The Phelps are at it again. Do you know the Phelps? The Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS? They are the gay-bashing family responsible for such mild-mannered web sites as godhatesfags.com and godhatesamerica.com (there’s also godhatescanada.com, godhatessweden.com, smellthebrimstone.com, etc….)

They claim to have staged over 20,000 protests around the world against homosexuality; their most famous protest was the picketing of Matthew Shepard’s funeral with signs saying “God Hates Fags” (they also have an entire web page devoted to Matthew, which has a little animated graphic of his head engulfed in moving flames and a countdown of the number of days he has been "in hell.”)

It seems picketing funerals is their modus operandi, because they have been picketing the funerals of soldiers who have died in Iraq. Why, you ask? Because, per Shirley Phelps-Roper, they want “to help the nation connect the dots.” Still confused? Silly, God is punishing America for tolerating homosexuality (he’s also delivered Katrina, the mining accidents and more).

After losing a child or parent or spouse in the war, I can’t imagine anything more bile-evoking than to see Fred Phelps and crew show up to my loved one’s funeral. Several states are considering legislation to bar such demonstrations at funerals (or at least push them back 500 ft.). But those wily Phelps have stocked their family with plenty of lawyers so my guess is that we’ll see them fight this all the way to the Supreme Court. And connecting my own set of dots, my guess is that this is exactly what they want - a prominent forum and plenty of media attention.