of PFLAG when Matthew Shepard was killed and Phelps first started his dumbass picketing schtick.

Phelps started his picketing long,* long* before Matthew Shepard was killed. He started in late 1992, and the picketing was purported to be a crusade to clean up a local park here in Topeka. Supposedly there was a lot of “pick up” activity going on in the park.

[Marley23]

@Jragon

I’m a little rusty on my court doctrines, been out of AP Gov for a while and all, I’m not even sure if this still exists. But by the “fighting words doctrine”, if someone is saying something that a reasonable person could get (essentially) very, very angry over (i.e. insulting your family or religion) and not desisting when you asked, you’re given the benefit of the doubt because you’re not considered in your right mind when you get angry enough to hit them.

“Fighting words” is still legal precedent as far as I know.