A hopelessly late response, but I just wanted to ask...

... what the hell has happened to nationalistic biker gangs? ;) Where are the beatings, draggings, the vague menace, the disordered chaos ruled only by fear? Sargent-at-Arms I have heard of ... communications director? Webmaster? A &%$#ing mission statement?
let me emphasize: ;) ;) ;)
I see this isn't a biker gang in anything like the normal sense of "gang" or even "biker". All jokes.
And whatever you think of gay rights, or the war, protesting at funerals is just plain rude.

I don't have a problem with the idea that for a short time, a relatively small area of a cemetary is not a public place. It is reserved for a private party, as many public places can be.

I wouldn't have a problem with that either. Kind of like having a permit to use a softball field.

I have to admit I don't know the legal details of this case, I've only read two or three news stories on it, not the actual legal documents. But the reporting I've seen makes it sound like Phelps lost because he was offensive, not because he was in a cemetery without a permit.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071031/...gets7.lfwE1vAI

I'll admit I'm a little wary at the possible damage done to free speech, but... he WAS invading their privacy, and was DEFINITELY intending to inflict emotional distress. Neither of those are in any way acceptable as free speech.
And a funeral is absolutely NOT a public place.

Why can't we just add a little common sense to the constitution?
Yes, you have the right of free speech. But you DO not have the right to do harm to others by excersizing that right. Just like not being allowed to yell "FIRE" in a movie theatre.

Common sense and common courtesy: two things we were born with the inalienable right to NOT have.:headshake

The Phelps family came to the town I was in to protest my boss at the time, and call him a faggot. I wish I had the photos of that right now....It really looked so comical....just like a bad South Park episode. I was outside of work along with about 100 punks and people from the community, guarding the door to work. The Phelps family was on the other side of the street with god hates you signs etc. etc. painted up in rainbows. The street was closed down by the police.....I got Mrs. Phelp's cell phone number. All you have to do is call Westboro Baptist, ask about their cause, and get her number.

Cic, did you melt some peeps in the microwave and toss them at them? That would have made it even better, I'll bet.

(note: by peeps I mean those insipid marshmallow blobs you get at easter time that are covered in some kind of colored sugar substance.)

God I have been trying to think of a use for those....Nice.....

peeps/pukes

peeps/pukes- we have microwaved them several times-they swell to like 5 times their original size and then collapse in a burnt sugar smelling heap-my kids would MUCH rather watch them nuke than actually eat those horrible things

We have considered a drive by with super soakers using red dye as blood and spraying their bodies, faces, clothes. That shit would not wear off for a week from the skin.

Yeah, except that would be assault and you'd go to jail for it...

I like em', they show the truth of the religion.
"Think not that I come to send peace on earth: I came not to send
peace, but a sword."
Matthew 10:34
"But as for those my enemies, who would not have me reign over them, bring them hither and kill them before me"
Luke 19:27
Another disciple said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." (Matthew 8:21–22)

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
(Matt 10:34-37)

"From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." (Luke 12:52–53)

Yeah, they're your kind of people.