Phelps' Westboro cult, "Pure and simple evil,"

Well, the goofs showed up Sunday in Zion, IL, a Chicago suburb on the shore of Lake Michigan just south of Kenosha, WI.

The goofs being the Fred Phelps Topeka, KS based Westboro cult, whose home page is God Hates Fags.com.

They were protesting the funeral of Army 1st Lt. David Giaimo, who was killed earlier this month in Iraq.

The mainstream media is afraid to report on this group, saying they don't want to give attention to Phelps' group, attention the disturbed individual surely craves.

I disagree with that mindset, and so does Bill Dennis, the Peoria Pundit:

More than once, I’ve read the opinion that the media shouldn’t give Phelps and his people any “publicity.”

Whether or not any particular groups gets publicity from news covering isn’t important. The news media needs to cover the news, whether or not it’s news we want to hear.

It’s not the media’s job to keep us from having to hear ugly messages. The people who work in the information business need to reject the notion that the public is better off when it is kept in the dark. We wouldn’t tolerate the government doing that to us. Why does the media think it has the right to keep unpleasant news away from us?

It’s the news media’s job to answer questions, not to turn their head and pretend they didn’t hear the question.

Back to Zion: The area's major newspapers (Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times, as well as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) again ignored the story.

But Frank Abderholden of the Waukegan Sun reported on it:

In a bizarre sideshow, a small group of people from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. showed at the wake of the Waukegan serviceman who died in Iraq.

The six people to picketed for about an hour across the street from the Congdon Funeral Home protesting with signs that said "God Hates Fags," among other anti-gay slogans. The group had alerted the funeral home to the protest.

Group members believe that because their church was bombed by an improvised explosive device years ago, that now God is using IED's to punish the "rich fag nation" of the United States.

A small contingent of veterans on motorcycles also came to the wake of Army 1st Lt. David Giaimo to keep an eye on the group and make sure they didn't cross the street.

"I'm here because I don't want them to disrupt this," said Evan Breyn, an American Legion member from Crystal Lake.

Another motorcyclist was from the Combat Veterans Association.

"We're here to act as a barrier. This has happened across the country," he said, noting that the group, well known for brandishing anti-gay signs at the funeral of homosexuals, also attends other gay-related events.

"This is pure and simple evil," Breyn said of the group.

So there are people watching the Phelps' group. Good.

Special thanks to of course Peoria Pundit, but also Rich Miller of Capitol Fax, and Amy Allen of Obiter Dictum for posting news on Phelps and not kowtowing to the MSM groupthink.