The State of Hate in Kansas

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

If there is a God, and if She has a sense of fairness (or humor), surely Scott Roeder and Fred Phelps will eventually share a very small cell - with one narrow cot!

Roeder, the man who shot Dr. George Tiller of Wichita in the good doctor's church on a Sunday morning, called the Associated Press yesterday and admitted murdering Dr. Tiller. (Big whoop, there were dozens of witnesses!) But Roeder wanted to trot out his clever defense and parade it before the American public. His claim is that since Dr. Tiller was an abortion provider, killing him would save future fetuses from being "murdered." Scott Roeder wants his trial is to be about the actions of a physician who was working within the limits of the law - and not about himself, the creep who pulled the trigger and murdered a man in cold blood.

Scott, has God commissioned you to do Her work? If Dr. Tiller was doing something immoral, and I certainly do not believe that he was, couldn't God handle the retribution? Why would She need to use some stupid puke like you to settle things for Her? You committed a murder Scott, with malice aforethought. Own it, savor it, masturbate to it, but do not try to convince yourself or anyone else that you were doing God's work. God can do Her own damned work - and you may learn that sooner rather than later!

Fred Phelps, Topeka's strangest son, is at it again. The Phelps family, resident rodents of a large compound near Topeka, have been embarrassing the nation for years by protesting at the funerals of gay individuals (Matthew Shepard, for one) and persons whom they feel have been too tolerant of gays (Barry Goldwater, for one).

Old Fred (he will be 80 on November 13th) is a disbarred attorney who fashions himself a preacher. The family controls its own church in Topeka, the Westboro Baptist, where reportedly 60 of the 71 members are relatives of Reverend Fred. The church's theology is basically anti-gay, but it also has a strong bent toward physical child abuse. Old Fred was never one to spare the rod, a proclivity that led some of his children to reject the family and move on to safer (and saner) pastures.

A couple of years ago this family of moral degenerates went completely off of their collective nut and began protesting at the funerals of American service men and women who were killed in battle in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their "logic" for that hurtful stupidity was that our government has an agenda to support homosexual lifestyles, and the deaths of these uniformed young people was God's payback for the government's support and encouragement of gay rights. (All of that nonsense while our government is still kicking good soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines out of the service for being gay!)

Fred, wake up and smell the stupidity!

The Phelps' are a bunch of mean bastards. They scream and yell at mourners, desecrate the American flag, and try to incite violence at what should be very somber ceremonies. Many of the members of this family of evildoers are attorneys, and they show up at the funerals with video cameras so that they have records of any violence directed toward them. Can you say "chickenshits?" Even the children of this crazy clan are put out on the street to yell and scream at grieving family members.

A young person dies in the service of his or her country, and the grief-stricken family and friends have to struggle to say good-bye through the noise and nonsense of Fred Phelps and his evil spawn!

Yesterday the Phelps circus stopped by Washington, DC, where they set up their freak show outside of the school attended by the Obama girls. So their program is expanding - from anti-gay, to anti-American, and now, to anti-little girl. The Phelps family would have to evolve significantly in order to qualify as pond scum! (But, judge that for yourselves: www.godhatesfags.com)

Scott Roeder and Fred Phelps are not representative of Kansas, but they are products of the winds of hate that are blowing across America. The craziness that dangerous fools like these inflict on America must stop, but it will only stop when all Americans - regardless of race, political persuasion, age, gender, sexual orientation, whatever - link arms and say emphatically "We are better than this." For until we can make that statement, loudly and honestly, we remain at the mercy of of this sick rabble.

Worse Than al-Qaeda

by Pa Rock
Outraged Citizen

It's easy to be mad at al-Qaeda. Those crazy bastards go around killing people in the name of Muhammad or Allah. Crazy people with a crazy prophet and a crazy God. Killing in the name of their God - what an outrage!

Fortunately, here in America we are better than that. Religion is ... well, religious. It's about love and peace - not hate.

And if you believe that horseshit, let me sell you a prime piece of the Sonoran Desert.

Yesterday a "good" Christian shot and killed a physician in a church in Kansas in the name and spirit of his God. You know the story by now. Dr. George Tiller, a women's reproductive health provider, was gunned down while he was handing out programs at his Lutheran Church in Wichita. The shooter, Scott Roeder, belonged to the "Freemen," a group of whackos who believe that our government is out to get us. He was once arrested for having bomb-making materials in his car. I don't believe that he has had to opportunity to speak to the press, but be assured that he shot the doctor secure in the knowledge that he was doing the Lord's work.

God Bless Dr. Tiller for even attempting to practice medicine in Kansas. The Sunflower State is, after all, the home of homophobic lunatic Fred Phelps and his equally insane daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper. Kansas has been in a long struggle as the state board of education attempted to pass "creationism" off as science education. And then there is Bob Dole. Kansas is a very strange place!

A few years ago Dr. Tiller was wounded in each arm by a deranged "Christian" woman. His clinic has been burned, and recently suffered serious and expensive vandalism. At least one statewide elected official is thought to have been feeding confidential information about the doctor to members of the state's hate groups.

Conservative clown Bill O'Reilly has been hammering Dr. Tiller as "Tiller the Baby Killer" on his Fox News (sic) Show for several years, and provocateur Ann Coulter has also singled him out for at least one of her abusive tirades. Christian charity at its finest!

Here is another side of Dr. George Tiller. It was posted at The Daily Kos today by someone who actually knew him (www.dailykos.com):

The George Tiller I Knew

by loree920

Sun May 31, 2009 at 06:45:47 PM PDT

Like many in this community, my heart is heavy today. There have been many great diaries that talk about Dr. Tiller's years of service to women, and the threats he has endured throughout the last years of his life. My story is a bit more personal and I want to share it with all of you to give you more insight into the man.

In 1975 my Mom noticed an indention in her left breast. She called and made an appointment with her OB/GYN, Dr. George Tiller. After his initial examination, he ordered a biopsy. While performing the biopsy he immediately knew that the lump was cancerous. Instead of just closing and scheduling surgery, he “grabbed a handful”, his words not mine. Her cancer Dr. credited this quick thinking by Dr. Tiller with saving her life, and due to this she didn’t even have to undergo chemotherapy.

Several years later my Mother and I were driving by his clinic in Wichita. Mom started complaining of chest pains, so I drove into his parking lot and ran in to get help. Dr. Tiller was by Mom’s side immediately, and stabilized her, before the heart attack could cause severe damage.

In 1980 I was pregnant with my first child. I had no insurance and couldn't afford a doctors appointment until I was approved for a medical card.. Mom told Dr. Tiller and he brought me into his office where he examined me, free of charge. I can credit him with the very first picture taken of my son.

The last story I have to share is about my friends who could not have children. Dr. Tiller’s office worked with several attorneys in the Wichita area to provide adoption services for his patients who wanted this option. My friends have a 10 yr. old boy now, who is loved and adored.

I’m not a great writer, so I apologize that this isn’t nearly as eloquent as some of the diaries on Daily Kos. I just wanted to get this story out to you, so you could hear how this man wasn’t just a tremendous fighter for women's rights. He was a brilliant physician, and a kind and compassionate human being. RIP Dr. Tiller and thank you for all you did for my friends and my family.

So the evil "Tiller the Baby Killer" was really a human being - and now he's a dead human being, executed by a "good" Christian who was just doing the Lord's work.

Is anyone surprised that good God-fearing Christian Americans would kill? Certainly not me. Several members of the conservative noise machine are relentless in their castigation of anything that seems directed at alleviating suffering or poverty. Their Jesus was just babbling when he talked caring for the poorest among us - and the meek inheriting the earth - yeah, right! Their God is a very old white man who doesn't like Mexicans or gays, and isn't overly fond of independent women - and those silly stories in the Bible should not be taken literally - except when they meet the greedy interests of well-heeled "Christians."

Yes, but our terrorists don't blow up buildings and kill indiscriminately. Of course they do - remember Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols taking down the Federal Building in Oklahoma City? Or Eric Robert Rudolph, the sick fuck who set off the bomb at the Atlanta Olympics? Mr. Rudolph also earned fame as a bomber of women's clinics before he became a twisted version of a folk hero as he roamed the mountains of North Carolina hiding from the FBI.

If our government was truly invested in rooting out terrorism, it wouldn't have dropped the ball in Afghanistan and rushed off to Iraq to massage George Bush's daddy issues. And if our government was truly, truly invested in stamping out terrorism, our troops would be heading off to places like Idaho and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and blasting those in-bred, gun-toting militia idiots out of their trees. Let the Middle East take responsibility for their own terrorists - we have plenty of our own to deal with here at home.

And our terrorists are just as awful as theirs - maybe even worse.

"There are few things in this world as evil as a 'good' Christian." -- Pa Rock

The Savage Weiner

by Pa Rock
Amused American

Yesterday the United Kingdom's Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, made news by announcing the names of sixteen individuals who have been banned from entering the United Kingdom. The ban went into effect last October when, supposedly, the selected individuals were informed that they were not welcome to enter the British Isles. Ms. Smith, in making the list public yesterday said, "I think it's important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here. It's a privilege to come to this country. There are certain behaviors that mean you forfeit that privilege."

Apparently those behaviors include terrorism, racism, gay-bashing, and stupidity.

The majority of those named were political extremists from the Middle East, but a few notable Americans also made the list. Stephen Donald Black, a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard was on the list of banned individuals, as was neo-Nazi Erich Gliebe. Topeka's favorite homophobe and all-around idiot, Fred Phelps, can no longer enter the United Kingdom, and neither can his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper. (The Phelps' Klan makes the news on a fairly regular basis with their protests at funerals of American service men and women. Their contention is that our government supports a gay agenda, and hence our service members are somehow helping to promote a gay lifestyle. - You can't get much stupider than that!)

But the highlight of the list of people now banned from entering the United Kingdom was American right-wing radio personality Michael Savage. Savage is known for his bizarre racist rants, and has spent a lot of air time hollering about the need to keep Mexicans out of the United States. Now he is in a major snit because somebody wants to keep him out of their country. I was listening to Savage yesterday being interviewed by NPR over the phone. He became angry over a question that another caller asked, and threatened to hang up. The host calmly replied, "Go ahead, then." And he did!

Michael Savage was born Michael Weiner. Apparently "Weiner" did not fit the image of a seriously rabid shock jock, so he changed it to the much more macho "Savage." I wonder if he ever thought about splitting the difference between Weiner and Savage and going with "Sausage?"

Probably not.

Fall from Grace

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The God that Fred Phelps worships is one mean bastard – and that’s the way old Fred likes Him! Fred isn’t one of those “kissy-poo” preachers. He wants you to know that if you don’t follow the literal word of the Bible, as interpreted by Fred, God is going to kill you and send you to a fiery hell. Religion is a true comfort to Fred Phelps.

This week I had the disquieting experience of seeing a documentary on the Phelps Cult (a.k.a. Westboro Baptist Church) of Topeka. The film is titled Fall from Grace and it was put together by K. Ryan Jones, a film student at the University of Kansas.

On one level it should be a simple task to do a documentary on Reverend (sic) Phelps and his family of believers - just turn on the cameras and let them roll. Get those shots of him and his genetic residue carrying signs and shouting about hating “fags” and dead soldiers. (If there's a mourning family in the background trying to bury a loved one, that's all the better.) Make certain to include footage of the ragtag protesters stepping all over the American flag or using it as a football. Get a long shot of the flagpole in front of the Westboro Baptist Church flying the American and Canadian flags upside down. Zoom in on his web site, godhatesfags.com, and see how many days Matthew Shephard has been burning in hell, and then get some interviews with people who show up to be appalled by the Phelps circus.

Jones covered those Phelps’ basics. The strength of his documentary, however comes from his access to the Phelps’ family. The film contains several extended clips of old Fred (and boy, does he ever look old!) preaching (more like yelling and screaming) to his followers, as well as interviews with some of his children, both inside and outside of the cult. Jones even talks with some of the very young grandchildren who tell him that “god hates fags” and “fags are going to burn in hell.” Nice talk, kiddos!

Almost all of the members of the Westboro Cult are members of the Phelps family. Four of Fred’s children are major voices in the film. Shirley Phelps-Roper stated that she is the attorney for the church, and she lamented ad nauseam about how people refuse to recognize god’s word and live by it. Timothy, her brother, wanted the world to know that when his father dies, the church will live on – and it will be more active than ever because he and his siblings are “battle-hardened.” He also defended taking young children to protest at funerals as comparable to others taking their children to Easter and Christmas observances. It’s all religion, don’t you know! Those who try to limit the Phelps practice of their religion in their manner can “go to hell,” sayeth Timothy.

The film’s counterbalance to all of this sickness comes through interviews with some of the more conventional local clergy and public officials from Topeka, as well as telephone interviews with two of the Phelps’ adult children who escaped their father’s wrath and control. Phelps’ son, Nate, who fled the compound on the evening of his eighteenth birthday, talked of being beaten on a regular basis with a razor strap to the point of bleeding, and of his father hitting him unmercifully with a long, wooden implement handle. He said that the kids went to public schools but were not allowed to dress out for physical education because of the bruises that would be revealed. Nate also listed a precise set of reasons why he considers the Westboro Baptist Church to be a cult and his father to be a cult leader.

The other former family member to talk to the filmmaker was Fred’s daughter, Dortha. She described life in her father’s home as being “loveless” and “scary.” She depicted Fred as having “the emotional maturity of a fourth grader – on a good day,” and said that he was “addicted to anger – a rageaholic.” Dortha said that Fred wanted to control her every move, and her primary focus growing up was survival. The saddest part of Dortha’s story was her relationship with God. She was constantly told that her father spoke for God, and she knew that her father hated her, so therefore God hated her also.

While the film’s content was strong and strident throughout, it became absolutely riveting with the interview of Kelly Frantz, a young war widow from Tonganoxie, Kansas. Kelly’s husband, Corporal Lucas Frantz, was killed in Iraq in October of 2005. Lucas had been a high school football player and was loved and admired by the community. Kelly told the interviewer of the emotional pain and grief that she went through on learning of her husband’s death. Before that shock could even begin to subside, she was stunned to learn that members of the Phelps’ cult were coming to Tonganoxie to protest at Lucas’s funeral. Her parents and a local motorcycle club managed to keep the desecration squad away from Kelly, but her emotional farewell to the love of her life was sadly marred by the mean-spirited crazies from Topeka.

This student documentary was solid enough to be picked up and presented by the Showtime Network. It grabbed my interest and held it, and, perhaps as important, it left me wanting to know more about these people. For instance, how are they funded? How do they pay for their continuing nationwide travel? Do they maintain solvency through Internet begging? The compound is a set of mediocre houses and a church (of sorts) on a nice parcel of land. Has the city of Topeka ever considered removing this cancer through the process of eminent domain and turning the property into some sort of Tolerance Park? That might be a bit radical and not overly fair to the residents of the compound, but, hey, when have they ever been known for fairness?

But I digress. Fall from Grace will be rebroadcast by Showtime on December 26th at 8:00 eastern. It’s worth checking out, but keep your hand on the remote because this film could have a sudden, negative impact on your blood pressure!

God Doesn't Even Hate Fred Phelps

The Lord works in mysterious ways, and earlier this month Her choice of a modus operandi was the United States Federal Court System. Acting through the distraught father of a Marine who was killed in Iraq, God smote America's best known hate-monger, the Reverend (sic) Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church / Cult of Topeka, Kansas.

Do you know about Fred?

Fred Phelps was born in Mississippi during the Great Depression, did a stint at Bob Jones University without graduating, and eventually became a Kansas Attorney specializing in Civil Rights cases. And while he did assist in bringing an end to some of the Jim Crow legislation that was still on the books in Kansas, his gears soon began to slip and he was ultimately disbarred for bizarre behavior in Court. Fred's other accomplishments of note include fathering thirteen children, nine of whom still claim him, and founding a church - of sorts. That church, the Westboro Baptist, has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to Wikipedia, "60 of its 71 confirmed members are related to Phelps through blood or marriage or both." Both?

Phelps and his church/cult became famous and a national embarrassment primarily on one issue: their rabid stand against homosexuality. Their premier website, for those not overly faint of heart, is: godhatesfags.com. (Are you getting the picture?) It was the Phelps crew from Westboro who protested and heckled the Matthew Sheppard funeral. For awhile the group was content with just being cruel to the families of AIDS and hate crime victims. Somehow though, they have since conflated their homosexuality issues with the US Military, and are now protesting at military funerals on the premise that the United States has enabled homosexuality, and our dead soldiers are God's revenge for that transgression. The group also has up websites detailing their hatred of Canada, Ireland, and Sweden.

Though Phelps and his minions are openly hostile to the American government (and Fred himself has spoken glowingly of Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein because of their stands against gays), they are not too proud to avail themselves of the protections offered by the United States Constitution. Whenever anyone has summoned the courage to attack these bullies in Court, they wrap themselves tightly in the First Amendment and proclaim the sancity of their freedom of speech.

But maybe the lights are finally about to go out at the Westboro circus.

The Federal Court in Baltimore looked at more that just freedom of speech. Those judges also considered a family's right to privacy and the emotional distress that comes with having the funeral of a loved one disrupted with plackards and heckling. And when those good judges viewed the whole picture of what these homophobic crazies had hurled upon people who just wanted to bury their Marine son in quiet and dignified repose, they took a big step to righting a festering wrong. The Court awarded the family of the deceased Marine 10.9 million dollars to be paid by Fred, two of his children, and the Westboro Baptist Church.


May the verdict hold through appeals, may the government seize and sell the Westboro Compound to pay the damages, and may the whole place be bulldozed and salted by a team of gay construction workers so that nothing ever grows there again! And then may God bless us each and every one, especially Fred.

Amen