WHY I WASN'T "SADDENED" BY THE DEATH OF FRED PHELPS

I, like a lot of people I'm sure, was NOT saddened by the death of "pastor" Fred Phelps who was the founder and head of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church. The so-called "church" first gained infamy for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the college student who was brutally murdered by a couple of gay-basing A-Holes because he was "gay" or whatever. Fred and his gay-basin' "family" gained even more infamy in recent years when they started picketing funerals of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan to somehow "promote" their "anti-gay" message with those signs that say "God Hates Fags!" and "Thank God For Dead Soldiers!" and whatnot. The Supreme Court itself emboldened this sorry-ass group by ruling they have a "right" to protest said funerals. Frankly, the reason why I personally despised Fred Phelps really had nothing to do with him being "anti-gay" or whatever since, as far as I'm concerned, people can "hate" whoever the hell they want to "hate" just so long as they DON'T go out and try to harm others as a result of said hatred. No, the reason why I utterly despised this useless motherfucker and his equally-useless "family" is because of their "plans" to picket the funerals of those Amish schoolgirls who were brutally murdered by that madman in that Amish schoolhouse some years ago. It wasn't until a right-wing radio talk show host named Mike Gallagher intervened and offered them some airtime on his show in exchange for the promise that they WOULDN'T picket said Amish schoolgirl funerals (surprisingly, this didn't gain a lot of media attention at the time). Frankly, and I know I'll probably get some flak for saying this, I felt this was more loathsome than them picketing outside the funerals of fallen soldiers and/or "gay" people (which, of course, are loathsome enough). What the brutal senseless deaths of Amish schoolchildren have to do with God "punishing" America for its supposed "embrace" of the "homosexual" lifestyle is beyond me! But I think all this has LESS to do with any bonafide "anti-gay" beliefs that Fred--and let's NOT forget his worthless clan!--may have had and MORE to do with Phelps being one miserable SOB who reveled in the pain & misery of others be they "gay" or whoever. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have tried so damned hard to blatantly alienate those who might have otherwise agreed with his "anti-gay" stance. The ultimate irony of Fred Phelps's life & death was that he was reportedly excommunicated from the very "church" he himself had founded about a year or so before he died. By the way, as "Christian" as Fred and/or his "family" claimed to have been, isn't there a Bible verse or two about "Christians" actually comforting widows and such in their time of grief? Just asking! 

This is Mike Gallagher for those who want a face with the name.