"Bikers roll to military funerals to oppose anti-gay protests"

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/21/
funeral.motorcyclists.ap/index.html

"They call themselves the Patriot Guard Riders, and they are more than 5,000 strong, forming to counter anti-gay protests held by the Rev. Fred Phelps at military funerals.
Phelps believes American deaths in Iraq are divine punishment for a country that he says harbors homosexuals. His protesters carry signs thanking God for so-called IEDs -- explosives that are a major killer of soldiers in Iraq.
The bikers shield the families of dead soldiers from the protesters, and overshadow the jeers with patriotic chants and a sea of red, white and blue flags."

"They danced and sang impromptu songs peppered with vulgarities that condemned homosexuals and soldiers."

I'm trying to form a response, but my mind still hasn't gotten past WHAT THE....

Ok, now I've had a little time to think....

The protracted existence of such... is a mark of our society's great respect for free expression and the rule of law.

The town my mother comes from in northern Germany, Muenster, had a different solution to religious mis-fervor in 1534, as told by Wikipedia.org:

"Matthys, who had prophesied God's judgment to come on the wicked on that day, made a sally with only thirty followers, believing that he was a second Gideon, and was cut off with his entire band. He was killed, his head severed and placed on a pole for all in the city to see, and his genitals nailed to the city gate. "

By the way, don't mess with my Mom.

"Bockelson, better known in history as John of Leiden, was subsequently installed as king.
Claiming to be the successor of David, he claimed royal honours and absolute power in the new "Zion". He justified his actions by the authority of visions from heaven, as others have done in similar circumstances. He legalized polygamy, and himself took sixteen wives, one of whom he beheaded himself in the marketplace."

"...the town was taken by the besiegers on June 24, 1535, and in January 1536 Bockelson and some of his more prominent followers, after being tortured, were executed in the marketplace. Their dead bodies were exhibited in cages, which hung from the steeple of St. Lambert's Church; the cages still hang there, though the bones were removed later."

The cages have since been replaced with newer models, but the originals are in the town museum, right next to the torture tools....

Now we understand the importance of free speech, of which the funeral protest case is an example of both the vices and virtues.

But I must admit occasional moments of nostalia....