If you have a spare hour, I highly recommend the BBC documentary referenced in this video. The saddest parts are the ones involving the children; at one point, one of the kids is hit in the head with a Sonic cup thrown by a passerby. At another part, Shirley, the mother, is trying to get her son to regurgitate hateful indoctrinated phrases, like "soldiers are fags," "dikes are going to hell," etc. It really is tragic that those kids will grow up to be just like her, and there's not anything anyone can do about it. At one level, I find it hard to condemn even her...I can imagine her growing up 40 years ago, completely innocent, with Fred Phelps implanting his ***** ideas in her mind. He and his wife are the real poison.
I loathe Westboro Baptist, but why the focus on whether or not Phelps is gay? I mean, the son called it here...the guy is a sociopath and the group is a cult. But the whole tone of the thing is, "He must be a repressed gay man." I just don't think there's any indication that Phelps is gay.
I don't like what he says, but I defend his right to free speech. Those that silence him can silence me.
Why is him airing his idiotic position bad? Wouldn't it be worse for him to get elected holding this views secretly than for him to spew them aloud and fail. Why are we so afraid of his point of view being expressed- it's not very compelling and is easy to counter.
Re: “Scott Roeder, convicted of killing George Tiller, sentenced to 'Hard 50'”
This guy is a right wing terrorist, no doubt about it. If his name was Ali, he would be getting waterboarded in Guantanamo right now, and the conservatives would see absolutely zero hypocrisy in it.