Existential Ennui

~ Searching for Meaning Amid the Chaos

Existential Ennui

Tag Archives: right-wing crazies

Obama is For Life-I’m for Death

08 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Sherry in An Island in the Storm, fundamentalism, History, Islamophobia, Muslim, terrorism, World History

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

ISIS, religious fundamentalism, right-wing crazies, violence

groucho i'm against it So we can start off with the “this is much ado about nothing” which of course begs the question, “why bother?”

Cuz a girl’s gotta write since it’s my passion, and there is always the miniscule hope, (for we all know that it springs eternal) that some poor bastard out there who was “damn the President for dissin’ Christians” will awaken from the fog of dissonance and the clear bell of enlightenment will ring forth: “I was once stupid and now I am not.”

Such is at least my justification for this essay.

I just happened to be tuned in the other morning as the President gave the traditional speech at the National Prayer Meetin’ which is held annually in Washington where all the sinners come to pretend they are doin’ their very best to apply God’s law as they slip another check from Exxon-Mobile and JP Morgan, into their $3000 suits.

The President, as we all know, has pretty much given up on the idea that facts, and good logic will get him anywhere, and as of late has pursued a policy of “screw you, try to stop me” and a general “fuck you” to Congressional Republicans who are fresh off the latest round of “ain’t got no bootstraps with which to pay for healthcare? Well die, you dog, and make room for those who do.”

As every good American knows, there’s the guys in the black hats (bad) and the guys in the white hats (good) always near to the scene. America is built upon this scenario and we have all the cheesy old westerns to prove it. Let us introduce the latest and best entry into the black hats category. A group known as ISIS (not to be confused with an Egyptian god) or ISIL if you have a clue what Levant means.

ISIL is a slipshod group of thugs who claim a perverted understanding of Islam which they use to justify their attempts to take over the world. Since their threat is pretty much everywhere, that means just about everyone else gets to be the guys in the white hats, but Merika of course always has to lead, cuz we are the super, super white hats.

Anyway, if you hadn’t noticed, we have a fair share of Arab Muslims (and Arabs in general) who live in the US, and boy I sure wouldn’t want to be them, since Americans are flighty people who tend to assess blame against whole swaths of people since it’s just easier. We learned that from the movies too, where it’s often best to “shoot first and ask questions later.” Anyway, even the dumbest of President (that would be you Dubya) have realized that it’s really not a good idea to let the great stupid mobs of American whiteness carry on in this manner, and so they are always at pains of ‘splainin’ to the stupid white people that NOT ALL ARABS ARE MUSLIMS AND MORE IMPORTANT NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE KILLERS. In fact the huge majority are not, but are just peace-loving, family-seeking individuals like you and me.

Now Dubya can say nice things about Arab Muslims, and even hold hands with them, and nobody thinks a thing bad about it.  bush-holds-hands-11-9-10 He can even share a short peck and not even be thought particularly gay. Just good old American manners.

And he can say all kinds of nice things about Muslims to remind dumb American white people that it’s never a good idea to paint a brush too broad.

“Ambush-saudierica treasures the relationship we have with our many Muslim friends, and we respect the vibrant faith of Islam which inspires countless individuals to lead lives of honesty, integrity, and morality. This year, may Eid also be a time in which we recognize the values of progress, pluralism, and acceptance that bind us together as a Nation and a global community. By working together to advance mutual understanding, we point the way to a brighter future for all.” Presidential Message Eid al-Fitr December 5, 2002

But when President Obama reminds us that there are bad people in all religions historically who have done really bad things

Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history.  And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.  In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ. . .So this is not unique to one group or one religion.  There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith.  In today’s world, when hate groups have their own Twitter accounts and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace, it can be even harder to counteract such intolerance. But God compels us to try.

the hue and cry from the extreme right in this country rose like a phoenix, screaming that such utterly evil words had never been spoken in all of our democracy.  Former Governor of Virginia, Jim Gillmore was “outraged” having never heard a more terrible thing from the lips of a President. Santorum and Limbaugh chimed in with their mortification of Christianity today being compared to the unspeakable ISIS killers. And on it went, the rallying cry being “this is not a moral equivalency!!”

And it was not suggested as such either, if you read the text.

It was meant to remind everyone that while the killings by ISIS are horrific, we as humans have been doing horrific things to each other since the inception of so-called civilization, and a good deal of it has been veiled in perverted religious beliefs. People find it most convenient to put on the mask of religion to disguise their blatant lust for power and to express their hatred and fear. It has always been so. ISIS is no different in that respect than all the others. It is no more heinous, no more bloody certainly, and no more representative of the faith it espouses than any of the others were.

A few examples should suffice.

jesse-washington-lot13093-no.38 African-Americans in this country were often burned at the stake during slavery and Jim Crow. If you don’t think it was done in the name of Christianity, then read the words of the Confederate Vice President Alexander Stevens:

[T]he first government ever instituted upon the principles in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society … With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race, that it should be so.

It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposes, He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made “one star to differ from another star in glory.” The great objects of humanity are best attained when there is conformity to His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments as well as in all things else. Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws.

The charred body of Jesse Washington pictured above was in 1905 in Waco. The deaths of countless other African-Americans during Jim Crow by lynching, by the KKK (which always has a “Christian” front), occured. George Wallace invoked the name of God dozens of times in his 1963 inaugural  address where he also famously uttered the words, “Segregation now. . .segregation tomorrow. . .segregation forever.” 

The extreme Right-Wingers will tell you that the Crusades were wars of defense. Yet the arguable owners of that land were Palestinians and Jews. Muslims lay claim based on Muhammad. Yet Christians have no real claim certainly any greater than Jews or Muslims. All claim the area as holy.  Yet when the first Crusade ended, the city of Jerusalem was cleared of all non-Christians, and by cleared I mean murdered. Jews who barricaded themselves in their synagogues were burned to death and survivors sold into slavery. All told the Crusades occurred over about 200 years, ending in 1291 or so.

When Saladin recaptured Jerusalem, only then were Jews allowed to return and live in relative freedom.  This was in 1187, nearly a hundred years later.

They claim that the Inquisition was “political” as if that means something.

In fact the Inquisition was instituted by Pope Innocent III and set up by Pope Gregory IX. Confessors to heresy were burned alive. In 1242 the Talmud was condemned and burnings of Jews began in France in 1288. The Inquisition was begun in Spain for fear of “secret Jews” and the Conversos (those that had converted at pain of death in the first place and were suspected of retaining their true Judaic beliefs). In Seville alone more than 700 Jews were burned to death. By the time it ended in 1808, nearly 32,000 died by fire.

And the Inquisition was not just in Spain and France. It spread to Portugal and then to New World colonies and throughout Asia as well. 

We need not but mention the Troubles in Ireland in which religion was the division between sides. Or that of India/Pakistan again, where religion affiliation defined the sides.

It is not that religion perverts human souls, but that some small sick group humans use religion to perpetrate their own evils upon the world.

President Obama, in the hopes of tamping down the ugly nativism that is so beginning to plague this nation with its ugly hate, attempted to remind us that we all have blood upon our hands. ISIS is but the latest in a long line of evil people doing evil things in the name of their perverted version of God.

** Let me recommend Jeff Sharlet’s book The Family which documents the shady and weird folks behind the National Prayer Breakfast.

**Also a great read is Karen Armstrong’s Fields of Blood which argues that religion has played  a lesser role in most violence historically, however much it may have been the cover story. I’ve not read this but I’ve read others of hers and she is a uniquely qualified religious scholar who is highly respected for her scholarship. She was once a nun herself.

 

 

 

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The Other Side of the Oreo

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by Sherry in Diego, GOP, Humor, Immigration, Life in the Foothills, New Mexico, Satire, teabaggers, The Contrarian, What's Up?

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Contrarian, GOP, right-wing crazies

This morning the Contrarian went off to Lowe’s for lumber. He’s always going to Lowe’s for lumber. I was going to go, since I wanted a new front door mat, but I realized that I had a heavy cooking schedule today after housework. So I declined, thinking to stop there on my way home later in the week.

Much to my What surprise, the Contrarian returned with the lumber and a doormat! I praised him profusely as a good wife always does, and he replied, “I saw they had a long aisle devoted just to doormats. I thought I probably should just go to the end of the display and just stand there.”

“What a thing to say! I don’t treat you like that!” I exclaimed.

“All men are doormats, it’s part of the definition of husband,” he murmured, smiling benignly and handing me the knife he had just used to peanut butter his bread. With that he walked out of the kitchen.

Men are strange creatures.

We’ve done a bit of renovation here at Casa Peyton. We had sliding patio doors at the back of the living room leading to the patio. We were not keen on them. We now have french doors which I really adore.

I’m sure you didn’t notice, but the temperatures here have taken an ugly dip. Just another day, and things are going  back to the more normal 70’s during the day. Our walks in the desert have been decidedly chilly the last two mornings, but Diego seems to enjoy it immensely. This leads to our second renovation.

Diego is one of those animals that insists on having an ability to get in and out at will. If he isn’t granted an open door policy, he bugs you like every fifteen minutes. With the weather growing cooler in the morning and late evening, a solution was in order. Voilá, bring on the dog door.

Our intrepid handyman took care of the doors and the Diego door in a couple of days. It took Diego all of 30 seconds to understand the concept. He goes in and out so often that the Contrarian says we mis-named him. Frank Burns should have been his name (famous for his taunt to Hawkeye–“I can go in, I can go out”–when Hawkeye was under “tent arrest.”) We taped the flap up until he got used to it, and then lowered it while he was out, and he blew through like it was not there.

So next I figure to replace most of my counter. I have grown in a very short time to hate grouted tile counters. Food sticks in the grout, and it’s awful to try to roll out dough. So we are having it replaced for most of the kitchen. That sounds so unfun to live through but still it shouldn’t take too long to do.

So before you all leave in utter boredom, let me get on to something interesting.

Republicans remain clueless. The douchy-bag of all douchy bags, Joe Walsh, who was soundly defeated in Illinois, he is making noises that he might run for either Governor of Illinois or Senator. Yes, another pig just flew by my window! I’m sure Walsh will be successful too.

Nutjobs from 47 states are now petitioning the US Government to be allowed to secede from the Union. Texas is leading the way, but I suspect you knew that before I said it. They of course also demand a recount. Because of all the voter fraud. Which was not reported by any media. But then the media is part of the conspiracy to deny real Americans their rights. Except the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. You might think that would be the FIRST right taken from them. Odd I would think. Key word is THINK.

A woman in Arizona ran down her husband in a parking lot because he didn’t vote. She blames him for Obama’s victory. They said she was sober. They said nothing about her sanity.

Tip to the GOP. Rule one in trying to solve your “Latino” problem. STOP CALLING PEOPLE ILLEGALS.

Sigh. . . .Ryan continues to live in the delusion. He of course blames the loss on “urban” voters, not issues. Of course not, everyone loved his tax plan.

A poor deluded man had Romney/Ryan tattooed on the side of his face. He is a bit disappointed at the results of the election, but hopes his tattoo may lead to some work in the “entertainment industry.” Yes, Jay Leno surely can find 30 seconds for him on one of his stupid human nights. I’m sure that will pay the rent for a couple of days.

Well, I couldn’t find a lot of interesting news today. Sorry.

It’s like that some days.

 

 

 

 

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Who Popped All My Balloons?

05 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by Sherry in African American, Economy, fundamentalism, Humor, Individual Rights, Non-Believers, poverty, racism, Satire, social concerns, Sports, teabaggers, Uncategorized, What's Up?

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

African Americans, basketball, Bryan Fischer, Butler, class, economy, elections, judges, racism, right-wing crazies, UConn, Wisconsin

It was a yawner, a dud, it was Much Ado About Nothing. Close your eyes, and miss nothing. You might have confused it for a high school state championship game.

About the best you can say, is that UConn played good defense. Butler? Where they even there?

Two jokes I came across. One is a WordPress blog post entitled:

“They should have shown Hawaii-5-0. There was better shooting.”

or this one:

‘If you compared Butler’s shooting percentage against the sobriety meter, you could have legally driven.”

After all the great games leading up to the final, this just didn’t deliver. UConn “won” mostly because they were there, occasionally putting the ball into the hoop. It won’t be one people “talk about” in future decades.

Wonder what’s happening in hockey? Are my Redwings doing anything?

♦

It comes as no surprise that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Vanity Fair puts it in some perspective with a nice piece. Our lopsided rich/middle/working/poor scale is akin to that of Russia and Iran, while Western Europe is much healthier. Yeah, lets keep gutting programs for the poor, and keep reducing taxes on the rich. That’s the ticket.

♦

Today is a biggie in Wisconsin. They are voting on judges. Self-defined conservative David Prosser is trying to keep his seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where he can “maintain the conservative” control and be a “complement to Governor Walker and the GOP controlled legislature”. Prosser called the Chief Judge a “bitch” and explains why that was not really his fault to Fox, you know, the place all the GOP comes to pitch their “fairness.” A left-leaning assistant attorney general is running against him. Apparently as of now, the numbers voting are extremely high. We are keeping our fingers and toes crossed.

♦

It always seems to me that the Uber Right hate just about everyone. Everyone that is except whites and the right kind of Christians. Super hater, Bryan Fischer is at it again. Now he wants the entire welfare system ended. In him pea brain, the increase in poverty is because we have welfare. And get this, it just encourages those people to “rut like rabbits.” Yeah, he actually said that. Read the full remarks at Right Wing Watch.

♦

Here’s an interesting question. If you  could  “be” someone else for a day or so, who are some folks you’d like to see from the inside out? Angry Black Lady Chronicles has some interesting choices. For me, Cleopatra, Hypatia, Mary Magdalene, Katherine Hepburn, Socrates, Einstein come to mind.

♦

I’ve said it a dozen times here at least. The extremist right-wing Christians are no different from radical Islam. Both want to force their religious views on everyone else. Br. Dan at Dating God, makes precisely this argument about Terry Jones, the moron who burned a Qur’an and undid a whole lot of progress in Afghanistan in one moment of madness. When hate is your mantra, you simply have turned your back on God.

♦

Chauncey DeVega poses a very interesting question about black pride and white prejudice. In a new world where Fox and tea parties turn racism on its head accusing blacks of being racist and portraying whites as the new black, how do we judge these terms. What do they mean? Are they different for blacks and whites? It has been the contention of most African-Americans I know, and something deeply instilled in my from years of working for African-Americans, that only white people can be racist. As DeVega says, blacks can be mean and awful in every prejudiced way, but never racist. Read and see what you think.

Carry on!

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  • Honorary Co-Chairman Of David Prosser’s Campaign Resigns (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
  • Sarah Palin endorses hard-right Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate David Prosser (americablog.com)

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Lies, Lies, Damnable Lies

11 Monday Oct 2010

Posted by Sherry in Catholicism, Election 2010, Essays, fundamentalism, Gay Rights, Humor, Immigration, Immigration, Individual Rights, Iowa, Jim DeMint, Latino, Newt Gingrich, poverty, Satire, social concerns, teabaggers, Voting, What's Up?, World Wars

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Tags

Bruce Braley, Carl Paladino, Catholic Church, Democrats, food stamps, fundamentalism, gay rights, GOP, immigration, Iowa, Latinos, Nazis, Newt Gingrich, Ohio, patriarchy, Politics, right-wing crazies, social issues, violence, women

Private monies funding attack ads are favoring GOPers about seven to one. And there are no reins on them either. Truth, Smuth. Who cares. It’s winning that counts.

Here in Iowa, they are out in force against Bruce Braley (D-IA), from the 1st district. The little dweeb running against him, just bought his first suit, or so it looked at their debate. Yet something like $800,000 is being spent by outside sources to defame Braley, telling Iowa voters that he is responsible for their individual taxes going up a cool $1600 per person next year. A bold-faced lie, but of course his opponent need only shrug and disclaim any responsibility.

This is taking place all over America. The GOP is not funding these “loser” races, because it cannot, but big business can. And they are. Further, as was noted on PBS News Hour, candidates in the future know what they will face.

Of course ads besmirching the character and actual policies and actions of  Democratic incumbents and candidates is only a part of the problem.

The other is the character and policies of the GOP-Teabagger candidates themselves. Paladino, in New York continues to try to walk back his ugly comments about gays.

”I just think your children and my children would be better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option–it isn’t.”

What he included in his written speech but didn’t actually say, and later denounced was this:

“There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual. . .[which] is not how God created us.”

Paladino has since tried to walk back his comments claiming a great love for all things gay, except marriage,  but his campaign manager continues to defend his statements as “exactly equivalent to the Catholic church.”  As David Wilson points out in the Commonweal piece, whether Paladino is in line with Catholic teaching or not, is this the way it should be expressed? He asks whether the hierarchy owes some statement about the tone being set by Mr. Paladino.

It is no secret that the Catholic church does not support active homosexuality. In this I would argue that it is categorically wrong and probably on some level realizes it among its scholars at least. However, having painted itself it a corner on many of these issues (the Church being protected by the Holy Spirit and being incapable of error on matters of doctrine and morality), She is having a mighty hard time figuring out how to get in step with modern exegesis and ethics.

To hide behind the Church’s skirts, if you will, is no defense at all to Mr. Paladino. Two wrongs don’t make a right as they say.

***

I had to laugh yesterday when I was perusing the political blogs and came upon a reference to Cantor and his claim that the Ohio wannabe congressman who participates as a Nazi in WWII re-enactments had gone a bit too far. The writer, and I have no clue who it was now, suggested that FINALLY we have found something so outrageous that even Republicans are offended! Not the desire of such folks as Angle and Miller to disband and social security, medicare and Medicaid, and unemployment benefits. Nay, that is just forcing folks to look out for themselves. Not gay bashing, and treating undocumented workers as criminals who deserve hanging. Nay, that is just upholding morality and homeland security. But Nazi sympathizers? That just might be too much.

Cantor probably should speak to DeMint and the cuckoo clock in Delaware, I’m not so sure they would agree with him.

***

Oh Newt the Snoot is at it again. Newt is another of those GOPers who still doesn’t GET that what he said before is actually written down and SAVED. Newty is urging his fellow slugs to start calling the Dems the “party of food stamps.” Except there Newty, you forget! Perhaps there is a limited brain capacity of the average sluggo, and that explains Newty’s failure to recall how he supported  Bush’s rather blatant attempt to increase food stamps for immigrants in the hopes of enlarging the Hispanic vote for the GOPers. Oh Think Progress, don’t miss a thing!

***

It seems to awful to be true, but it is true. And Ahab at Republic of Gilead has done a great job in investigating and reporting on the strong ties between violence against women and children to the religious right. Indeed, it is their screwy interpretation of scripture that endangers women and children every day in this country. Read this and know thy enemy.

***

Hope the day is finding you well and happy.

Related Articles
  • Paladino offended gay pride parades’ bumping and grinding (nydailynews.com)

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Okay, I’ve Made it This Far

07 Thursday Oct 2010

Posted by Sherry in 1st Amendment, Congress, Constitution, Essays, Feminism, GOP, Humor, John Boehner, Satire, teabaggers, What's Up?, Women's issues

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

1st Amendment, Constitution, feminism, Humor, John Boehner, right-wing crazies, SCOTUS, Snyder v Phelps, women, Women's issues

I’ve come to believe that there are things that humans shouldn’t do. And if they do, well, what happens to them is pretty much their own fault, and I figure the gene pool is thus protected from self-destructive influences.

In other words, I don’t mourn idiots. The photo at right illustrates my point perfectly. This intellectually challenged individual is wrong on two counts. He (or she, but really most women are too smart for this) is climbing vertically which means falling will almost certainly cause serious injury or death.

That’s bad enough, but this, if I only had a brain! excuse for humanity, is climbing on ice, which is cold and can cause injury and death, seriously!

Mountains should be climbed if at all only when they have proven to contain precious metals or live-saving medicinal plants, and on no account should they have inclines of more than 20°. Otherwise one gets winded, and being winded leads to be tired, and being tired leads to making mistakes, and making mistakes leads to serious injury and death.

Am I making this clear? Suffice it to say that I watch Extreme Sports and cheer for the sport.

In case you aren’t happy enough yet, then go over to Vodka and Ground Beef and see about her fun quickie date at the Border’s Bookstore. I’m sure some of you could relate. Though not me. I’m not that kinda girl. I was, but if you tell anyone I’ll deny it. Just between us two, you understand.

And if that’s not enough, well, The Borowitz Report, has some significant info about the shakeup at the White House. Not to give it away, but it involves the White House, Afghanistan, and the Minnesota Vikings. Yes, with a little effort, you can see the relationship surely.

And if that is not enough, well, I suggest you contact your therapist, because you are wayyyy to depressed.

***

John (I bathe in Cheetos) Boehner, is all poised to become the new Speaker. In fact it’s pretty clear from listening to him that it’s all he can do to keep his Depends® changed regularly, he gets so excited.

Bob Herbert has a very good report on all things Boehner. He frankly defines the word sleaze. Beholden forever to special interests, he just wallows in the good life supplied to him by all those lovely tobacco interests, et al.

***

Frankly this is an interesting question. Why are so many of the uber crazies on the extreme right women? AlterNet picks up a post at Bitch Magazine which helps to give an answer. Worse, these women are attempting to redefine feminism. The connection may be the religious right, where many of these women got their training. In any case, this article is well-worth it and links to another carried at Slate.

***

And now for a personal opinion. Yes, all the other stuff is pure fact! I do not lie!

The SCOTUS took up the volatile case known as the first amendment funeral case, otherwise known as Snyder v Phelps. This is the type of case that tries the souls of liberals, because every fiber of my being suggests that Mr. Phelps and his sick family (the only real “members” of his “church”) should have their mouths duct taped. There behavior and rhetoric is reprehensible, period.

However, if the 1st Amendment means anything, it means that we allow speech to occur which we find obnoxious, even blasphemous, even cruel and inhuman. That’s the nature of the beast. To do otherwise allows for the other side to have purchase to a doctrine that would allow them to silence simple opposition.

There are only two real bases for disallowing speech–speech that endangers life and limb, and speech which promotes immediate violence. Those are pretty thin parameters and indeed they need be. The typical scenarios are shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre, and inciting others to riot in a crowd, somewhere.

I think that Mr. Phelps and his motley crew of ugly might well satisfy the later. The Contrarian supplied the important ingredient here–namely that a funeral creates a place that cannot be “moved.” In other words, those attending must attend at the location of funerals–cemeteries. Thus one cannot “avoid” the hate-spewers.

The haters are inciteful–they carry signs applauding the death of  the subject of the funeral. They are inviting as it were reactions of the most explosive kind. The Contrarian pointed out that many of these military funerals now are attended by bikers whose sole purpose is to protect families from the tiny regiment of vile sign carriers.

Bikers, it seems to me, are rather well-known for their fight first mentality, and if the situation becomes unruly, then I would suggest, real violence can and is likely to ensue.

I’d like the SCOTUS to declare Phelps and company to cease and desist. But, I’d also like the Justices to declare that this case pretty much is limited to its very special facts and falls wholly within the parameters of one of two existing bases for limiting free speech.

At least that’s the way I see it.

Related Articles
  • Supreme Court Weighs Free Speech Limits in Military Funeral Case (politics.usnews.com)
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