One of the neighborhood progressives, periodic visitor Hub of the Universe, stopped by to offer this comment on Paul J.'s post from yesterday:

As you know, Pogo said: We have seen the enemy and he is us.

You'll forgive me -- actually, you won't -- if I can't help but take some glee from the reaction of wingers like Paul J to the utter, full-flavored nuttiness of the GodHatesAmerica people.

The proper response to the GodHatesAmerica people is:

1. Ignore these freaks.

2. Don't advocate murdering them (a la Mr. Climacus), but feel no pity if the friends and families of the fallen soldiers kick their miserable asses.

The real concern of Paul J -- bold, crusading defender of his children against the ho-mo-sex-ual lifestyle -- is not for the fallen soldiers. It's that he'll be tarred with the same brush as the utter nutters.

Face it, Paul J -- these are your brethren, albeit hopped up on religious metamphetamines.

UPDATE: Paul J. just responded with a far better reply than mine below, so I'm going to insert Paul's post right here:

I take great umbrage that my concern for what my children are taught at school somehow makes me a "winger" and somehow unconcerned with the plight of our fallen troops!

The poster spells out the word "ho-mo-sex-ual" so as to mock me for having the audacity to voice my unease. The sacred word "homosexual" may not be used in anything but the most affirmative and glowing terms. The fact that the majority population tolerates gays and is willing to defend gay rights and liberties is not enough. We must accept all aspects of the gay lifestyle – or else!

Or else we will be labeled as haters, homophobes, far right wing extremists, Christian theocrats and so on. Or else, as in Sweden, if we are a pastor, we will be put in jail for preaching that homosexuality may be contrary to Biblical teachings. Or else, at the University of Michigan, we might be threatened with expulsion for offering the opinion in a classroom discussion that homosexuality "could" be an illness. Or else, if we are an employer in California we will be charged with gender discrimination by the EOC for firing a male worker who one day decides to express his new found sexual identity by showing up for work in a dress. Or else, we will have to disband The Boy Scouts of America because we object to having a male homosexual troop leader spend the night in a tent with a group of young boys up on Brokeback Mountain.

Not only is tolerance not enough, the 97 percent mainstream population must willingly agree to completely restructure all of its established cultural beliefs and standards so as to accommodate the very small homosexual population (2-3% of the U.S. population is believed to be homosexual).

We must go along with all of this. We are not allowed to disagree, or else.

This is my original reponse to Hub's comment:

Of course, any reasonable person has to agree with the first portion of Hub's argument: Especially in light of Eric's observation on my original post, ignoring the idiots is the only sensible thing to do apart from joining the bikers who help keep them at a distance from the funerals.

But Hub's last comment is way off base. Paul's point that the "religious" crazies engender sympathy for the same-sex relationship people among people who might not otherwise be sympathetic is a valid one.

No one with any decency identifies with the crazies. It's not a matter of degrees of difference between the Westboro morons and "wingers" like myself. And who would NOT have genuine concern for the soldiers and their families?

What Paul said IS interesting, and I think Hub would admit this if he or she thought it through. The Westboro protesters are so far out of the realm of rationality you have to wonder what they could possibly hope to accomplish.

The original battle cry against homosexuals was questionable enough for a group pretending to represent a "religious" viewpoint, but granted, you could lump that with a caricature of "fundamentalists" if you don't happen to know much about modern Protestantism.

But it makes no sense at all to transpose the "God hates fags" message to "God hates soldiers" and then go about insulting all the people who show up for a funeral. If the protesters actually have a goal in mind, they'd be absolutely nuts to think this type of activity would help achieve it. By its very nature the act of protesting is about seeking publicity for one's views. Tossing in the nasty, totally gratuitous insults against fallen soldiers is completely counterproductive to attaining that goal. They're not going to convince anyone of anything, except that they are frauds.

One thing they are definitely accomplishing, however, is to place those who have sex with people of the same gender in a favorable light. In terms of results, the Westboro Baptist Church is definitely pro-homosexuality.