Stephanie Zvan at Almost Diamonds came up with an excellent t-shirt idea: an image of a peach, half-frozen in a block of ice, with the slogan “Freeze Peach! Not sure what it is, but it’s mine.” This is in reference to the continual shouting of “free speech” in order to defend speech which is not … Read more
Confused? Here’s the context.
Gawker reports that the Westboro Baptist Church were met in Mississippi by some people who decided to try and out-douchebag them. And succeeded: The feel-good blog item of the day is the story of when the small town of Brandon, Mississippi successfully foiled Westboro Baptist Church’s plan to protest a Marine’s funeral. (Here is a … Read more
From The Daily Caller: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin clarified remarks posted on Twitter this week in response to a Supreme Court ruling in favor of a church that demonstrates at military funerals, saying she was making a point about a double standard on free speech, not that the group shouldn’t have the right to … Read more
Umm, both your and Westboro’s wacko pronouncements in the public square (such as, for example, this very tweet) invoke God’s name on a regular basis. They got sued for it; you didn’t. It appears their liberty to be religious in public is more in danger than yours is. First Amendment and irony comprehension fail. But … Read more
The Supreme Court ruling on Snyder v. Phelps was issued this morning– 8-1 in favor of Phelps, saying that the First Amendment protected the WBC’s right to protest the military funeral. I couldn’t have imagined it going any other way, but there was still a niggling worry that it might. The opinion, authored by Roberts … Read more
*Blush* Guess I can stop defending the free speech rights of scoundrels. Well, at least these scoundrels. For now.
“Aggressive proponents of free speech,” my arse. I would wonder how it’s possible for them to claim that label while simultaneously threatening to shut down a group’s website due to ideological differences with a straight face, but they’re Anonymous– there’s no face to see. Note: this response is not because of any love lost … Read more
Westboro Baptist Church to Protest at Elizabeth Edwards’ Funeral As Elizabeth Edwards’ family makes the final preparations for her funeral, members of a controversial church known for picketing at the memorials of fallen soldiers, says they will protest outside her funeral. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church are planning to disrupt Edwards’ funeral Saturday, saying … Read more
A disabled Afghanistan veteran was arrested today in my hometown of Wichita Kansas on charges of stalking members of the Westboro Baptist Church: Prosecutors charged [Ryan] Newell, 26, with five misdemeanors Thursday, including stalking and three counts of criminal use of a firearm in an incident involving the Phelps family of Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church. … Read more