Ann Coulter, Fred Phelps: Two Peas in a Pod

PaddyMac found it noteworthy to post about Ann Coulter's reaction to Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist's Church's ongoing harassment of the families of fallen soldiers. Paddy, who is apparently in agreement with Coulter's take, writes:

What the rabble led by Fred Phelps with signs reading "God Loves Dead Soldiers," "You're Going to Hell" and "God Hates Fags" are doing, writes Coulter, is a well known legal concept: the intentional infliction of emotional distress. You can sue for that. "It means what it says: speech or conduct specifically intended to inflict emotional distress. The usual description of the tort of IIED is that a reasonable man viewing the conduct would react by saying, 'That's outrageous!'"

Makes one wonder what they would be saying if Ann Coulter was sued for the same infraction when Coulter attacked the 9/11 widows:

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused commentator Ann Coulter of making a “vicious, mean-spirited attack” on outspoken 9/11 widows whom the television pundit described as “self-obsessed” and enjoying their husbands' deaths.

Coulter writes in a new book, “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” that a group of New Jersey widows whose husbands perished in the World Trade Center act “as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them.”

She also wrote, “I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much.”

I would say that that was specifically meant to cause emotional distress.

At least we have confirmation that, despite all their hysterical shrieks, it is really people like Paddy and Coulter who are the fascists that would take away the people's rights.