They do it because they want people there. They want counter protesters. The "church's" entire business model is predicated on bringing lawsuits against anyone who assaults them or infringes upon their rights. If you look at all of the leadership of the WBC, you'll find they're all lawyers.

The worst thing that we can do is give these yo-yo's more publicity.

I see your point Platapus but if one supports something they wouldn't want to deliberately disrupt it and that's key. It's not the wbc's message that people object to, they don't agree with it but that alone does not make them objectionable, it's how they choose to spread that message. They disrupt, they incite, they antagonize and they hurt people already laid low by tragedy, that is why the wbc is hated.

I see them as a reflection of societies real problem. We value fame so much that some of us are willing to take infamy as a suitable alternative. Neal said it well. Kids cannot be allowed to raise themselves. They have way too much free time and not enough exercise to burn off excess energy.

Another thing is an increasingly popular belief that life has no meaning. We're all just an accidental byproduct of some long ago cosmic event, no heaven, no hell just those that are remembered, and those that aren't.

We apply this philosophy to young people who spend that free time we've given them to wandering dark and dank video game halls with a variety of increasingly powerful weapons mowing down everything they meet. The movies they like are just as bloody and dark and in every one morality is relative. Heroes become Villains, Villains become Heroes and today's kids watch and play many hours of it a week. No matter how rare out of a population of 300 million people there's bound to be a few that it will affect.

It doesn't make them killers but it gives the killer within them ideas...

@Platapus... I hear you. The problem I have with the WBC monsters is that their 'rights' should end where the noses (and rights) of others begin.

In my opinion, the WBC monsters' plan to picket and spew at the Westbury CT funeral home is THE MOST DESPICABLE act they have perpetrated on society yet.

@mookiemonkey: (Good to see you, matey!) I'm aware that they are all lawyers... but that does not make them unbeatable. These evil monsters simply must be opposed in Connecticut. If I had the financial means... I'd offer to lead an effort to shield the families of the slain from those monsters, myself. Violence isn't required to make their noise irrelevant.

@ Privateer: I saw the PGR response to all the requests they've gotten relating to CT. Maybe in days to come, they could broaden their mission to allow for these kinds of situations. I know a few members of the PGR... and knowing them... I can say that down to a man... their hearts are in Connecticut.