My column today looks at the Phelps clan’s protests at military funerals and asks for more space for grieving families in the form of a no-protest buffer zone around funerals. I strongly believe in First Amendment rights, but I also feel strongly that mourning families trying to bury a loved one shouldn’t have to endure such harassment. Give them their space.
A funeral protest isn’t free speech — it’s cruelty.
I went to the Phelpses’ protest this morning at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Wichita — I wanted to see one of these protests up close. Believe me, it was way too cold for an outdoor protest.
But there they were — about eight Phelps protesters, standing right across the street from the church, waving their signs (one said “Thank God for Dead Soldiers”) and occasionally taunting and jeering. It was beyond offensive. It was ghoulish. Reaffirmed my belief that family members deserve better privacy protection.
About 150 Patriot Guard members were there, too — some had traveled many miles in bone-chilling weather to offer support and try to shield the family. I salute them.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Our editorial today applauds the recent comments by Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Kay McFarland defending the judiciary. She argued that the “activist” charges arise when people don’t like rulings. And she noted the inconsistency in the charge: Massachusetts’ high court was “activist” because it overturned existing law to allow gay marriage, but state and federal courts were “activist” because they refused to make new law to keep Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube from being removed.
Courts certainly aren’t above criticism or reform. But McFarland is right to worry about whether the current demagoguery will erode the public’s trust in the legal system and undermine the integrity and independence of the judiciary.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
I would have preferred greater restrictions on certain USA Patriot Act provisions. But the compromise plan worked out Thursday at least is a move in the right direction.
The plan would put new restrictions on the surveillance of library and business records and the use of roving wiretaps. It also would sunset these provisions in four years rather than 10 years, as the House bill authorized.
“There’s no doubt about the need for tools for law enforcement to fight terrorism, both domestically and internationally,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn. “But equally clearly, there’s been a need for refinement of the protection of civil liberties and civil rights.”
That’s a tricky balance.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Anne Applebaum made a good point about the Iraq war in her op-ed piece for The Washington Post:
“But what if all of this vocabulary — winning, losing, victory, defeat — is simply misplaced? There are, after all, wars that are not actually won or lost. There are wars that achieve some of their goals, that result only in partial solutions and that leave much business unfinished. There are wars that do not end with helicopters evacuating Americans from the embassy roof but that do not produce a victorious march into Berlin, either. There are wars that end ambivalently — wars, for example, such as the one we fought in Korea.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
The following satirical headlines come from borowitzreport.com:
RUMSFELD: WAR IN IRAQ GOING WELL ON EARTH II; Reports Significant Process in Parallel Universe
CONDI PROMISES WORLD: NO SEQUELS TO ‘DUKES OF HAZZARD’; Confronts Worries On European Trip
GOVERNMENT TO ISSUE SMALL SHARP OBJECTS TO ALL AIRLINE PASSENGERS; Small Scissors, Screwdrivers to Be Mandatory on All Domestic Flights
CHENEY RECEIVES FACE TRANSPLANT, NOW HAS THREE FACES; Unveils Newest Face on NBC’s “Meet the Press”
BUSH CALLS ‘PLAN FOR VICTORY’ SLOGAN A SUCCESS; Vows to Create Additional Slogans to Defeat Insurgents
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The release today of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is putting former Wichitan Philip Anschutz in the spotlight. Though Walt Disney Co. is handling the film’s marketing, it is Anschutz’s production company, Walden Media, that made the movie. A recent article in The Economist explained that Anschutz got into the movie business because he was tired of complaining about the lack of family friendly Hollywood films and decided to be part of the solution. How refreshing.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
I thought the plan by Congress to end analog television transmissions by April 2009 and spend up to $3 billion subsidizing the purchase of digital converter boxes sounded a bit goofy when I first read about it. Here is columnist George Will’s take on the legislation, which he has dubbed No Couch Potato Left Behind: “Americans have such an entitlement mentality, they seem to think that every pleasure — e.g., digital television — should be a collective right, meaning a federally funded entitlement.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
