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Albatross wrote:Real Americans are hard to find, as most of them seem to identify as Irish, German, Italian or Latino!


Awfully nice chaps, though.

I loled

Ketara wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:You know, it occurs to me (given the way riots tend to accompany the EDL around the place) that the Westboro Baptists would not find Britain as legally accommodating as they'd like. Maybe I'm wrong, but they'd probably cause a riot in and of themselves, I imagine.

If they tried to protest someone's funeral here, they'd be picked up for inciting violence, or a disturbance of the peace.

They did actually try and get in to protest a play in 2009, but Mr Phelps and co. were barred entry to the country.

Quite. Didn't realise they'd tried to get in before. Still, I have to admit, their defeated bravado makes me laugh. It seems they don't realise their right to Freedom of Speech in the US means sweet nothing when they cross into the United Kingdom. Sure, they can get in, but as you say, the moment they start preaching it's off to court with them.
Perhaps not ideal, certainly not if you believe in true freedom of speech, but them's the breaks.

I have two problems with this article.

First the guy who got beaten up. While it may be satisfying to read it turns the tolerance on their head. The US has set a good precedent by letting the Westboro cult protest, and the answer is counterprotest. However the idea that someone has an offensive point of view, so he gets a communal beating and inadequate police response is a poor precedent indeed.

Second, blocking in the cultists at their hotel is novel. However with the removals units running suspiciously behind combined with spurious arrests specifically of those who arrive at the funeral site leaves the police and local authorities wide open to claims of harassment. While this may seem ironic, protests however offensive are not harassment per se, though legislation has been advanced to limit closeness of protests. However false detention is a serious offense and the Westboro lot are litigious and legal savvy.
Assuming the story is as told Brandon Mississippi is in for a raft of lawsuits that Westboro will in all likelihood win. If any police or members of other authorities misused their powers Westbro may sue the county even the state and force resignations. Up to a point this would be justified as the police in any civilised country are not supposed to be doctrinally partisan. You can bet that the details of the vehicle owners used to block the Westboro baptists have been taken, one or two you can explain away, but lots of blocked cars could be considered false imprisonment, or whatever else the Westboro lawyers put together.
This may not end well at all, the last thing you want is for local authorities to have to settle on large harassment and police discrimination claims, its money a local authority cannot afford and will boost cash reserves of the cult substantially, possibly extending their reach.


However, after some searching online the blog from which the OP was taken is all that can be found on Google news. Nearly all reports of this story are copy pastes of the same, so it may well have been heavily embellished.

I would love to go to one of those counter protests.

Heck, protesting one of their funerals would be really funny. A reversal of roles, and we know their tricks, so we can do the same and anger the most amount of people while being safe from back lash.

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:

Ketara wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:You know, it occurs to me (given the way riots tend to accompany the EDL around the place) that the Westboro Baptists would not find Britain as legally accommodating as they'd like. Maybe I'm wrong, but they'd probably cause a riot in and of themselves, I imagine.

If they tried to protest someone's funeral here, they'd be picked up for inciting violence, or a disturbance of the peace.

They did actually try and get in to protest a play in 2009, but Mr Phelps and co. were barred entry to the country.

Quite. Didn't realise they'd tried to get in before. Still, I have to admit, their defeated bravado makes me laugh. It seems they don't realise their right to Freedom of Speech in the US means sweet nothing when they cross into the United Kingdom. Sure, they can get in, but as you say, the moment they start preaching it's off to court with them.
Perhaps not ideal, certainly not if you believe in true freedom of speech, but them's the breaks.

Freedom of speech is what 'we' say it is. The USA is no different in this regard.

Did anybody watch the new Louis Theroux program about them a few weeks ago? Louis is a pretty nice and calm guy, but you could see even his patience was wearing thin.

The whole WBC thing is pretty sad to be fair. A whole family warped by the influence of one sick, old, tyrannical freak.

CUT OFF THE HEAD OF THE SNAKE, AND THE BODY DIES.


The sooner 'Gramps' becomes worm food, the better.

Medium of Death wrote:Did anybody watch the new Louis Theroux program about them a few weeks ago? Louis is a pretty nice and calm guy, but you could see even his patience was wearing thin.

The whole WBC thing is pretty sad to be fair. A whole family warped by the influence of one sick, old, tyrannical freak.

CUT OFF THE HEAD OF THE SNAKE, AND THE BODY DIES.


The sooner 'Gramps' becomes worm food, the better.

Unfortunately his daughter is too far gone, as well as her kids i think.

Melissia wrote:While I don't like the idea of someone getting away with an assault, at the same time... these guys deserved it and more.

So I offer a prayer for their souls-- in their own religion, the two prime directives as stated by their savior is to love god, and to love their neighbors.

Actually the big pastor in charge believes in preaching the hate and punishment of God, not his love so its okay to hate them I guess.

halonachos wrote:

Melissia wrote:While I don't like the idea of someone getting away with an assault, at the same time... these guys deserved it and more.

So I offer a prayer for their souls-- in their own religion, the two prime directives as stated by their savior is to love god, and to love their neighbors.

Actually the big pastor in charge believes in preaching the hate and punishment of God, not his love so its okay to hate them I guess.

Which kind of defeats the purpose of Christianity, you know, when you do the opposite of what Jesus taught.


Also.





Must....resist....urge to.....RAGE!

Blame the victim.

The WBC says that too many churches teach the lovey dovey stuff of Jesus but forget that God gets angry and kills people, citing Sodom and Gomorrah, the flood, and other stories in the bible where God got mad and killed some people. That's where they focus, they think that God's anger is the only way to worship him and they kind of forget Jesus's teachings of peace and doing unto others as they would do unto them.

But yeah, too many over the top christians. A guy down the street cut off his son's head because he thought his wife was the anti-christ and was trying to steal his son's soul.

I actually met some people who said that raped women shouldn't get an abortion, they said it was because the baby didn't do anything wrong so why should it get punished(they didn't go as far as saying that she was at fault though). They also didn't believe in evolution. Nice enough people until that point was brought up.

@ Mike Noble: I am 92.8% sure that was all the work of a magnificent troll. The 7.2% of me that isn't sure want to curl up in a corner and cry.

Erm...uh.....well........ Im not sure either. I want it to be a King of Trolls, troll, but I also have had the awesome chance to talk to such insanely insane religious fanatics before.....and they DO think like that

I thinks i need a forum to troll, anyone able to PM me where that came from?

www.landoverbaptist.net/

The Landover Baptist Church is a fictional Baptist church based in the fictional town of Freehold, Iowa. The Landover Baptist web site and its associated Landoverbaptist.net Forum are a satire of fundamentalist Christianity and the Religious Right in the United States.

Thank you very much biccat

biccat wrote:www.landoverbaptist.net/

The Landover Baptist Church is a fictional Baptist church based in the fictional town of Freehold, Iowa. The Landover Baptist web site and its associated Landoverbaptist.net Forum are a satire of fundamentalist Christianity and the Religious Right in the United States.

Oh thank God it is fake.

I thought it was a joke. Doesn't the WBC have a forum too? If so, some of them may be serious about this kind of thing.

The reason why the Landover Baptists are not obviously a satire is because the Westboro church really is like that.

Kilkrazy wrote:The reason why the Landover Baptists are not obviously a satire is because the Westboro church really is like that.

You couldn't tell they were a satire?

Contra some backwards place in India.

See also: Amnesty International

The personal law of specific communities became a political issue after the All India Muslim Personal Law Board confirmed Muslim clerics’ fatwa concerning the marriage of Imrana Ilahi. Imrana Ilahi alleged rape by her father-in-law in June in Muzzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh; the Board subsequently annulled her marriage and pressed for her rape allegation to be re-framed as a charge of adultery. Imrana Ilahi and her husband defied the directive but the local village council continued to put pressure on them to withdraw their charge of rape.