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Westboro Meets Its Match: Thousands Sign Retaliatory Petitions

What if...? said:
No doubt.

The penalty for punching an obvious asshole should be less than punching an innocent, that's all.
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That's why you have trial by jury and jury nullification. They can weigh those things. Although a pop in the mouth is one thing, straight up assault is another.
 
how about assholes that use lawsuit harassment to put them out of business? If they must be allowed to speak because *shrug* it's legal, then forcing them to hemmorahge cash from lawsuit after lawsuit for any and all reasons a shyster attorney can dream up should be OK because *shrug* it's legal.
 
ChuckBerry said:
how about assholes that use lawsuit harassment to put them out of business? If they must be allowed to speak because *shrug* it's legal, then forcing them to hemmorahge cash from lawsuit after lawsuit for any and all reasons a shyster attorney can dream up should be OK because *shrug* it's legal.
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People can and do. We have an open court system, that's one of the consequences. So long as we don't aggregate too high, it will be ok.
 
megaprogman said:
Westboro Meets Its Match: Thousands Sign Retaliatory Petitions | fox4kc.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thousands have signed two separate petitions that would classify Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group and strip it of its tax exempt status. The petitions were started after members of Westboro announced plans to protest a Sunday vigil in Newtown, Conn.
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What say you? Legitimate action or suppression of free speech?
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I'm as anti-Westboro Baptist Church as anyone else but I'm not sure if an organization with no known record of violence can even be labeled a "Hate Group"__I don't believe they even promote violence other than telling people they hate that God is going to kill them_

Does the White House have this power or is there some official government agency that determines this status and if so what are its Hate Group classification guidelines or is this simply a petition for Westboro Baptist Church to lose its IRS tax exempt religious status?
 
Goshin said:
I will admit something: I am not entirely rational on the subject of Westboro. I want them STOPPED. I am likely to view any halfway reasonable means as justified by the ends.
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I'm with ya.
 
danarhea said:
With a little luck, maybe both of those groups will end up killing each other. LOL.
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That would be nice, but with our luck they'd collapse into each other and we'd end up with a black hole of retarded racism.
 
ThePlayDrive said:
To me, a lot of things other churches say and do are repulsive, they just don't paint their repulsiveness on neon signs and protest the funerals of children. There are plenty of churches/leaders who treat or think of gay people as repulsively as WBC. There are plenty of churches/leaders who think that tragedies like this shooting and Hurricane Sandy are punishment from God. Hell, I'm pretty sure Mike Huckabee blamed this on "taking God out of the schools." Westboro just takes what many others do a step farther. If it should be deemed a hate group, then so should all those other churches.
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And hate filled posts such as this is why I'd be apt to be against this kind of action against WBC....because it simply furthers other peoples hate to negative purposes while likely not actually stopping or significantly hurting WBC. The emotional part of me goes "**** yeah, screw Westboro". But when I stop to think a moment, and especially reading typical crap like this, and realize that it just sets a precedence for interjecting government further into religion and trading constitutional hate for constitutionally questionable hate.
 
Zyphlin said:
And hate filled posts such as this is why I'd be apt to be against this kind of action against WBC....because it simply furthers other peoples hate to negative purposes while likely not actually stopping or significantly hurting WBC. The emotional part of me goes "**** yeah, screw Westboro". But when I stop to think a moment, and especially reading typical crap like this, and realize that it just sets a precedence for interjecting government further into religion and trading constitutional hate for constitutionally questionable hate.
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Oh really? "Typical crap like this." Go **** yourself.

In case you didn't notice in your emotional state, the slippery slope fallacy is still a fallacy and my argument isn't that anybody should actually be deemed a hate group. My argument is that one church who does the same thing as a bunch of other churches should not be singled out. THAT is abuse of power. Either do it to everybody or don't do it all, but doing it to one and not the others is hypocritical and unjust.
 
MaggieD said:
They either fit the criteria for a nonprofit or they don't. One can't just say, "We're nonprofit." There are rules and guidelines to get that status. I don't think anyone is saying it should be done illegally, but if a petition causes the IRS to look at it more closely? That's a good thing. (I'm not saying they should just disallow it . . . only if they don't fit the criteria.)
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I believe they actually did have to fit the criteria before they were approved. It wasn't given to them just because they said so.
 
megaprogman said:
Westboro Meets Its Match: Thousands Sign Retaliatory Petitions | fox4kc.com



What say you? Legitimate action or suppression of free speech?
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I appreciate and agree with the sentiment, but I don't think we can lawfully pick which messages we think are sufficiently hateful so as to move people from 'legitimate church' to 'hate group'.

OTOH, I am not sure I care about the law when I think about Westboro. But, I would much rather see them get the **** beat out of them by masked thugs than to have the First Amendment trod upon. Masked thugs would be a delight, actually.
 
Even this petition gives them the encouragement to carry on. This tells them they're still effective.
 
I would love to take one of those semi automatic weapons the left is always whinning aboutand blow their heads off.
 
Navy Pride said:
I would love to take one of those semi automatic weapons the left is always whinning aboutand blow their heads off.
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Wow...:doh
Way to remain civil.
You would be no better than them then, you would give them what they want, more attention.
You to stoop to that level is sickening and not the right way to handle this.
Disgraceful.
 
radcen said:
Even this petition gives them the encouragement to carry on. This tells them they're still effective.
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The idea that if you stop paying attention to them they will stop what they are doing is pointless. First problem with that is that you will never get people to stop paying attention to them especially considering they know how to annoy people and when people are at their weakest to go bother them. You will never stop people from paying attention to them no matter how much you complain about it, and they know that. The second problem with your statement is they never needed encouragement to do what they did to begin with. They enjoy what they do, it makes them feel good. This is why they last so long. This is why you cannot outlast them. This is why you cannot win.

The best thing to do would be to strip them of their tax free status because they use their church's funds to campaign. that won't end them doing what they do, but at least we will get some tax money from them considering they are not a religious organization, they are a political campaigning organization. This will probably never happen as it is clear the IRS has absolutely no interest in revoking religious status of people who violate the restrictions of religious tax free status. I would guess the IRS doesn't want to heavily look into these things because it opens up a whole huge can of worms with christianity funding too many government officials in the US, and also for being a tax free haven for criminal and political money. You certainly do not want to piss off a group of lawsuit happy lawyers like the WBC because they are just the type to sue for equal treatment under the law and attack the big church's.

Personally I would say hit the WBC in their tax free status and see what other gems on the corrupt christian church falls out and how many government officials get caught up with their hand on christ's cookies, but that will never happen. That would be something like campaign reform or congressional reform to make those lazy assholes do their job. It is a great idea but when the corrupt are the people running things you would probably get more traction praying to god.
 
Navy Pride said:
I would love to take one of those semi automatic weapons the left is always whinning aboutand blow their heads off.
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OK, stay calm. hopefully help is on the way.
 
To me, this is just stooping closer to their level...

don't infringe on free speech...
 
radcen said:
Even this petition gives them the encouragement to carry on. This tells them they're still effective.
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"God Hates Fags" shouted at the funerals of innocent little kids can't be ignored, radcen. It strikes so deeply at the heart of what any decent human being ought to feel is indecent and obscene. It's not like a music artist who says an outrageous thing or takes off their clothes and can be ignored as an attention seeker, what WBC does goes far beyond that. They seek to wound people when they are at their weakest.
 
As a Kansasn and a sane citizen i sign both of these petitions.
 
What I see is a couple of petitions asking the WH to investigate their tax exempt status. Nothing more. The WH already has the authority to investigate is it sees fit.

WBC is a despicable bunch, and I don't understand why they think that their God goes around killing 5 year olds because gays are getting married. But they are essentially harmless and not worth much of my time other than to stand around with the bikers when they show up in my town.

In my view, a far better method of handling these people is for pickups to get stalled in parking lots, bikers holding meetings between the group and the protest venue. Roads suddenly getting so clogged with sightseers. In other words, out harass them.

Peacefully, or course.
 
I don't get the WBC's anti-Gay connection to the funerals of slain innocent children and teachers. Can someone please enlighten me?

Imo, the WBC's behaviour qualifies as obscene and inciteful which is beyond the boundry's of free speech. They add nothing of benefit to society and are using the tax exemption as free ride to spread their hate.
 
Moot said:
I don't get the WBC's anti-Gay connection to the funerals of slain innocent children and teachers. Can someone please enlighten me?

Imo, the WBC's behaviour qualifies as obscene and inciteful which is beyond the boundry's of free speech. They add nothing of benefit to society and are using the tax exemption as free ride to spread their hate.
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Based in their tweets I looked at it goes like this (I think) : They are celebrating God's punishment of that wicked community in allowing the shooting to occur, with said punishment having been the result of CT's supporting gays. I would hope they would not be calling dead 6 year olds "fags" like they do dead soldiers, but who knows.
 
Fisher said:
Based in their tweets I looked at it goes like this (I think) : They are celebrating God's punishment of that wicked community in allowing the shooting to occur, with said punishment having been the result of CT's supporting gays. I would hope they would not be calling dead 6 year olds "fags" like they do dead soldiers, but who knows.
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Ugh, those people are so sick.


Thank you, Fisher now I see.
 
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