Soldier Funeral Protest

[Urbane Guerrilla]

One of these uglies just showed up on tonight's Hannity & Colmes. Within two sentences out of her mouth I was yelling at the television screen. What a devil's spawn.

Now if a couple of their heads were split open with halberds next time they pull one of their pro-fascist demonstrations they might adopt the path of wisdom instead of the hellroad they currently are speeding along.

[Kagen4o4]

killing a few of them would certainly make them think twice about whether what they are doing is right or not. they say people dying is what god planned. send them a message that god wants them dead

As a pacifist who was not always this way these kind of things have an odd effect on me.
I feel pity and love for them.
However, there is still the ghost of the "old me" rattling its cage as he is still in there, and I deal with him at my leisure. I am at that point on my Path and it took me a long time. My impulse not is compassion, not my old impulse and then damage control... usually, of course, I am working, it is a path. But, I digress.
Conversing with my older self on this and I laughed a lot, made several unsettling points.

killing a few of them would certainly make them think twice about whether what they are doing is right or not. they say people dying is what god planned. send them a message that god wants them dead

No, it would martyr them and create an extremely violent, terrorist right-wing fanatic, anti-gay movement. Something that is brewing now, this would be the perfect match on the fuse.

This is a very straightforward con. All the religious crap is window dressing. They protest any event where they can antagonize someone into physically hitting them. Then they sue. Their group is alway juggling several lawsuits at the same time, and this is how they make their money. Wouldn't be surprised if they were actually all Roma

Why would someone hit them.... a couple of tennis-balls, some PVC, duct tape, a drill and a decent 303 and they would never hear the shot coming from a quarter of a mile away at best... with the tennis-ball silencer you could do it from the Chuch parking-lot and no one would hear it. Just take one out at each event... not a slaughter to start the martyr syndrome.
Just one... each time. Sometimes wounding one in a terrible place, take their voice, ability to walk, see... something good. Then, leave a note on the spot a week later, something cryptic like "You should have started with King James" and a rainbow bullet.
Ohhhh.... now you got me wanting to write a new screenplay and I can't finish the one I'm working on now.

Every now and again you buy them pizza or something to drink while they are waiting ... like it is from a fan... then, rig it so the rainbow bullet shows up after they partake for a while.... aaaarrrrgggghhhh must stopppppp

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Pretty clever, though I think perhaps too clever for them. Their doublethink won't allow them to get the message.

Though turning pranks of this kind into media events would allow the rest of the populace to get the message and resist their... blandishments... even more effectually.

I can't be a pacifist: I concluded a long time ago that that philosophy is distinguished by its remarkable unsustainability. When under lethal attack, either the pacifist or the pacifism must die. No other philosophy of life has that liability. Peaceableness, on the other hand, is both good and sustainable; I respect it and try to practice it. I'm not going to make peace and human life the highest thing in my value system -- not when I can place human goodness over these as an even better thing.

I leave to your imagination (and mine) to fill in the outlines of the statement that there are worse things out there than even war.

Being a pacifist does not preclude self defense. But, only as a last resort.
Treat others exactly how you want to be treated in the same situation.

[barefoot serpent]

Leonard Pitts hits Phred nail squarely on the head

the dude is so obviously a self-loathing latent -- ignore all irrelevant behaviour.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

That is what I call peaceableness, then -- not full-on pacifism.

It's good in civil situations -- in warfare, contrariwise, you're trying to get the other guys tired of fighting, or too exhausted in materiel or spirit to continue it.

[Pie]

[DanaC]

Welcome to the Cellar, Claud, nice to have you on board

I can't imagine how difficult it must be for people when the funerals of their loved ones are disrupted in this disgusting and callous way. To intrude on something so private, so individual, is utterly shameful. We only get to bury our dead once and how it's done can have a profound impact upon the grieving process.

I don't know how practical it wold be, and am very uncomfortable about anything which could potentially limit general rights to protest, but i think there's an argument to be had for wide exclusion zones around cemetaries and crematoriums. Nobody, regardless of the circumstances of their loved one's death should have to experience that.