God Hates... Terrible Music?

Westboro Baptist Church protests pop star

If one were to ask Reverend Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, one could quickly learn that God hates an awful lot of people these days.

Homosexuals, dead American soldiers, Sweden (the whole country), Barack Obama, and... Lady Gaga.

"‘Art’ and ‘fashion’ are the euphemisms, the guise under which proud whore Lady Gaga teaches rebellion against God (incidentally, her claim to the title of ‘lady’ is sound only if she tacks on ‘of the night,’ thereby alluding to another euphemism of what she is.) As much as she’d like to pretend otherwise, there’s nothing new or different about this particular hussy’s pretentious prancing. Does the simple slut truly think that she can change God’s standards by seducing a generation of rebels into joining her in fist-raised, stiff-necked, hard-hearted rebellion against Him? Get real!”

All this being said, if all it takes to keep Fred Phelps and his congregation from spewing their hateful message in regards to issues of actual consequence is terrible music, maybe Lady Gaga's on to something after all.

Worshipping Hate, Redux

Barack Obama becomes a target for hateful elements of religious right

When the Westboro Baptist Church recently held a protest outside of Sasha and Malia Obama's school, anyone who has paid even a minimum of attention to the Church knew that a rather spectular display of malice would be on display.

Fred Phelps and the WBC have long become a symbol for Christians who have chosen to disregard the message of Jesus Christ and worship their own hatred in its stead.

"Quakers?! Are you frigging kidding me?" Phelps wrote on his website. "You pretend to be all non-violent, and you allow the most bloody, deceitful, evil, murderous bastard and his shemale sidekick to place their satanic spawn within your four walls?”

Among the signs held by protesters outside the Obama daughters' school was one reading "God is Your Enemy" -- a message certainly at odds with the beliefs of many Evangelical Christians who voted for Obama.

But Phelps isn't the only preacher on the hateful fringes of the religious right to use their religious beliefs as an excuse to encourage hatred of Obama and his family.

In August of this year, Pastor Steven Anderson addressed his congregation with a sermon entitled "why I hate Barack Obama".

"I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today," Anderson said. "I'm gonna pray that he dies and goes to hell when I go to bed tonight. That's what I'm gonna pray."

Anderson said his sermon was part of a campaign of "spiritual warfare" against Obama.

That individuals like Phelps and Anderson would call themselves Christians while showing such contempt for the compassionate Jesus Christ -- who was, among other things a healer -- really only demonstrates precisely how far out of touch these individuals are with their fellow Christians.

Fortunately, groups like the Westboro Baptist Church and individuals like Fred Phelps and Steven Anderson remain marginal within religious circles, even if the amount of press hateful demagogues like this can generate threaten to conflate their significance.

The Forgotten Phelps

Nate Phelps continues to speak out against the Westboro Baptist Church

When speaking about the Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist Church, it can become all too easy to conclude that each and every member of the Phelps family is nothing more than a homophobic bigot.

Watching Louis Theroux's Most Hated Family in America, one certainly gets that impression.

But there's more to the story that is so often overlooked: the members of the Phelps family who have denounced their father, his church, and the hateful premises on which it was founded.

Nate Phelps is one of three Phelps family members who has done precisely this. Of the three, he is the most active, speaking about his family and their church on a regular basis.

The picture paints is, unsurprisingly, a very, very ugly one.

"At the age of 7, I could recite all 66 books of the Bible in 19 seconds," Phelps explains. "My father insisted on this because he was frustrated at waiting as his children flipped back and forth trying to find the verses he was preaching from. Afterwards, if one of us took to long my father would stop in the middle of his preaching, cast a gimlet eye on the offender and demand that, 'Somebody smack that kid!'"

"For me, the story of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church is a very long and painful one," Phelps continues. "But the first time that the wider community became aware of them was in 1991, when my father led his church in Topeka, Kansas to stage a protest against gays at a local city park."

"The community reacted with outrage at the mean-spirited and hateful nature of the protest, and sentiments on both sides escalated quickly," Phelps explains. "However, far from discouraging my father, this incited him to much greater efforts at publicly protesting all that he decided was wrong."

More than merely base hatred, Phelps is motivated by a tangible sense of megalomania.

"The church was soon staging dozens of protests every week, against local politicians, businesses, and citizens who dared to speak out against him and his church," Phelps says. "But public protests weren’t enough. My father equipped his church with a bank of fax machines, and daily sent faxes to hundreds of machines across the city and state, filled with invective and diatribes against anyone who had offended him."

Having lived within the Phelps household, Nate has a unique perspective on the actions of the WBC, and can place them fully within their horrific context -- a context soaked in the blood and tears of Nate and his family.

"Most people, coming in contact with them for the first time stare in stunned amazement," Phelps acknowledges. "But for me, it is a natural and almost inevitable progression, from the things I was taught and experienced in the Phelps household as a child, to the circumstances we find today."

"On the first anniversary of my father’s suspension, I returned home from school to find my mother weeping in the church vestibule," Phelps says. "My older brother, Mark, was trying to comfort her. She turned to him, her eyes red and swollen, her voice choked with rage. She yanked the stocking cap off her head, revealing that her long dark hair has been coarsely chopped off. 'He cut my hair off', she cried. Looking closer, I could see that in some places her white scalp has been exposed."

"I think everyone here can understand the trauma of such violence, the feeling of violation and abuse. But for my mother, and for our family, there was more to it than that," Phelps explains. "My father had a fascination with 1 Corinthians 11, in which Paul teaches the hierarchal authority from god, to Christ, to Man, to Woman. A sign of a woman’s submission, he argues, is her wearing her hair long. Fred took quite literally the instructions that women should have long hair; and more than that, he determined that the Greek word translated as 'long' in the bible would be more properly translated as 'uncut'. Thus, no woman in the church was allowed to put scissors to her hair. Nor were they allowed to present themselves in church without their heads properly covered."

Witness and subject to Phelps' brutal temper, Nate looked forward to his opportunity to escape. "My 18th birthday is very important, even central to my planning. My brother left after he was 18, and he was successful," he explains. But not all of Phelps' children were so fortunate.

"My oldest sister Kathy, on the other hand, tried to leave before she was 18," Phelps says. "My father tracked her down, and I watched as he physically forced her to return home. The physical and emotional damage that he inflicted on her in those last few months took a terrible toll on her. She was never the same, her spirit was broken."

Ironically, Fred Phelps' incessant demands for rigid adherence to a religious doctrine stripped from its ultimate context -- the love of the creator and a message of compassion and goodwill to humankind -- ruined Nate's ability to partake in any kind of religious observance.

"The next five years marked a struggle for a sense of who I was, while carefully avoiding anything to do with religion," Phelps explains. "In 1981 I moved to southern California to work with my brother Mark in the printing business. From time to time, at the sincere urging of friends, I would attend a church service. But it all seemed so plain and feeble. When they taught about God’s love, I’d hear my father’s voice condemning them for their namby-pamby fag-enabling beliefs."

The doubts originally implanted by his father's horiffic abuses eventually led to Nate embracing atheism. But Phelps notes that he still may have began to doubt religion even without his father's abuse.

The scores upon scores of people who embrace atheism without being subjected to that standard of abuse prove that he is correct. And even though Phelps has embraced the extreme and virulent brand of atheism promoted by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens (among others), Phelps continues to retain a healthy respect for the positive aspects of religious belief.

"Certainly there are many aspects to Christianity that are good and desirable," Phelp acknowledges. "But I began to think in terms of those aspects existing outside the framework of God. Why can’t the mosaic code exist outside the notion of a god?"

There certainly is no reason why they can't. The belief in God -- especially in the conventional sense -- is nothing more than a belief regarding the origin of creation. It is not in itself a moral belief.

As Phelps himelf notes, his journey certainly isn't complete. No one -- not even Phelps himself -- knows what the future will hold for him or any of the other forgotten Phelps.

Entering the House of Hate

Produced by the BBC's Louie Theroux, The Most Hated Family in America documents the Westboro Baptist Church.

It follows these unsettlingly-awful people through the course of various protests, one of their church services, and even their day-to-day life. It provides a window into their horrible world that most viewers will find hard to look away from -- much like a car crash.

Yet in a certain way, it makes the hateful gospel preached by the Phelps family almost make sense. Simply put, the alleged American embrace of homosexuality -- which would likely come as a surprise to most American homosexuals -- has allegedly placed that entire country in violation of God's sixth commandment: thou shalt not commit adultery.

Shirley Phelps-Roeper provides an intriguing definition of the word "fag" that isn't restricted to gay men, but rather to anyone engaging in any sex act outside of marriage, any sex act within marriage involving someone from outside the marriage, or any adulterous act.

In fact, she goes on to brand any of these acts as adulterous.

Phelps-Roper puts an extraordinary amount of time into researching the dead soldiers whose funerals they're protesting at. In the film, she not only knows the name of the soldier whose funeral they're picketing, but also very explicit details about the man's death.

The most striking diversion from traditional Christian activism is the purpose of the WBC's protests. According to Phelps-Roeper, the goal of the WBC is not to "win souls for Christ", but to provoke people into revealing what the church interprets as contempt for God through their reaction to what the church presents as God's message.

Phelps-Roper describes her and her fellow parishoners as "evil angels", who prophesize the evils God has planned for the world. When told that God isn't supposed to commit evil, she actually becomes exasperated.

The WBC offers no compromise, even to those who oppose the message of the church while also rejecting homosexuality. They treat rejection of their church -- not even necessarily rejection of its message -- as condonation of homosexuality.

By staging their protests near traffic thoroughfares, the WBC always guarantees themselves the last word. At some point, after all, an indignant motorist has to focus on their driving.

The more one sees of The Most Hated Family in America, the more they appear to fit the most classical definition of a cult. Almost all 70 members of the Church live together in a group of houses conjoined by a shared back yard.

Phelps-Roper's two eldest daughters acknowledged they were hated at school, yet insist that they're nice to everyone. They have a bizarre definition of niceness -- they admit to telling their classmates that they're destined to go to hell when they die because of their lifestyles. They even offer doctrinal justification for their lack of friends outside the church, insisting that "friendship with the world is enmity with God".

It's a little unsettling how happily members of the WBC will tell people they're going to hell -- as if they're actually happy about it. Later in the film, Jennifer Phelps explains that they view people going to hell as vindication of their church's message -- and apparently they need no confirmation that such people actually go to hell in order to enjoy this vindication.

The members of the WBC rarely seem to consider the possibility that they may be wrong, but they do apparently consider the possibility that they may be among the "wicked" that God banishes to hell. Jennifer treats the prospect of personal tragedy befalling herself as a confirmation that she is among the damned, and that she would go to hell if such a thing were to ever happen.

The WBC even maintains one individual whose job it is to disseminate their hate propaganda over the internet -- and apparently produces signs aimed at almost any public figure one can think of, from Bishop Desmond Tutu to the deceased Princess Diana.

The production of video propaganda by the church is actually quite a sophisticated process, complete with teleprompters for Fred Phelps to read off his hate speech.

It's almost physically painful to watch Shirley Phelps-Roper's grandchildren spout the hate propaganda their grandmother has so painstakingly taught them.

The bizarre rationalism of the WBC should be enough to make anyone question their belief in an interventionalist God. Phelps muses that God put the idea of invading Iraq in George W Bush's heart, and did this because Bush "tweaked his nose".

Yet one wonders if Phelps considers the possibility that God prodded Bush to act in the way that Phelps believe has offended him. If that were the case, then no one would fall within Phelps' narrow definition of the "wicked" -- after all, these people would only be acting according to God's will.

The actions that allegedly offend God would have been prompted by God, and thus would fall within the rationale that Jacob Roper offers for his belief that all of the WBC's protests are excellence. "God did this, therefore it's perfect," insists Roper.

A sociopathic rage seems to possess Phelps-Roper. Any appeals to her conscience seem to do about as much good as appealing to any sense of self-doubt -- she denies its very existence.

She often seems so sure that she is right that when she predicts Godly retribution, as if she believes it could happen at any instant.

Sadly, Theroux skips over the most intriguing part of the Phelps family story -- the story of the Phelps family members who have left the church. Fred Phelps has never restricted his abuse to the outside world -- he has also abused his own children, physically, mentally, and emotionally, in a horrifically brutal manner. Nate and Mark Phelps were subjected to physical abuse the likes of which has seldom been accounted for.

Yet Theroux makes little mention of the four Phelps who have left the church, save to ask Fred Phelps how many children he has, just so see if he'll include them. Phelps contemptfully concludes the interview at that point.

At the end of The Most Hated Family in America, it's obvious that Theroux has only been shown what the Phelps family wanted him to see. Quite obligingly, it's all he chooses to show the viewer.

It's the world behind this presentation that would really help people understand the Westboro Baptist Church. But on that note, perhaps it may be better that it is never seen -- there are somethings that defy understanding, and possibly even things that are better not understood.

Ironically, We Don't Want the Assholes to Love Us

Coming from Penn Jillette's Pennsays Youtube channel is the tale of Penn (of Bullshit! fame) and a video sent to him by the daughter of the late, great George Carlin.

In the video, Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church crows about the death of Carlin, and boasts gleefully about the torments he's allegedly subject to in hell (where he allegedly is).

Jillette then relates the story about a scene in The One and Only in which a "little person" (otherwise known as a midget) wrestler asks "why do we always want the assholes to love us?"

Jillette describes the scene as "profound", and something that he looks back on whenever he receives hate mail as a result of his work on Bullshit!.

It's a worthy mentality, one that I personally can relate to.

Individuals like Fred Phelps are marked by an extreme inability to deal with people who disagree with them. It isn't an uncommon trait. While some people are content to label people who disagree with them as merely "stupid", Phelps is clearly an even more extreme case. To Phelps, anyone who disagrees with him is destined for hell.

Here at The Nexus and elsewhere, I get enjoy infrequent interactions with people who insist that the blog is "aptly named". On each and every one of these occasions, this stems from a matter of disagreement, and someone who cannot tolerate it.

Whether it's someone who disagrees that the mother of a dead soldier shouldn't be considered fair game for political attack, or someone who can't understand the idea that "pro-choice" advocates who won't protect the freedom of choice of people who disagree with them are clearly more in favour of abortion than choice, there is no shortage of people in the world who can't tolerate a difference in opinion and are eager to attribute all manners of moral failure to it.

There's little question that political extremism blends fairly effectively with what Phil Neisser considers "anti-disagreement thinking", and less question yet how such thinking can appeal so much to people who are so extreme in their own views that they can consider no recourse other than to label anyone who disagrees with them -- regardless of how moderate their views actually are -- as an "asshole".

Then, unshockingly enough, many of these people seem confused and irritated when they realize how few people actually care whether or not they like them.

Unshockingly, most sensible people don't want the assholes to love them. That might seem a little surprising coming from a blog entitled The Nexus of Assholery, but then again, those who don't understand this are the ones who never understood the point in the first place.

There are few valid reasons to care what hateful people like Fred Phelps or Canadian Cynic think, and fewer yet to care who they like and who they don't.

Believe in Common Herosim

Patriot Guard Riders stand against hatred

Anyone who pays close attention to Fred Phelps and his hateful Westboro Baptist Church have likely noticed they're having a lot less fun these days.

Even as they're denied entry into foreign countries -- both Canada and Britain have turned them away -- their pickets of slain American soldiers' funerals are dwindling.

This can be credited at least in part to individuals like Sam Cottle, Jim Boland, and the more than 150,000 Americans who make up the Patriot Guard Riders, an organization that, since 2005, has protected the funerals of American soldiers from the WBC's demonstrations of hatred.

The Patriot Guard Riders have sought and recieved invitations to many such funerals, where they stand shoulder to shoulder with American flags and block out the WBC's protests. Never have they raised a hand in violence against the WBC (regardless of how much the WBC deserves it), even though they've been spit at by frustrated WBC protesters.

"We don't react to it," says pastor Tom Cottle.

Like many members of the Patriotic Guard Riders, Cottle is a Christian pastor fed up with Fred Phelps' and the WBCs' pollution of Christianity.

Others are simply fed up with the WBC's attempts to turn what should be a solemn day for the friends and families of deceased soldiers into a forum for their hatred.

Jim Boland joined the Patriot Guard Riders when he first heard about the WBC and their pickets. "I said, 'That isn't right. I'll go up there and see what's going on.' The protesters did not show up, but the whole town showed up. The Patriot Guard had at least 80 people on bikes and in cars. That's when I met some of my friends for the first time."

Certainly, Jim Boland has a great many friends now. Not merely among the Patriot Guard Riders, and not even merely among the friends and family of dead soldiers. Jim Boland and those courageous enough to stand with him have made a great many friends among anyone who opposes hatred, anywhere.

The actions of the Patriot Guard Riders are much more than an act of patriotism. Their actions are a triumph of the human spirit and of human compassion over vicious, inhumane, hateful, and evil people.

Their actions have taken a common reaction to the WBC and their theology of hate and transformed it into an act of simple, compassionate heroism.

Fred Phelps' Worst Enemy...

...Is himself

When Fred Phelps announced that he and his Westboro Baptist Church were going to picket a staging of The Laramie Project he must have imagined that he and his congregation would fly to Bassingstoke, wave around some inflammatory signs, provoke international outrage and maybe get some fish and chips... good times, by his standard.

Instead, Phelps was denied the privilege of setting foot on British soil and helped make the play a rousing success, complete with a sold-out performance.

The Laramie Project is a play about the aftermath of the murder of Matthew Shepard, and was written with the aid of interviews with the residents of Laramie, Wyoming where Sheppard's grisly murder took place.

Considering that Shepard is the object of a particularly simmering hatred on behalf of the WBC and the Phelps clan, it was only natural that they would plan to protest at the performance.

"It is the first actual picket. We have been preaching by so many means to the UK for years," Shirley Phelps-Roper told the Telegraph. "The arm of the Lord our God is not shortened by oceans and things, all of which he created, and all of which he knew about when he considered these last hours of the very last days of all."

Phelps' plans were curtailed by Maria Miller, the Conservative MP for Bassingstoke, who contacted the British Home Secretary to prevent the WBC from getting onto the ground in Britain.

"The most important thing is that a production that is trying to promote tolerance goes ahead and that's what I'm focusing on achieving," she pronounced.

Even though Phelps and the WBC were denied the opportunity to press ahead with their vile protest, representatives of several British GLBT organizations showed up to wish the producers well and take in the performance.

The performance the WBC were planning to protest -- the closing performance -- sold out in the wake of Phelps' announcement.

Whatever Phelps intended to accomplish by protesting the performance, it's evident that he didn't want the play to succeed. Any number of would-be spectators Phelps could dissuade from attending the performance would have to be viewed as a victory for the WBC.

Instead, Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church became the engineers of their own defeat.

Fred Phelps really is his own worst enemy. Frankly, he and his hopelessly wretched reputaiton deserve one another.

No Statue For You

US Supreme Court rules that Fred Phelps has no right to hateful monument

In a decision handed down by the US Supreme Court, Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps has failed in an attempt to abuse the first amendment of the United States constitution in order to spread his vile and hateful gospel.

Phelps dearly wanted to contribute a statue of murder victim Matthew Shepard to a park in Casper, Wyoming featuring statues of historical significance. The inscription on the statue reads "Matthew Shepard Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning 'thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."

Phelps' Shepard statue was rejected twice -- once in 2003 and again in 2007.

When it was rejected the second time Phelps apparently ran to the Supreme Court where he's discovered, to his dismay, that while the First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, speech, expression and the press, it does not entitle one to display hate propaganda on public property.

Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church had previously picketed Shepard's funeral where thet waved signs reading "Matt in hell" and oh-so-classily harassed his grieving parents.

One can imagine that Phelps and the WBC will likely stage some kind of protest in order to voice their objections to the Supreme Court ruling, but one thing is for certain: very few people should care.

The state is not obligated to help Phelps disseminate his intolerance under the guise of free speech.

Top Ten Jerks in the Known Universe -- Nexus Style

Counting down the top ten not according to Warren Kinsella

In a recent post on his blog, Warren Kinsella outlines his "top ten jerks in the known universe". It turned out to be a very predictably partisan list.

Well, we at the Nexus (of Assholery) would probably be remiss if we didn't compile our own list of the top ten jerks in the universe. After all, considering the blog's name, we should know a thing or two about that topic.

Unsurprisingly, Kinsella makes the list (he's number five). More interestingly, positions one through three proved to be very closely packed. Who managed to take #1? Read on and find out.


10. John Rocker - Just when you thought this washed-up former Major League Baseball pitcher had disappeared off the face of the earth, he drags his racist, homophobic, sexist carcass out of the grave just long enough to savour some sour grapes by helping to bring down Major League Baseball as we know it.

Well, OK. So maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea. And maybe Bud Selig himself only barely dodged making this particular list himself. But Rocker apparently isn't content to have ruined his own career with his public embarrassment of his sport and mediocre play. He just might bring his sport down with him.

9. Gordon Laird - So far as Canadian political analysis goes, Gordon Laird tends to writes really good fiction.

Laird actually makes this list almost exclusively for his 1998 book Slumming It At the Rodeo, in which he takes various swings at former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, former Ontario Premier Mike Harris, and former Leader of the Opposition Preston Manning, and the rather astounding lengths which he goes to invest practically any issue with undertones of racism.

In perhaps the most amusing section of his book, Laird relates the story of a Reform party barbecue held during the Calgary Stampede. While himself clearly being an individual who would not be in attendance at the event, Laird suggests that Rahim Jaffer was the subject of various racial jokes which suddenly stopped when he showed up.

Except that Laird wasn't there. And that's a story that would be considered unlikely to be told by those in attendance at that event even if it did happen in the first place. So how is one to treat this alleged episode other than as complete fiction?

The idea that Laird would try to pass it off as fact, despite the episode remaining largely unsubstantiated, speaks volumes about him.

Alberta Politics Uncovered author Marc Lisac would duplicate that very same feat in what basically amounted to an ad hominem attack on former Alberta premier Ralph Klein in the course of his book. Not only is Laird easily dismissed as a jerk for perpetuating that fiction in the first place, but he clearly set a very bad example for other would-be authors.

8. Scott Reid - Mr "beer and popcorn" himself. When he isn't demonstrating his complete contempt for the Canadian electorate or musing about nefarious Conservative party conspiracies while sparring with Tim Powers on Mike Duffy Live, one can imagine he's hunkering somewhere in the basement of the Toronto Star trying to figure out how to do these things even better.

Perhaps what really solidifies his status as one of the top ten jerks in the known universe is the fact that Reid represents everything that is wrong with the federal Liberal party -- he's obnoxious enough to say absolutely anything he thinks his party will get a quick political charge out of, and arrogant enough to think he can do so and be entitled to a free pass.

Why the Liberal party continues to put this guy on TV is anyone's guess, but this guy's more a boon to the Conservative party than an asset to the Liberals.

7. Robert Spencer - Robert Spencer's website, Jihad Watch, has one overwhelming theme: "be afraid of Islam. Very afraid. Oh, and by the way, buy my book."

Of course, Spencer isn't alone in the post-9/11-booming industry of Islamophobia profiteering. But he is the industry leader in cherry-picked examples of the violence he alleges to be inherent in Islam, and in offhandedly dismissing any evidence that suggests otherwise.

He promotes himself as one of the world's top experts on Islam, and that certainly must help to inflate his book sales. However, he's never studied Islam -- his Master's Degree is in the study of early Christianity.

Last but certainly not least, Spencer's work is parroted by thousands of those leading the Islamophobic post-9/11 charge. Not only is he a massive jerk in his own right, but he also enables other jerks to be even jerkier.

Just what the world needs.

6. Sean Avery - Considered by many in the hockey world to be a synonym for "creep", Sean Avery has refined being a jerk to a fine art.

Whether it's cracking racial slurs at Georges Laraque, mocking Jason Blake for his leukemia, or generally running his mouth while refusing to drop the gloves -- unless he holds a serious advantage over his opponent -- Avery is a hockey pest that gives all hockey pests a bad name.

5. Warren Kinsella - It should be far from surprising that the man who inspired this list should make it. While he's been at the forefront of one particular very important social battle -- the fight against racism -- he's also proven to be one of the anti-racist movement's biggest liabilities, as he constantly bends over backward to find any excuse to label his political opponents as racist.

Kinsella is a leading factor in the ficklization of racism as a social issue. While his book Web of Hate reminds us all who the enemy is in terms of the battle against racial extremists, he's proven to be extremely content to undermine that entire battle whenever it might benefit him politically.

But where Kinsella really takes a turn for the irredeemably obnoxious is in the closing pages of Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics wherein he grades the Canadian media of the day -- and indulges his inner political warhorse by giving passing grades to those who support his beloved Liberal party, and failing grades to those who oppose them.

When Alan Fotheringham -- the "wicked wit of the west" and a political journalist whose boots Kinsella is unfit to so much as lick -- rates a mere "is he still alive?", it becomes immediately apparent that Kinsella is barking up the wrong tree.

4. Anonymous - If you were to believe Anonymous in its recently-declared War on Scientology, they're merely a band of would-be online superheroes trying to balance the scales in the name of justice and truth.

But Anonymous has been on the proverbial radar screen far before their recent crusade against Scientology. One particular news story proved to be particularly damning:



Long before Anonymous turned its online sights against Scientology, at the very least, various members were making asses of themselves harassing people who were more or less innocent, and doing it just for kicks.

Meanwhile, their war on Scientology has, even not purposefully, stirred up some predictable religious bigotry against the church. While some members of Anonymous probably legitimately feel very strongly about some of the church's practices, sometimes even the most well-intentioned campaigns can gather some flies.

3. Rush Limbaugh - Rush Limbaugh is only barely not #1 on this list. Limbaugh is an individual who has proven to be so despicable that even those who had decided that they maybe -- just maybe -- like him enough to marry him have changed their minds and thought "hmmmm. Maybe I don't like this guy very much."

His most recent episode suggesting that Michael J Fox was exaggerating his Parkinson's symptoms has provided more than enough impetus to write this guy off as one of the most reprehensible people on the planet today.

He's an individual who will do or say almost anything to benefit his political allies. Unlike Canadian blowhard Scott Reid, however, Limbaugh has never been blessed with the good sense to apologize when he crosses the line -- or even admit he was wrong.

2. Canadian Cynic - By all accounts, this guy could also very well have been number one. He's only barely number two. Like the Nexus' #1 biggest jerk in the known universe, he's a hateful demagogue propped up by an equally vicious and hateful flock of sheep (but more on this later).

Cynic first managed to pop up on the Nexus' radar back in July when he indulged himself in telling Wanda Watkins, the mother of a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan "fuck you and your grief". She had the nerve to suggest that the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan wanted Canadians to support the mission.

Cynic has, under the guise of being "progressive", plied his trade as a blogger by viciously attacking his political opponents, often resorting to ad hominem attacks in order to do so. His blogmates, Lulu and Lindsay Stewart (aka Pretty Shaved Ape) are disturbing in their own right in that they share his hatred of anyone who disagrees with them and his inability to contribute anything of any value to any kind of debate. But they're really just small potatoes.

The seemingly endless ability of Cynic's coterie of fellow hateful demagogues to defend him no mater how many lines he crosses only serves to underscore precisely how powerful a gospel hate can be -- and, sadly, Canadian Cynic preaches it well.

1. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church - There really is only one person in all existence who could justify pulling down number one on this list. While Canadian Cynic may find himself a little disappointed that he didn't manage to pull in that ignominious honour, at least he can take comfort that it was claimed by someone with whom he shares a lot in common.

Like Cynic, Fred Phelps hates virtually anyone and everyone. And like Cynic, Phelps does absolutely everything he can to convince anyone he can reach out and touch (so to speak) to hate them as well.

In particular, there's each individuals' stance on dead soldiers. Cynic's Wanda Watkins episode has been well-documented across the blogosphere (and within this very post). Phelps, on the other hand, protests at the funerals of dead soldiers. Both encourage hatred of soldiers and their families, but Cynic settles for doing it for political reasons. Sadly, this is what we've come to expect from the most hateful political actors. Phelps, meanwhile, does it for religious reasons, and perverts the meaning of his very own religion in order to do it.

For that, he edges Cynic out (if only slightly).

Then, there's Phelps' congregation. Like Cynic's merry band of sycophants, these are some of the sickest people one could ever encounter. At least Phelps' congregation has a decent excuse should they ever decide to make use of it: most of them are related to Phelps, and as such, their hatefulness and craziness could at least be argued to be genetic.

They're the group of people responsible for this particular artistic "masterpiece":



(On a personal note, I much prefer this:)



Of course, giving Phelps and his flock any attention whatsoever is almost certainly affording them more credibility than they deserve. By the same token, it is important to remind people that: yes, there are people in the world who are so hateful that virtually everyone should be more than a little bit concerned.

Worshipping Hate

This Just In -- God Hates Everybody

That’s right. God hates everybody. Including you. Maybe even especially you.

At least, according to Pastor Fred Phelps. You see, kids, reverend Phelps is perhaps one of the most extreme opponents of gay rights in the United States. He is also Pastor for Westboro Baptist Church, a rather charming group of people who maintain a number of websites, including www.godhatesamerica.com and www.godhatesfags.com.
Of course, this won’t be the first funeral protest for Phelps. In 1998 he forced his way into the public consciousness by protesting at the funeral Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten to death. His church has also picketed at the funerals of those who have died of AIDS.

Most recently, Phelps has promised to picket the funeral of Corporal Jamie French. French, 19, an Idaho native and a former cheerleader. Phelps feels little shame for his actions, calling her, “An all-American girl from a society of all-American heretics.”

Phelps has also claimed that, “Our attitude toward what's happening with the war is the Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime." Which, to judge from his actions, is basically denying the right of hateful, homophobic gay-bashers to beat homosexuals to death on the street. Charming. Absolutely charming.

“While we respect Mr. Phelps' right to protest, we would hope that he would respect the family and friends of this young person by not disrupting the memorial,” said Caldwell, Iowa police chief Bob Sobba.

Fat chance. The word “respect” has no meaning to people like Phelps. Nor do the words “shame”, “decency”, or “love” have any meaning.

Take, for example, this excerpt from his website: “[Westboro Community Church] rejoices every time the Lord God in His vengeance kills or maims an American soldier with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked" (Ps. 58:10).”
Phelps has rarely declined an opportunity to cry about the “hateful words and actions” directed at his church – including a bomb attack in 1999. But instead of understanding how he has brought hatred and violence upon himself, how does he choose to react? That’s right, with more hatred.

“When you fill the army with fags and dykes and spit in the face of God, you have sown the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind.”

Of course, hatred of this intensity is ‘spit in the face of god’, but don’t ever put that past Phelps. God makes an awfully convenient excuse for people such as this.
Unfortunately, it isn’t only gays and lesbians that face the wrath of Phelps’ hatred. His website also proclaims that Reggie White is in hell (because “he displays none of the traits of the “heroes of faith”, as they are listed in Hebrews 11) and Ronald Reagan is in hell (because “Men honor him”, as well as some swill regarding Rock Hudson… if you read it, you’ll be as confused as I am).

Of course, websites like www.godhatesamerica.com and www.godhatesfags.com (which proclaims “thank god for the London subway bombings!”) are full of nothing but lies and excuses. The truth is another matter entirely.

The truth about men such as Phelps is truly dark. The truth is that people such as Phelps claim to worship the Judeo-Christian god. But that claim isn’t the truth. Because the truth is that men such as Phelps worship at the altar of hate. They worship hate, because they understand nothing else.

If that isn’t idolatry, I don’t know what is. But there is one thing that I do know: whatever this hate-filled little weasel thinks is waiting for him in the next life, it isn’t what he thinks he is.

Because people like Phelps are filled with too much hate for heaven.