Match Made Not in Heaven

Here we go again:

The American Civil Liberties Union sued Maplewood today on behalf of a controversial Kansas-based church that protests at the funerals of soldiers, alleging that the city's funeral protest ban is unconstitutional.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, is a first in eastern Missouri but part of a broader effort by the ACLU to go after state and local laws that have been passed in recent years targeting funeral protests, said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri.

Missouri and Illinois are among the more than two dozen states and the federal government that have passed similar laws. Many, if not all, were prompted by the activities of the Westboro Baptist Church and founder Fred Phelps, who believe that America is being punished by the deaths of soldiers and others for its "tolerance" of homosexuality. Church members began protesting at the funerals of gays but then started protesting at soldiers' funerals and carrying signs such as "Thank God For Dead Soldiers."

The church has already won an initial victory against a Missouri law that banned funeral protests.

Phelps-Roper sued in federal court in 2006 to block enforcement of Missouri's law, passed earlier that year. Their bid for a temporary ban on enforcement of the law was initially turned down by a lower court judge, but the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis reversed that decision and the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29 declined to hear Missouri's appeal.

I can't think of a more unsympathetic partner for the ACLU than that wacky Kansas church. They may win some of these cases, but their brand will be damaged for good.

You want to stop these funeral protests? It's not really that hard. You just get some of these more ardent veteran's groups to show up in force, meet the protesters head-on...and beat them senseless. It's not really that hard. Repeat until problem solved. As I read somewhere else in an unrelated post, even a flatworm is smart enough to avoid pain.

You can spend a lot of time with lawyers and court filings, but there's nothing like a little street justice to knock the stupid out of these people.

And don't start quoting scripture to me about "turning the other cheek" or loving everybody. Jesus didn't calmly talk the moneychangers out of the temple - he beat them out of there. Crude but effective.