..............More Westboro.............. So THIS Is Free Speech Huh?? ..........

.....................which is fine but when *I* decry these people I am told by other bloggers to shut the hell up coz in America you have Free Speech.

Just to let you know - we DO have Hate Speech laws in Australia - as well as privacy laws protecting the rights of victims - so I will point out how abhorrent these people's actions are.

Free Speech was NEVER meant to protect evil people like this.

The full article is at Sozo's Blog HERE - one of my favourite reads.

Here is an excerpt.......

According to this document put out by the church itself, they plan to

"PICKET WEST VIRGINIA’S WORSHIP OF DEAD MINERS IN RALEIGH COUNTY, THURS., APR. 8 AT 10:00 AM"

The document goes on to say that:

"In 2006 when God killed 12 miners, we reminded you that God owns those mines! WBC scheduled a trip to Virginia and West Virginia for this week, April 8-11, 2010, and you brutes immediately started threatening us and blaspheming God. So God reached down and smacked one of those mines, killing 25 (and likely four more are dead). Now you moan and wallow in self-pity, and pour over the details of the dead rebels’ lives, pretending they’re heroes. We will join that public discussion and remind you – again: obey God or He will curse you! This whole nation is awash in rebellious sin and defiance of God, His standard, and His servants’ faithful words. THEY DIED FOR YOUR SINS! “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words,” Jer. 19:15.

GOD HATES W.V.!THE DEAD MINERS ARE IN HELL!

So.................. let me sum up in my own blunt but oh so adorable Aussie way.

Incitement to hate is NOT Free Speech - it is simple HATRED being protected by a man written document. The abuse of the Constitution by these people is disgusting and abhorrent to all concerned.

I do not believe that MY American Grandfather who fought in WWII would approve of the acts of these people being protected.

................................Quote Of The Month.....................

............During this holy season, it is comforting to have the Westboro Church - Baptist followers of Christ himself - showing their caring and sharing side..................



"Whatever righteous cause the Jewish victims of the 1930s–40s Nazi Holocaust had, (probably minuscule, compared to the Jewish Holocausts against Middle Passage Blacks, African Americans and Christians—including the bloody persecution of Westboro Baptist Church by Topeka Jews in the 1990s), has been drowned in sodomite semen. American taxpayers are financing this unholy monument to Jewish mendacity and greed and to filthy fag lust. Homosexuals and Jews dominated Nazi Germany . . . The Jews now wander the earth despised, smitten with moral and spiritual blindness by a divine judicial stroke . . . And God has smitten Jews with a certain unique madness . . . Jews, thus perverted, out of all proportion to their numbers energize the militant sodomite agenda… Jews are the real Nazis."



Personally - I didn't think you COULD insult Jews *&* Gays at the same time - but it just goes to show I obviously wasn't trying hard enough..................

Oy vey & ***snap***

Damien
.

...............So Now Westboro's Are Getting PAID By Their Victims???.........

...................ok - so NOW you have NO right to privacy even at a funeral for your dead Marine son???

Read the article..................

(CNN) -- The father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church says an order to pay the protesters' legal costs in a civil claim is nothing less than a "slap in the face." "By the court making this decision, they're not only telling me that they're taking their side, but I have to pay them money to do this to more soldiers and their families," said Albert Snyder, whose son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, was killed in action in Iraq in 2006.

Members of the fundamentalist church based in Topeka, Kansas, appeared outside Snyder's funeral in 2006 in Westminster, Maryland, carrying signs reading "You're going to hell," "God hates you" and "Thank God for dead soldiers."

Among the teachings of the church, which was founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps, is the belief that God is punishing the United States for "the sin of homosexuality" through events such as soldiers' deaths. Margie Phelps, the daughter of Fred Phelps and the attorney representing the church in its appeals, also said the money that the church receives from Snyder will be used to finance demonstrations.




But she also said that the order was a consequence of his decision to sue the church over the demonstration. "Mr. Snyder and his attorneys have engaged the legal system; there are some rules to that legal engagement," said Phelps, a member of Westboro who says she has participated in more than 150 protests of military funerals. "They wanted to shut down the picketing so now they're going to finance it," she said.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ordered that Snyder pay more than $16,000 in costs requested by Westboro for copies of motions, briefs and appendices, according to court documents. In a motion filed in October, Snyder's lawyer, who is representing him for free, asked the court to dismiss the bill of costs, or, alternatively, reduce the 50-cent fee per page or charge Snyder only for copies that were necessary to make their arguments on appeal. "We objected based upon ability to pay and the fairness of the situation," Sean Summers said.

The mostly pro-forma ruling is the latest chapter in an ongoing legal saga that pits privacy rights of grieving families against the free speech rights of demonstrators, however disturbing and provocative their message. Snyder's family sued the church and went to trial in 2007 alleging privacy invasion, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy. A jury awarded the family $2.9 million in compensatory damages plus $8 million in punitive damages, which were reduced to $5 million. Westboro in 2008 appealed the case to the 4th District, which reversed the judgments a year later, siding with the church's claims that its First Amendment rights had been violated.

"The protest was confined to a public area under supervision and regulation of local law enforcement and did not disrupt the church service," the circuit court opinion said. "Although reasonable people may disagree about the appropriateness of the Phelps' protest, this conduct simply does not satisfy the heavy burden required for the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress under Maryland law."


The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case to address issues of laws designed to protect the "sanctity and dignity of memorial and funeral services" as well as the privacy of family and friends of the deceased. The justices will be asked to address how far states and private entities such as cemeteries and churches can go to justify picket-free zones and the use of "floating buffers" to silence or restrict speech or movements of demonstrators exercising their constitutional rights in a funeral setting. Both Phelps and Snyder's attorney said they were surprised that the 4th District chose to weigh in on the issue of legal costs when they could have waited until after the Supreme Court hearing. Phelps believes the ruling bodes well for her side.


"It is a good harbinger of the fact that the Supreme Court will remind this nation that you don't have mob rule. The fact that so many people hate these words does not mean you can silence or penalize them. That's supposed to be the great liberty that we congratulate ourselves on protecting in this nation. We strut all around the world forcing people to give all the liberties we supposedly have," she said. Phelps anticipated that a Supreme Court ruling in the church's favor would be unpopular, but she said Westboro's members viewed the potential outcome in Biblical terms. "When the Supreme Court unanimously upholds the 4th Circuit, it's going to put this country in a rage, and we will be expelled," she said. "But whenever it was time for an epic event in the Bible, the thing that happened right before is the prophets were removed from the land, and that's what's going to happen to us. ... We're going to sprint to the end of this race."

Snyder claims he is unable to pay any legal costs in the case and is attempting to raise funds on his son's site, http://www.matthewsnyder.org/. He is equally optimistic that he will prevail before the Supreme Court. "The American people keep my spirits lifted a lot and give me hope. I think most of the country is on my side on this issue," he said. "Too many people have died to protect our rights and freedoms to have them degraded and spit upon like this church does."

Why is no one outraged by this?

Why arent people up in arms that this fundamentalist group is now getting LEGAL APPROVAL to violate the privacy of the most sacred ritual a family has????

*THIS* is free speech gone awry and why I am pleased that in my country we have laws regarding hate speech that prevent this.

Everyone has a right to their opinion - but even in a democracy, freedom has limits.

This is outrageous.

. .