Boy, one nut draws a whole crowd

So now, Westboro you-know-what (I won't insult Baptists everywhere by calling them "Baptist", and I won't dignify them by calling them a "Church") wants to protest at the funerals of the Tuscon victims. Why, asked Laurie. Knowing full well that I was about to embark in something I've been advising against- trying to electroplate sanity onto madmen- I went in search of an answer. Her is an interview with the principals, courtesy the New Phoenix Times.



Westboro Baptist Church: Gabrielle Giffords an "Arrogant Pinhead;" 9-Year-Old Victim "Going to Hell" -- and More Idiocy From Clan of Kooks
By James King, Mon., Jan. 10 2011 @ 7:23PM


In addition to protesting the funeral of the 9-year-old girl murdered during Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, the lunatics from the Westboro Baptist Church tell New Times they plan to protest the funeral of Federal Judge John Roll and picket the very corner at which the massacre took place.Shirley Phelps-Roper, a leader with the group, says she plans to hold a "God on the Corner" demonstration -- a play on the "Congress on the Corner" event held by Giffords on Saturday -- in protest to the "rotten rebels" who are destroying America."I'm over here laughing," a rambling and often-incoherent Phelps-Roper tells New Times. "You think you can run God off the corner with your stupid laws?"

Phelps-Roper even had the gall to make light of the injuries sustained by Giffords in the attack."She has the audacity to stand on the corner and talk about free speech? She should keep her lips off the Constitution," Phelps-Roper says, "and now she will keep her lips off it."Phelps-Roper describes Giffords as an "arrogant pinhead who surrounds herself with fags and baby killers."As for the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, Phelps-Roper considers him a "tool of God" used to rid the earth of the "rotten rebels.""God sent the shooter -- that guy's bat-shit crazy -- but god sent him," she says.

Phelps-Roper had some heinous things to say about Roll, as well.She says, all federal judges should die after a judge in Baltimore, Maryland, ruled against her group in a free-speech case. She says all federal judges had a duty to stand up for free speech."That's why that judge is dead," Phelps-Roper says. "He doesn't care about free speech."She says the group plans to protest his funeral, in addition to the funeral of 9-year-old Christina Greene, who was killed in the attack. Phelps-Roper says she "look[s] forward to it."

We asked her what value she finds in protesting the funeral of an innocent child senselessly murdered by a gun-toting maniac. Her response made even less sense than the rest of what she spewed during a 20-minute phone conversation."We're connecting dots for you rebels," she insists. "[Greene] was appointed when she was born for this -- she just happens to be the one God chose to make an example."Once the child enters hell, it's over for her," Phelps-Roper rants.Thankfully, there are already several groups -- including a student group from the University of Arizona and possibly the Hells Angels -- organizing to make sure these lunatics don't get anywhere near Greene's funeral.

And here's more on the Motorcycle counter-protest from FoxNews.

But when the church announced it would picket the funeral Thursday for the 9-year-old girl fatally shot over the weekend at a Tucson grocery store by a gunman who allegedly killed five others and injured 14 others attending a town-hall session by Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Tucson- and Phoenix-area residents started organizing immediately.
They may not be able to stop them, but they plan on giving the grieving family as much of a buffer as possible between the protesters and the service.
"It makes me sick to my stomach," said Glen Littell, who's bringing a pack of bikers from the Phoenix Motorcycle Rider Group to Tucson on Thursday. "They're a stench from a slaughterhouse. We're just going to block the stench so the family can catch their breath."
Littell said his riders are not looking for any violent confrontations. But he told FoxNews.com that Arizona bikers are going to do "whatever we have to do" to cordon off the family from the protests. A group called the Patriot Guard Riders often does this when the Westboro church pickets military funerals, but Littell said that group is not traveling to Tucson, so "we're stepping in."
"Our sole purpose will be to allow that family some dignity and respect … without having to worry about the a--holes," he said.
It's not clear whether the Westboro church intends to picket the funerals of all the victims of Saturday's attack. One press release from the group declared, "Thank God for the shooter," and said the group would picket the "funerals." Another release announced plans only for the protest on Thursday.
"God sent the shooter to deal with idolatrous America," the group said in a statement.
. Meanwhile, several grassroots groups have popped up on Facebook calling on Tucson residents to intervene.
"We will create a wall of humanity to allow the families who've lost their love ones to hold their funerals in peace, held with dignity, and surrounded in love," one of the Facebook groups says in a statement.
Another calls for a "peaceful protest" of the church at the funeral Thursday for 9-year-old Christina Green.
Littell has notified the Pima County Sheriff's Department and has reached out to several other biker groups notifying them of their planned presence at Green's funeral. He crossed his fingers that the Hells Angels would join them.
"Nothing says stand back and be silent like a Hells Angels presence," he said.
Littell added that if the church moves on to picket other funerals, his riders will follow.
"We're getting word there's gonna be a pretty large presence of bikers," he said. "Word's spreading. And spreading quickly."

Ya gotta hope these people try something with the Hell's Angels. I agree with those who say we should ignore WYKW in the media, but I posted this so that you, gentle reader, can look at the similarities between the "insane" Jared Loughner (posted earlier) and the "sane just misguided" Shirley Phelps-Roper and understand that sometimes you can get away with being a lunatic, if you surround yourself with enough like-minded lunatics. Or, to put it in the way the James King blog did: