Justices Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas are all wrong in their ruling on the reprehensible Westboro Baptist Church protests at military funerals. Alito alone is right. As he says, the First Amendment is "not a license for vicious verbal assault." The gay-haters at Westboro have plenty of free speech avenues open to them - books, articles, video, audio, TV, radio, public forums, internet postings, emails etc. But they do not have a right to "intentionally inflict severe emotional injury on private persons." The Supremes in this 8-1 decision have taken ugliness off its leash, turned it loose, and legitimized the most vile forms of public verbal attack. They have cried havoc and let slip the dogs of vitriol.
From Bryan Fischer's American Family Association blog, via
Ed Brayton's blog. Brayton comments:
Seriously? The guy who claims that gays are responsible for the Third Reich and the Holocaust because only gays could be as savage as the Nazis and who demands that gays be sent to mandatory reeducation camps to turn them straight is complaining that the Supreme Court protects the only slightly more barbaric rhetoric of the Phelps cult? Words fail.
Haha, I'd agree with that Christian conservative Fischer more if he wasn't such a hypocrite. Fischer frequently appears on Thom Hartmann's radio and TV shows to debate. On Hartmann's
The Big Picture show on Russia Today, Fischer has said (
11/10/2010, discussion of the pending Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal, 4:11 mark): "The only distinguishing characteristic of the homosexual population is that they want to use the anal cavity for sex," after which Hartmann responds "...you want me to start yelling about vaginas and penises? Shock language is not going to get us anywhere." (My favorite question from Thom that interview was "How old were you when you knew you liked girls?" at the 3-minute mark.)
, discussing Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta's Medal of Honor, Fischer said (4:12): "The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things" TWICE without context, which Hartmann had to add: "The purpose of the military is to keep a country safe." And Fischer has advocated banning Muslims from joining the military or immigrating to the US.