The Friend of my Enemy...

Some things just defy explanation. The Phelps family is at it again, this time setting up a protest outside the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq. Bubblehead has the story. (For those who are fortunately unfamiliar with Phelps, he is a self-described Christian from Kansas who is notorious for picketing funerals and taunting the families of the dead. If the dead person is gay, then the placards are "God hates fags" and the like. Here, it was "Thank God for 9/11" and "America is Doomed." Making fools of themselves and disgracing the Lord is their family business.)

Bubblehead writes this eloquent rebuttal to the nutjobs:

I got to thinking about what kind of country allows people like this to flaunt their unpopular opinions while being protected by the police. The answer, I decided, is only a country that is strong in our democratic beliefs and sense of our own destiny would continue to allow this. Here, at a funeral honoring a hero who had given her life so that people halfway around the world could be free, we saw those charged with protecting the weakest of us, the police, firefighters, and Soldiers, protecting people dedicated to tearing down everything they hold dear. And these people had the strength of character to ignore the asshats trying to ruin this solemn occasion, and concentrate instead on the good of this country: the part of the country that produces heroes like CPL Carrie French.