Jon Hurdle, Reuters, October 31, 2007
BALTIMORE (Reuters) – A jury on Wednesday ordered an anti-gay Kansas church to pay $10.9 million in damages to relatives of a U.S. Marine who died in Iraq after church members cheered his death at his funeral.
Church members said Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder’s death was God’s punishment of America for tolerating homosexuality, and they attended his 2006 funeral in Maryland with signs saying “You’re going to hell” and “God hates you.”
The federal jury determined the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, and three of its principals invaded the privacy of the dead man’s family and inflicted emotional distress.
Albert Snyder, the Marine’s father, testified that his son was not gay, but the church targeted the military as a symbol of America’s tolerance of gays. Matthew Snyder died in combat in Iraq in March 2006.
The jury awarded Snyder’s family $2.9 million in compensatory damages plus $8 million in punitive damages in the first civil suit against the church, which has demonstrated at some 300 military funerals the past two years.
The lawsuit said church Web sites vilified U.S. soldiers, accusing them of being indoctrinated by “fag propaganda.”
Dowd and Clinton Sitting In A Tree
Maureen Dowd clearly is in love with Hillary Clinton and fantasizes about having her as her life partner. Think I’m losing my mind with this one? Think again. Dowd has done nothing but savage Mrs. Clinton since she hinted that a presidential run was on the horizon and she continues that attack with a piece in today’s New York Times. Rough love is what I call it.
In today’s piece Dowd questions whether Clinton has shed her feminist past in order to be president, and if so she has become unsuitable to do the job. “The former American first lady, the one who’s supposed to be brimming over with feminist impulses, has ignored and overlooked her husband’s peccadilloes for the greater gain of keeping her marriage intact, as she tries to return to the gilded perch and run the White House.” Dowd presents Clinton as a cold calculating person that is willing to shift her positions (is she dreaming of Hillary in bed) to suit what is coming up ahead of her. Dowd has often taken this route with Clinton and the shtick is getting very old. Yes, Hillary is competitive, she is calculating and she can be steely. What would Dowd like in a president? Would she like stupidity, slacking, and softness. If so she should just endorse Bush for king.
So how do I know Dowd is in love with Clinton? As the old adage goes, she protests too much. Today’s Times piece is crap over turned and heated up. Dowd again talks about the issue of the Clinton marriage. This issue has been talked about, written about and apparently fantasized about in ridiculous amounts. Yet Dowd continues. She even refers to Clinton as a Dominatrix. More fantasies perhaps?
Whatever Dowd says about Clinton as a candidate, wife, mother or president should be viewed as exactly the opposite of its meaning. Dowd is a woman scorned. She loves Hillary but knows she can never have her.