Maybe any legislation aimed at curbing the appalling protests of military funerals by Fred Phelps’ clan would invite legal challenges on free speech grounds, no matter the details. Still, it’s regrettable that the Kansas House’s unanimously passed measure neglected the Senate’s more thoughtful language. As negotiators try to reconcile the House’s 300-yard buffer and the Senate’s 100-yard buffer, as well as other differences, they should be sensitive to what lawmakers’ zeal to limit these protests could end up costing taxpayers later in legal fees. And they can consider themselves warned by Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps’ daughter: “The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken on this issue, and they can’t put us out of sight and sound of our targeted audience. If they don’t like what they see, they need to drink a frosty mug of shut-the-hell-up and avert their eyes.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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60 Comments
300 yards is neither out of sight, nor, out of sound range for the average individual. In fact, it is even within the range of the weapons used by those who’s graves they choose to dance on. Maybe these folks should consider the distance a blessing because sooner or later they are going to run into someone willing to show them the meaning of, “at your own peril”.Freedom of speech is a great and grand thing, however, if you choose to mock someone’s very memory, sooner or later they will run into an individual that simply has another solution. I’ll bet you a dollar that individual gets off with a slap on the wrist and six months mental health counseling on the taxpayers dime. Either way it’s money well spent.
heheh.
“If they don’t like what they see, they need to drink a frosty mug of shut-the-hell-up and avert their eyes.”
Funny, that is the same thing gay people say about fred, joe and terry!
Regardless of the law, regardless of the hate cult from Topeka, the Patriot Guard will continue to honor and respect our veterans.
Semper Fi.
It’s interesting that Margie Phelps, who as you recall works for the State of Kansas, has gotten REALLY quiet lately, and Shirley has started doing all the talking. I mean yelling.
Semper Fi Ray. Honor to you and your colleagues.
I’d like to see a bunch of people give the Phlepsians something to “shut-the-hell-up and avert their eyes” about in their little hate-den in Topeka.
Well don’t let your guard down Sean. Mad Maggie (Margie) is still very much in charge of the clan.She’s found it necessary to keep her trap shut because about 90% of her peers in the KDOC would like nothing more than to send her fat ass back to Fort Westboro. She’s tested her limits and knows full well that if she farts in the wrong direction democrats can do little to save her.
Fred Phelps Lets the Good Times Role
It’s time to address a topic, that admittedly, has been put off for awhile. First of all, it’s an unpleasant subject. Second, that it pertains to an individual who makes Kansas his home base is embarrassing. Kansas makes the news for tornadoes (usually with an interview of an illiterate with missing teeth), our Board of Education (creationism), “In Cold Blood” (well, Capote did win for best actor), BTK (another shining example of psychopathology), and an annual pancake race (who needs NASCAR).
Now we have also become known as the home of Fred Phelps. Yes, Fred the funeral heckler. It has to be said of Fred that he does have a certain genius for publicity. The rantings of this hate monger were not making the headlines like in the good old early days of his little cult. That can be awfully discouraging to a hard working homophobic nut case who has labored so long in his pseudo-religious rage.
But did Fred give up, did he despair? Why, of course not. He put on his pointed thinking cap and came up with a sure fire solution. He would stage his “God Hates Fags” gatherings at the funerals of AID’s victims and gay people who died by anti-gay violence. It worked like a charm for awhile, with the media swarming on it like cockroaches on.. well… whatever it is cockroaches really like. But, those fickle press folk have a short attention span, so old Fred had to ratchet things up a notch to keep the attention coming.
Here’s where Fred really hit his stride. Instead of gay’s funerals, he would shift the show over to the funerals of our military men and women who died serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. He had to make a few new signs up, like “Thank God for IED’s” to go along with the ever popular “Thank God for AID’s” placards, but the effort was well worth it. He has been making the national news on a regular basis, and has risen to deserving special legislation banning funeral protests. Can you say Supreme Court case? He has even managed to create a loyal counter-demonstration cadre that doubles the circus.
Yes, it’s high times for Fred and his Fredlets. The media can be counted on to keep the Phelps show going. After all, it’s “news”. Ah well, they can’t take “The Wizard of Oz” away from us. You have to take solace where you can find it.
http://theflyoverzone.blogspot.com/2006/03/fred-phelps-lets-good-times-role.html
I don’t have a good idea as to how to address this insane hate group.
I applaud the Patriot Guard it is at least a start.
Ol’ Fred is getting long in the tooth. Maybe we should let him and his followers know that we will be attending HIS funeral.
I’ll drive the bus.
Too bad no one gave a rat’s ASS when fred and his folks were just harrassing the mourners at the funerals of gay people. If he and his crowd had been dealt with then, you wouldnt be having these problems NOW!
But then hey, it was just a few dead fags, and well, we all know, fred is right in Kansas about one thing.
GOD HATES FAGS!!
Seventy percent of Kansas voters apparantly agree. They might say it a little more politely, but the sentiment is the same.
Yep, fred knows how to work it. No one cared about dead gay people so he had to find another target.
Seems like it worked.
I cant tell you how it warms my heart to see immigrants made into the new “gays”.
I mean after all, an election year is upon us. We could use the break while you all make some other group the bloody chickens.
We always have to have someone below us to make us feel lofty, no? I am damn glad it isnt us for once. Tyranny of the majority. heheh.
Let’s all joint hands now and work together to make kansas totally straight, white, christian and uneducated.
Oh. We already did that? Next!
KFG-
It is not all about you. It is about honoring and respecting the families of people who died in combat.
Our veterans have been spit upon in the past, attacked, ridiculed and shamed for answering the call of their country. Whether the war is “just or right” or not is not the issue. People answered the call of their country, and died in the process.
The actions of the hate cult from Topeka is untenable when protesting those who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty of their country.
The Patriot Guard attends dozens of funerals across the country where that disgusting group never shows up.
It is not about you. It is not a hatred of gays. It is about honoring those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country. Having never worn a uniform, I don’t expect you to understand.
“The actions of the hate cult from Topeka is untenable when protesting those who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty of their country.”
It was untenable when they did it at the funerals of queers too.
I am glad you do what you do. But where the hell was ANYONE when he was doing this to us?
Does asking that question somehow dishonor the military dead? I dont think so.
What makes one life more valuable than another? What makes one funeral more sacred than another?
I repeat. If you had done this when he started on the gays, you wouldnt have to do this now.
“If YOU” has done this when he started on gays…”
Why do you leave the protection duties up to others? If you are so concerned, why didn’t YOU form a group? Why did YOU do something instead of sitting back and complaining about those who are doing something?
“It is about honoring those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.”
So… were you doing this BEFORE fred targeted the funerals of military people?
Then dont tell me it is 100% about honor. It is also about the phelps’ and their hate and pushing back on them. As Molly Ivins would say, good on you for doing that.
But dont deny, their hate just didnt matter when it was our funerals, and our grief that was being disrespected. It wasnt important when our families not only mourned, but faced the phelps clan alone.
Acknowledging that does not distract from what you are doing now. Why so sensitive about the honest question?
Where was ANYONE when phelps was doing this to us?
Thomas, what makes you think I didnt? What makes you think I didnt hold signs in silent protest? What makes you think I wasnt in Hill City recently when they protested in front of a school?
Just because you werent there, doesnt mean I wasnt there.
When it was our funerals, the protection and protest were done by us, and by no one else.
That is the cold hard fact.
Dont assume you know things about me.
I was there then. I am there now.
Like I said earlier, having never worn a uniform, I never expected you to understand.
Where were YOU when phelps was protesting gay funerals? What were YOU doing? Why do you leave it to others to respond? Where was YOUR action? Where was YOUR organization?
We started as veterans honoring our own, period. Why couldn’t YOU do the same? Where were YOU?
See above Ray.
Now answer a few questions for me.
Where have I EVER disrespected the military service of others?
Where have I EVER complained about what you are doing?
Where have I EVER criticized you for what you are doing?
Why does my asking the obvious question bother you so much?
The best way to respect our military is to bring them home and not allow them to be used for Israeli greed.
It’s hard for me to believe those funeral protesters { scumbags } are still upright.
Hasn’t their always been counter protest against phelps hate cult even before they started to go to soldier funerals?
There was even a movie about it, if I’m not mistakin. I remember seeing it on HBO several years ago.
So everybody is aware of it and everybody despised phelps. I don’t know what really sparked the issue for the legislature to have a barrier law, which still can be considered unconstitutional. They cannot stop the actual protest.
If the barrier law was only sparked because phelps started to protest fallen soliders and not gays, but all the signs they hold is the “God hates fags”. Would there be a barrier law if phelps protested soldier funerals but protested the war itself and not gays?
I understand your frustration ksfarmgrrl. That a barrier law wasn’t even considered when phelps protested gays. I agree with you. I believe it should have got the same treatment and been considered before phelps started on the soliders. But it also might have not been considered if people protested solider funerals because they were against the war. I could be wrong though.
I applaud again the Patriot Guard.
BUT……
If we are to be universal in expressing our revulsion to this vile man and his sick inbred followers, all funerals must be protected. That means gays and Patriot guard and everyone should be as best they can at EVERY funeral or even every public appearance where this despicable man or any of his followers spews their filth.
“If we do not hang together, we most assuredly shall hang separately.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Hasn’t their always been counter protest against phelps hate cult even before they started to go to soldier funerals?”
I think the HBO movie was “The Laramie Project”. Fred was disrupting our funerals long before then. We were doing silent protests almost before Matthew was born.
Yes, JR, a few of us have always been there. FEW being the operative word, and usually gay people or their families. VERY FEW would describe the number of non-gay, non-PFLAG people who stood… silently…. against the phelps.
I guess that is why no one noticed the few of us who were standing against hate. We felt like silent protests were the best alternative. Dignified and non-confrontational.
I guess we were wrong. But we could have done it with a line of red corvettes and no one would have cared either.
Now we know why. Seventy percent of kansans agreed… at least with their silence.
And why does phelps dis the military funerals?
He thinks those soldiers died because the u.s.a. loves gays.
At the bottom of it all, it is still about queer hating.
And publicity.
I’d say it is working for him.
Hell I attended a funeral of a stranger in Ness City last spring. The deceased was the grandmother of of a well-known kansas gay activist.
We heard the phelps clan would be there, so a few of us attended just in case. Fortunately, no overt haters showed up.
We also do OUR best to protect OUR own.
Oops, sorry JR, I meant to address joe. Thanks for being kind joe.
You have lost the thread here, KFG. I am not attacking you, so get off your attack horse. Your earlier comment was (and I quote)
“If you had done this when he started on the gays, you wouldnt have to do this now.”
Never once did I claim you disrespected the military, so pull in the claws, ok? Calm down a bit and recognize the simple fact that Patriot Guard exists for one purpose. I never once said one life lost is worth more than another. I never claimed you were speaking against us…so calm down.
Patriot Guard was formed in response to the attack on veteran’s funerals. It is a sorry day that it became necessary, and I apologize for the imperfect world that we did not spontaneously develop without the input from a hate group.
Settle down, KFG. Take a breath and realize that I never attacked you.
Ray, when you say this (twice!) it is damn hard for me to take a breath and settle down:
“Having never worn a uniform, I don’t expect you to understand.”
I think I rightly interpreted that as you thinking I did not have respect for military service.
This thread is very much about the phelps clan, and I am on topic here. You can not discuss them without including their hatred of gays. It is their raison d’etre.
“Why do you leave the protection duties up to others? If you are so concerned, why didn’t YOU form a group? Why did YOU do something instead of sitting back and complaining about those who are doing something?”
You dont attack me? I guess that was just a supportive post, eh ray?
Whatever. I’ll actually give you a compliment here ray. I think you feel guilty because you know something should have been done sooner to stop the hate.
I am not blaming you personally for the imperfect world. But fred and his gang of thugs didnt come out of nowhere. This has been building for years. I blame ALL of us for not standing up to him sooner and sending a consistant message.
The lesson here is that hate against one of us is hate against ALL of us, and you never know which bloody non-majority chicken might be next.
Ignored and unconfronted, little hate grows quicky into big hate. The message has to be given early on, loud and clear, that hate is not a family value. I used to think it wasnt a kansas value either. Now I am not so sure.
It is definitely a sad day when a hatemonger like Phelps and his little cabal can spread hate and misery as they do. It is also sad that they do it ostensibly in the name of Christianity and so few Christians have spoken out; particularly before they started picketing soldiers’ funerals. Quite frankly, as long as Pharisee Phred targeted his vile theology at gays nobody gave a damn.
Says something about “how ye treat the least of thy brothers.”
As I recall the other aspect of “The Laramie Project” was the fact that the person had been tortured to death by self-described “Christians”. They DEFINITELY had a way of treating “the least of thy brothers.”
KFG:
Military takes care of its own first. Non military types don’t usually seem to understand that concept. That is not a put down, insult, claim of lack of respect or anything else. It was a simple statement.
Your ability to take offense to the most mundane comment amazes me. I do agree that the phelps sickness is a concern for everyone. I do not agree that PG should have been the group to respond initially. My asking you why you didn’t was not an attack as you seem to want to imply. Not everyone that asks you questions or disagrees with you is attacking you.
“I do not agree that PG should have been the group to respond initially.”
Sigh. Ray, I never said the PG should have been the first. I never even thought of it.
But now that you mention it…
Who should have been the first?
KFG,
Phelps is a coconut; just ignore him and you will remove his motivation.
V.L.R.B!!
Thank you Ian. I know you are correct.
It is really tough sometimes to let karma run its course. I got to see a little of that in action this week.
But..
Damn, the universe is taking its time with fred and his fellow horsemen of hate. It really tests my unconditional support of the first amendment! :)
Makes me want a mojito!
Seems to be an attitude of military being “better” somehow than regular people.
I had friends who were in the military. I know it is taught to them to have a sort ……..gentle contempt?…. for “civvies”.
This guy Phelps is either universally despicable or not.
You can’t pick and choose who it is ok for him to defile. (I am not saying anyone posting here does)
He doesn’t get to have degrees of being a paraiah according to whose funeral he is disprupting.
He should be opposed everywhere by everyone. Less than that is hypocrisy.
Nasty weather out there today, tornadoes and stuff. I would hate for anyone to lose a house.
But I find myself hoping one is dropped on Phelps and family.
Thanks JR.
Black clouds over my house now. Bloggers, start blowing west or sucking east to get tornados outa here!
I need rain, not hail or more wind!
Uh, just saw Kay O’Connor going by here on a bicycle!
Was Phelps chasing her?
Heheh walker. No, she was screaming something about dorothy and her little dog too!
I did think I saw the cowardly lion hanging around, so that was likely fred. The other two guys with him, well, one was a scarecrow and the other one was a tin man.
The cowardly lion afraid of the world, the scarecrow without a brain, and a tin man with no heart.
Yep, it sounds like fred, joe and terry, headed for a theatre near you.
I suspect pat robertson as the man behind the curtain.
Looking for munchkins now.
All I see now though are mean looking flying monkeys. The legislature must have adjourned for the weekend.
I don’t think ignoring Fred is the way to go, it hasn’t done anything to shut him up or make him go away. We need to fight him with as much aggression and intolerance as he shows the world. “All it takes for evil to reign is for good people to do nothing”. It’s time that asshole and his family had “a frosty mug of shut the hell up” and it’s everyone’s responsibility to give it to him.I love the fact that the buffer zones passed.
Phelps is the little dog: ankle bitin’, pissant barkin’, territory markin’, rabies trailin’ little puke.
Really don’t mean to denigrate dogs though.
The problem with ignoring the moron is the news media thinks we need to be informed of his ignorant agenda. If the media ignored him, he would dry up and blow away.
But maybe Damoon has a respectable solution: confront him with so many people, overpowering his nonsense with noise, he gets disgusted and leaves. Follow him like a cheap suit, and be in place wherever he goes. Damn, that sounds like fun. Play Black Sabath records in the background. Dress like SF gay parade day. hehehe.
J M
Now that is what I’m sayin!
We need people (Patriot Guard, gay groups, anyone and everyone) on this guy and his church like flies on sh.. and 24/7.
Get the news media in it too. Phelps wants attention? GIVE IT TO HIM! Have newscasts show OVERWHELMING condemnation of him from us the public. No more interviews from him til HE requests them. And OH he WILL! And when he does, there should be circus music for background.
Get him the exposure he wants! I want to see him on all the shows. We need to advocate for Jon Stewart, Keith Colbert, Jay Leno, and Dave Letterman to get this guy on.
Ignoring Phelps will not work. He is an ass so let’s help him show his ass.
More?
This bunch has to have an email. ( anybody have it?) Flood ‘em!
They have to have an address.( tell me what it is) A stamp costs 39 cents. Flood ‘em!! Write “contribution” on the outside of the envelope.
JR,You got it, bro. Feed him so much of his own hate, he implodes. Damn, poetic justice at its most beautiful. We find his email address and spam him with his own hate. Spread it nation wide, and watch him start drooling.
Let’s have a look at this problem in a different way.
The Phelps clan are mentality disturbed and what they doing is trying to draw attention to their cry for help { subconscious level }.
I’ll take a stab and say their driving factor is latent homosexuality. And their motivating fear is of divine retribution.
It sounds to me that Fred may have had a homosexual encounter with a soldier { real or fantasized }.
It might shut Phelps down to make the accusation right back to him.
IE. “Fred, you are homosexual and this won’t save you. We know all about what you’ve done. You must stop those homosexual thoughts inside your head, you must stop being queer, stop being queer Fred, repent Fred, repent.”
That might them go away.
Fred is aware of the hatred he is generating against himself now, and may feel this self-punishment is enough restitution. Just tell him it isn’t
If you see Pharisee Phred in his spandex Ed’s premise make sense.
Try these: “How long have you been homosexual Fred?
Have you ever really tried to stop being homosexual, Fred?
Did you just give-up trying to stop be homosexual Fred?
Do you still love your homosexual soldier, and are you still have sex with him in your mind, Fred?
Is God going to punish you for being homosexual, Fred?
Just giving that bastard Phelps attention is exactly what he wants { needs } and throwing his homosexuality in his face is his worst fear, worst nightmare.
Freud said: Take whatever the patient says and turn it around: I love my mother { I hate my mother } and so on.
Phelps is telling us what’s wrong with him. We’re just not listening.
Nobody in his right mind protests a funeral.
So why the connection between homosexuality { God hates fags } and dead soldiers?
Make a video of asking Phelps one of those loaded questions, where I can see the reaction on his face and listen to him stumble. Link it to me.
I tell you what he’s thinking.
Ya know you just may be onto something there Ed.
I wonder also about the dynamic of family and kids.
Some of his kids think he walks on water. Others want nothing to do with them or their father.
There is something deeper at work here.
JR, You’re right. This is a very complicated problem with all sorts mental mechanisms in play.
The thing that strikes me most is the odd relationship between sex and soldiers. Two subjects which should be unrelated, yet are demanding so very much attention.
It seems like a stretch to try to connect them, but there it is. We find ourselves caught-up in the disgusting mockery of what should be a time of deep thoughtful reflection, not a time for a cheap circus display.
The fact that Phelps is willing or needing to do this is met with absolute disbelief for most of us.
I wonder how many of his grandkids and great-grandkids are his kids? After all, he IS a firm believer in family values!
I went to the counter-protest when he showed up to protest the presentation of “The Laramie Project” at Century II. There were a couple of guys who played guitars and sang a song encouraging Fred to come out of the closet. It was hilarious, I wish I had the words to that song.It would be great to show up at his next protest and just blow those bullhorn things they use at games at him the whole time. Giving back to him what he gives to others would be SO cathartic, it would feel GREAT!
As far as the kids, it makes me sick to see them raised in an environment so filled with hatred, they’ll never be anything but screwed up.
Wouldn’t it be a blast to form a group that would just be as nasty and disrespectful to him as he is to others? We could have so much fun getting right down on his level!Maybe we could take a trip up to Topeka and protest in front of their “church”. Maybe the Eagle would cover it and WE could be on the front page!!!
I’m in Damoon.
You still gonna drive the bus?
I’d bet there would be more than a few folks who would join…… or fund us.
Which brings me to ask, just who is funding Phelps? All that travel has to be expensive. His base, at least those that admit to it is vanishingly small. WHo is paying the bills?
Drugs.
I’ll be glad to drive the bus!
Ks,You can’t turn a negative into a positive. You can’t say that the inaction of the people of Kansas about what Phelps was doing is an affirmation of their “hatred of gays.” That is quite illogical. You can’t logically infer that just because nobody did anything when Phelps was protesting gay funerals, that the majority of Kansans hate gay people. For many of em, homosexuality isn’t even an issue.
A quick phone book search on yahoo, can get freds home number and address. Call the IRS to try to get his taxexempt status revoked If your concenered about fred and family influence over his grandchildern call SRS on them. Call the state to get fred jr and margie fired from their taxpayer funded jobs, say they were rude to you you can get Margies and fred jr’s work numbers off of the kansas gov website. give them a call.
A zealot like Phelps only wants attention for himself or his cause. Nothing will aggrivate (or discourage) him more than people just blowing him off and not taking him seriously. Don’t legitimize his cause by responding to it. The best thing we could do as a state is to go the opposite direction of his movement and become known for tolerance and decency. How about repealing the “marriage amendment”?–you know that only encouraged him.
yeah steve, just like it encouraged joe and terry and susan and bonbon and all the good people of wingnuttia who support them.
Phelps’ message plays so well because 70 percent of kansans AGREE with him!