Former Westboro protester apologizes to mother of slain soldier

[Don Vito Corleone]

From http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...pologizes-mother-slain-soldier-152326906.html -

Former Westboro protester apologizes to mother of slain soldier

A former member of the Westboro Baptist Church–a fringe group based in Topeka, Kan., that pickets soldiers' funerals–apologized to the mother of a 21-year-old soldier killed in Afghanistan on a talk show on Wednesday.

Libby Phelps Alvarez, the former Westboro member, apologized to Sherry and Randy Wyatt for picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers like their son on "Anderson Live" on Wednesday. Alvarez is the granddaughter of Fred Phelps, the group's founder, and has recently left the group. (Other members of the shrinking group have recently publicly defected as well.)

"I just feel sad ... and I'm sorry," Alvarez said. "I thought I was doing the right thing ... but I was just hurting people."

I believe this is the second member of the Westboro Baptist Church to leave and publicly criticize it, and I always find it fascinating. From everything I've read the patriarch, Fred Phelps, rules with an iron fist, and the whole thing sounds more like a cult than anything else, in terms of the total psychological control the church seems to have over its members. I find everything they do distasteful, but in a way it's very American to have such a repugnant group occupy the public stage for so long.

 

[chucky2]

Really no different than large portions of the Left base; just go look at HuffPo readership comments on the SEAL who got killed at the gun range recently...those folks and these people are really two peas same pod.

I think the most surprising thing is Westboro members weren't eliminated by either grieving family/friends and/or ex-military for their disgusting behaviour. At least it sounds like hopefully the group is disbanding.

Chuck

 

[werepossum]

From http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...pologizes-mother-slain-soldier-152326906.html -



I believe this is the second member of the Westboro Baptist Church to leave and publicly criticize it, and I always find it fascinating. From everything I've read the patriarch, Fred Phelps, rules with an iron fist, and the whole thing sounds more like a cult than anything else, in terms of the total psychological control the church seems to have over its members. I find everything they do distasteful, but in a way it's very American to have such a repugnant group occupy the public stage for so long.

A nice apology, no waffling. Hopefully this trend will continue until it's only one crazy, evil old man.

Proposed Twelfth Commandment: Thou shall not be a heartless ass hat even when you feel you are right.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Really no different than large portions of the Left base; just go look at HuffPo readership comments on the SEAL who got killed at the gun range recently...those folks and these people are really two peas same pod.

I think the most surprising thing is Westboro members weren't eliminated by either grieving family/friends and/or ex-military for their disgusting behaviour. At least it sounds like hopefully the group is disbanding.

Chuck

I don't really see posting things on a message board as similar to protesting at a funeral - it's not as though posters on Huffington Post are interfering with the Kyle family's grieving - and there is no indication that these comments reflect the sentiments of "large portions of the Left [sic] base." The most critical public comments I saw regarding Chris Kyle's death were from Ron Paul and his supporters rather than any Democrat.

I don't think there's any reason to think the WBC is disbanding. They are true believers and I expect they will be around for a long time.

 

[Zebo]

A nice apology, no waffling. Hopefully this trend will continue until it's only one crazy, evil old man.

Proposed Twelfth Commandment: Thou shall not be a heartless ass hat even when you feel you are right.

What's the 11th?

 

[chucky2]

I don't really see posting things on a message board as similar to protesting at a funeral - it's not as though posters on Huffington Post are interfering with the Kyle family's grieving - and there is no indication that these comments reflect the sentiments of "large portions of the Left [sic] base." Also, the most critical public comments I saw regarding Chris Kyle's death were from Ron Paul and his supporters rather than any Democrat.

When you see postings on a message board in the context they are posted, they generally reflect the true beliefs of the people posting them. Yes, HuffPo posters might have more tact - or not as much commitment - than the Westboro folks, but their feelings are one and the same. Look, don't take my word for it. Go to the HuffPo link, scroll down, and just start reading the comments there. That's a Lefty site, and you're getting Lefty readership comments there unfiltered.

I don't think there's any reason to think the WBC is disbanding. They are true believers and I expect they will be around for a long time.

That is truly disappointing then. The only good news is I can hopefully read in the future how a grieving family member has a bought of 'temporary insanity' and mows them down repeatedly with a 4x4.

Chuck

 

[88keys]

Really no different than large portions of the Left base; just go look at HuffPo readership comments on the SEAL who got killed at the gun range recently...those folks and these people are really two peas same pod.

I think the most surprising thing is Westboro members weren't eliminated by either grieving family/friends and/or ex-military for their disgusting behaviour. At least it sounds like hopefully the group is disbanding.

Chuck

I guess we can go take a stroll over to FoxNews and see how many racist bigoted retards have commented on their articles, than call you guys racists because of that.

 

[chucky2]

I guess we can go take a stroll over to FoxNews and see how many racist bigoted retards have commented on their articles, than call you guys racists because of that.

Sure, go for it.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

When you see postings on a message board in the context they are posted, they generally reflect the true beliefs of the people posting them. Yes, HuffPo posters might have more tact - or not as much commitment - than the Westboro folks, but their feelings are one and the same. Look, don't take my word for it. Go to the HuffPo link, scroll down, and just start reading the comments there. That's a Lefty site, and you're getting Lefty readership comments there unfiltered.

Chuck

These are the comments of a few people, not the comments of Democrats as a whole. Saying anything other than that is like saying Baptists in general believe God laughs at the deaths of the kids at Sandy Hook because America is too tolerant of gay people.

 

[chucky2]

These are the comments of a few people, not the comments of Democrats as a whole. Saying anything other than that is like saying Baptists in general believe God laughs at the deaths of the kids at Sandy Hook because America is too tolerant of gay people.

I didn't say Democrats, I said the Left. When I say the Left, I mean those on the Left, which isn't the whole Democrat party.

As for a few comments, when I clicked on the link to visit that news thread, it was not a "few comments", it was large %'s of them, perhaps even the majority/bulk of them. Look, I'm not complaining, it was expected really. Sometimes I just like to validate what I already know right from the source (it's like watching C-SPAN).

Chuck

 

[Jaskalas]

A nice apology, no waffling. Hopefully this trend will continue until it's only one crazy, evil old man.

Proposed Twelfth Commandment: Thou shall not be a heartless ass hat even when you feel you are right.

I believe the one and only commandment was issued 2013 years ago. We are to live by that example, or at least attempt to. Westboro fails miserably in that regard.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I didn't say Democrats, I said the Left. When I say the Left, I mean those on the Left, which isn't the whole Democrat party.

As for a few comments, when I clicked on the link to visit that news thread, it was not a "few comments", it was large %'s of them, perhaps even the majority/bulk of them. Look, I'm not complaining, it was expected really. Sometimes I just like to validate what I already know right from the source (it's like watching C-SPAN).

Chuck

If you really believe comments like that represent the views of a majority of "the Left," your perspective is wildly skewed.

 

[werepossum]

What's the 11th?

As far as I can tell it has something to do with illegally copying music and movies.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

As far as I can tell it has something to do with illegally copying music and movies.

Is this a "thou shalt," or a "thou shalt not"?

 

[chucky2]

If you really believe comments like that represent the views of a majority of "the Left," your perspective is wildly skewed.

The comments speak for themselves, I can't skew them, they are what they are. How could I skew what Lefties on HuffPo are posting???

 

[werepossum]

Is this a "thou shalt," or a "thou shalt not"?

A "thou shalt not". Well, it certainly reads like a commandment anyway.

 

[sourn]

Posting something that others may not like is a far cry from shoving it in their face which is what these bastards do.

I'm surprised nobody has completely snapped yet, and took these fuckers out yet.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

The comments speak for themselves, I can't skew them, they are what they are. How could I skew what Lefties on HuffPo are posting???

I didn't say you were skewing them, I said you were mistaken in presuming that they represent the sentiment of "the Left" as a whole. That is like assuming posts on freerepublic represent the sentiment of conservatives as a whole.

Why do you keep capitalizing "Left"?

 

[Theb]

The WBC are hate whores. If they can legally do something to make people hate them then they'll do it.

 

[chucky2]

I didn't say you were skewing them, I said you were mistaken in presuming that they represent the sentiment of "the Left" as a whole. That is like assuming posts on freerepublic represent the sentiment of conservatives as a whole.

If I go to a Lefty board and there are tons of shitbag comments regarding a SEAL killed at a gun range, I should conclude nothing? Why wouldn't I view that as how large portions of Lefties think? Is that not as good of a poll of Lefties as could be taken anywhere?

Why do you keep capitalizing "Left"?

Why not? If I was talking about religious fruitjobs that make up the Right, I'd cap the R in Right. I think when on the Internet where voice is not heard but rather seen, composing sentences in non-standard form helps. Does it bother you that badly or did you just not understand why I was doing it?

Chuck

 

[Moonbeam]

From http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...pologizes-mother-slain-soldier-152326906.html -



I believe this is the second member of the Westboro Baptist Church to leave and publicly criticize it, and I always find it fascinating. From everything I've read the patriarch, Fred Phelps, rules with an iron fist, and the whole thing sounds more like a cult than anything else, in terms of the total psychological control the church seems to have over its members. I find everything they do distasteful, but in a way it's very American to have such a repugnant group occupy the public stage for so long.

To me this a statement of the inner goodness of man, the fact that we are not clay that can be molded this way and that without sometimes snapping back, that in the darkest of darkness we will grow toward the light. This is why time and tolerance are so important, this thing you call American. This is behind what I think we mean by turning the other cheek and forgiveness of sin toward those who sin against us, to treat others well.

 

[Moonbeam]

The comments speak for themselves, I can't skew them, they are what they are. How could I skew what Lefties on HuffPo are posting???

You don't skew what they post, you skew the implications because the implications are a belief that you support by confirmational bias.

They see in America's tolerance of Gays their own destruction. You see the same danger in the hate of some on the Left created by a fear and thus hate of the madness of Gay haters. You want all of them hit by a 4x4. These other haters you hate are more selective than you.

 

[Chuck_v]

They have a hell of lot more people to ask for forgiveness than just the one.

 

[UberNeuman]

They have a hell of lot more people to ask for forgiveness than just the one.

It's a start....

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

If I go to a Lefty board and there are tons of shitbag comments regarding a SEAL killed at a gun range, I should conclude nothing? Why wouldn't I view that as how large portions of Lefties think? Is that not as good of a poll of Lefties as could be taken anywhere?

Why not? If I was talking about religious fruitjobs that make up the Right, I'd cap the R in Right. I think when on the Internet where voice is not heard but rather seen, composing sentences in non-standard form helps. Does it bother you that badly or did you just not understand why I was doing it?

Chuck

This is just inane trolling. Obviously if I go to freerepublic.com I can read all kinds of racial slurs and insane paranoid conspiracy theories about the President - according to you it's fair for me to read that to mean that the majority of conservatives hold those views. I think that's obviously stupid but that's what you're saying. Ridiculous. Honestly I don't see how this is a discussion worth having in the context of this thread, because posts on the internet are in no way the same thing as real world protests at funerals.

As for your arbitrary capitalization, I am a fan of our language and it galls me when it's gratuitously misused. I just find it silly and unnecessary.