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Fred Phelps Sr. led his small Topeka church for more than two decades in a bellicose crusade against gays and lesbians, saying they were worthy of death and openly declaring—often at military funerals—that the U.S. was doomed because of its tolerance of homosexuality. But in targeting grieving families of troops killed overseas, taunting people entering other churches and carrying signs with anti-gay slurs and vulgar language or symbols, Phelps and his Westboro Baptist congregation created public circuses that may have helped the gay-rights movement. Following Phelps’ death Wednesday at age 84, some gay-rights advocates suggested that he and his church...

Blue Collar Logic

The Supremes haven’t begun releasing new decisions yet, but they’re still managing to make news. In this case, it’s not so much what they did as what they opted not to do. A court case out of Nebraska was challenging a law regarding restrictions on protests which interrupt funerals. It takes little imagination to guess that this was aimed directly at Westboro Baptist Church. The church had challenged the law on constitutional grounds but lost their bid in the lower courts. Rather than taking up the task yet again, the Supreme Court declined to hear it and allowed the lower...

It won't shock AT readers to learn that the Left is deceitful, but here's another piece of evidence: a fundraising letter from Ralph Neas's People for the American Way (PAW) arrived in the mail today. The outside of the envelope and the letter inside display a large photo identified as "Demonstrators at Presidential Inauguration." The signs held by these "demonstrators" read: "God Hates Obama," "Fags Love Obama," and "Hell to the Chief." Anyone paying the slightest attention knows that signs with the word "fag" and "God hates..." most likely originate from the despicable Westboro Baptist Church, and sure enough, a...

Just before gay marriage was legalised in Ireland, JK Rowling tweeted that she was hoping Gandalf and Dumbledore would be able to get married. Now that’s set to become a reality this weekend with LGBTQ rights activist group Planting Peace staging a wedding between the fictional wizards. The nuptials will take place in their rainbow-coloured headquarters opposite the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. The church threatened to picket the wedding if it ever happened....

My parents taught me never to speak ill of the dead, but in the case of Fred Phelps, who died last week at the age of 84, I think they would have made an exception. The man, who will be referred to in this column without the modifier "reverend," because there was nothing reverent about him, defined the word "odious." He and some of his family members constituted the entire membership of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. It was BINO, Baptist in name only. Phelps and some members of his family (though not all) picketed military funerals with...

Civil rights leader Julian Bond Friday called North Carolina the new Mississippi because of its voter-ID law. "North Carolina has become the new Mississippi," Bond said on a program that will air Friday night on "Political Capital with Al Hunt'' on Bloomberg TV. "They've just taken an enormous step backward in voting rights and a series of things because of the domination of Republicans in the House and the Senate and in the governor's chair,'' said, who who is a former chairman of the national NAACP and a former Georgia legislator.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Westboro Baptist Church, whose members are known for protesting high-profile funerals claiming that God’s wrath brought about the deaths, announced its plans to head to Orlando, Florida, after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Officials with the Orlando Police Department confirmed on Thursday afternoon that the group was Florida-bound, citing a letter from the church.

Westboro Baptist Church targeted a Foo Fighters concert at Kansas City's Sprint Center on Friday, Aug. 21, and the band fired back -- with a Rickroll.

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal gave a stern warning to Westboro Baptist Church members who had reportedly threatened to protest the funerals of the Lafayette movie theater victims. “Let me be very clear, if they come here to Louisiana and they try to disrupt those funerals, we're going to lock them up,” said Jindal. The funerals for Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson were held on Monday. Before that, Jindal issued an executive order asking police to enforce a Louisiana State law that protects against disturbing the peace at funerals. But, it did not have to be enforced...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana is concerned Gov. Bobby Jindal may disregard the constitutional rights of the Westboro Baptist Church with his latest executive order. "Governor Jindal's Executive Order ... is misguided and has the potential to be used to infringe on protestors' First Amendment rights," said the ACLU in a statement Sunday morning. Jindal issued an order Saturday mostly aimed at keeping the Westboro Baptist Church -- and presumably the vulgar "God Hates Fags" signs they usually carry -- away from the funerals of two Lafayette movie theater shootings victims. "They come here to Louisiana. They try...

FULL TITLE: Marine vet who was arrested for throwing coffee on Westboro protesters at Beau Biden funeral insists: 'I would do it again in a minute' A Vietnam veteran who was arrested after throwing warm coffee on Westboro Baptist Church protesters picketing the funeral of Beau Biden has spoken out. Richard Pierce, 64, of Wilmington, Delaware said while he would not suggest anyone do what he did calling his actions 'childish', he said he would 'do it again in a minute', according to the New York Daily News. He was taken into custody after he hurled the drink at three...

Unfortunately, the offer is pulled.... Unfortunately, church members hoping to make the trip are just as "out of luck" as Americans who'd like to see them go. As Metro reports, Hills announced on his Friday night show that he has decided to renege on the offer.

Westboro Baptist Church Planning Anti-Gay Protest Outside Robin Williams' Funeral - because of late actor's role in The Birdcage Says it will 'preach in lawful proximity' to star's funeral to 'warn the living' Williams played a gay man in the movie The Birdcage 16 August 2014 Members of the controversial Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church are planning a protest at tragic actor Robin Williams' funeral over his portrayal of a gay man in the movie The Birdcage.

As a former Klan leader is charged with killing three in Kansas, the frayed white supremacy group is trying to attract new members. The Southern Poverty Law Center estimates the number of hate groups in the U.S. has risen from 602 in 2000 to 939 in 2013 The Ku Klux Klan was once a major force in America, with a membership of nearly 4 million that regularly included mayors, chiefs of police and other grandees of segregated regions, especially in the South and Midwest. It’s been decades since the Klan held that sort of mainstream sway, but Sunday’s deadly rampage...

Anti-Israel Leftist Cited by Anti-Semitic Killer Mocked Idea that American Jews are At Risk - FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com - Anti-Israel Leftist Cited by Anti-Semitic Killer Mocked Idea that American Jews are At RiskPosted By Daniel Greenfield On April 14, 2014 @ 12:27 pm In The Point | 4 Comments Leftist Anti-Israel journalist Max Blumenthal, who is affiliated with The Nation, ridiculed the idea that American Jews are an at risk population.Blumenthal, whose attacks on Israel and Jews were described as anti-Semitic even by many on the left, and whose work was allegedly cited by the Kansas City killer and...

In a 2010 interview, Alan Colmes talked with a KKK Grand Dragon, who would later become the Jewish Center shooter, as he was running for Senate in Missouri as a Republican–and the glimpse into the mind of this madman that the interview offers is simply horrifying. On Sunday, Frazier Glenn Miller, or Frazier Glenn Cross, murdered three people at two different Jewish centers in Overland Park, Kansas–including a man, woman, and child. He shot at two others, but they were uninjured. As he was arrested, the founder of the White Patriot Party screamed “Heil Hitler!” Frazier/Cross told Colmes, a Jewish...

A smirking gunman who reportedly shouted Nazi slogans opened fire at a Jewish community center and an old-age home in a suburb of Kansas City, killing three people. The gunman, said to be an older man, singled out Jewish victims for death, Rabbi Herbert Mandl, a chaplain with the Overland Park Police Department, told CNN. “Asking someone if you are Jewish before shooting sounds very much like a hate crime,” Mandl said. Police said two people were killed at the JCC of Greater Kansas City, where children were auditioning for a musical. Despite Mandl’s assertion, the JCC victims were identified...

Local radio is reporting that there has been a shooting at the Overland Park, Kansas Jewish Community Center around 1:00 p.m. Central time. Man walking up to people asking if they are Jewish and boom. News conference at 5:00. Evidently CNN is reporting.

The 73-year-old man charged with murder in the shooting at a Jewish community center and retirement community in Overland Park, Kansas, that left three people dead is reportedly the former Grand Dragon of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Fraiser Glenn Cross Jr., of Aurora, Mo., was taken into custody in the parking lot of an elementary school near the scene of the shootings, and was booked on a charge of first degree murder, according to the Johnson County, Kansas, Sheriff's Office. Cross is an alias for Frasier Glenn Miller, the former KKK leader, according to the Southern...