Protesting Phelps and his lot is about as effective as bailing out a boat with 3 m wide hole in the bottom. They don't give a flying frik what you say to them they care about only two things:
1. Media exposure.
2. Lawsuit potential.
More protestors make life better for them, more likely to make the news. Actually doing anything to them is just asking to spend the next six years in court.
Now if you have DEEP pockets you can fight him in the courts, and on numerous occassions his posse has had to pay thousands (like 55,000 to Washburn law school) in legal costs for the defendant in frivilious lawsuits.
The problem is not loser pays, some states do have that, but that the criteria of "'frivolous suit of no merit" is too narrow and getting a suit declared as such takes way too much effort, time, and legal documentation. For instance Fred Phelps esquire took a "disfigured" (discoloured) patch of skin the size of a quarter to the state supreme court before the lawsuit was finally declared to be "exaggerated claims for pain and suffering in instances of relatively minor injury". If you have the time/money you could get him to pay your legal fees ... it just takes years to get there.
The single best idea I've seen is to take and not give punitive awards to the plaintiff. Rather those should go to approved charities at the direction of the judge (do not give it to the government so as to preclude a conflict of interest). This does wonders to discourage lawyers for asking for massive punitive damages just so they can get their cut. The whole point of punitive damages is to punish the defendant, not reward the plaintiff.
I also like the idea of standardized pain and suffering awards. I.e. there are set objective criteria and each one is worth X amount of dollars. None of the BS where one person's emotional grief is worth 500 times another.
When I first started living here I couldn't beleive the American legal system ... why WOULDN'T a money grubbing lawyer bring up hundreds of junk cases if you can get thousands a pop out of court to just go away?
Have streakers with "peace" and "pot" signs and body paint run around the grounds of the cemetary during the services...
Or try reverse psychology-- invite the press and have strong-willed people willing to dress up in Nazi and Klan uniforms to loudly proclaim to the media what a great guy Phelps was, how he was a beacon to their cause, how he stood for everything they hold dear, they'll miss him, boo-hoo-hoo, etc...
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
