Thank God for the First Amendment

The nutters at the Westboro Baptist Church have an odd (I almost said "queer") notion that God is punishing the United States for its toleration of homosexuals in the armed forces. That punishment takes the form of striking down American soldiers in Afghanistan.

Do they have a right to picket at funerals of dead Americans? Absolutely! It's protected speech under the First Amendment.

Should they picket at funerals of dead Americans? Absolutely not! What they're doing is offensive, ugly, hurtful, and unnecessarily provocative, and it shames them much more than the victims of their shabby harassment.

And of course the same is true of the offensive, ugly, hurtful, and unnecessarily provocative drive to build an Islamic mosque and cultural central next door to Ground Zero.  Blue skies! -- Dan Ford