Horrible People News: Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Elizabeth Taylor Funeral

Before he left MSNBC, commentator Keith Olbermann had a segment called "Worst Person in the World," where he took politicans and average citizens to task for doing what he felt were genuinely horrible things.

While we're no political pundits, we'd like to borrow Olbermann's editorial gimmick, and hand a "Worst People in the World" to organizers from the Westboro Baptist Church, who promised today to protest at Elizabeth Taylor's funeral, and tweeted a series of truly vile messages about Taylor.

The "church" and its founder Fred Phelps are known for protesting funerals of American soldiers, children, Jews, Muslims, Princess Diana, Ronald Reagan and even Mister Rogers (bast#$ds!) with signs saying things like "God Hates F*gs,""God Hates Jews," "Thank God for 9/11," and more.The church won a Supreme Court case on March 2nd affirming their right to protest at funerals.

At least 17 states have banned protests near funeral sites immediately before and after ceremonies, and California is not one of those.Taylor's funeral will take place in Los Angeles.

Margie Phelps, daughter of Fred Phelps (who has recently been accused by his son of physical and mental abuse), Tweeted today:

"No RIP Elizabeth Taylor who spent her life in adultery and enabling proud fags. They cuss her in hell today. #Westboro will picket funeral!"

That was just one of a very long series of bizarre and potentially threatening texts from Phelps:

"Media mob & talking dead-heads will publicly lionize whore #ElizabethTaylor & squeal like stuck pigs when #WBC pickets funeral. #ShesInHell"

Beyond the obvious brutal insensitivity of saying such awful things about a recently deceased and well-loved woman who regularly contributed to charity, we have to wonder if these people pose an actual physical threat to mourners.

Nate Phelps has warned audiences at speakings engagements about his father, and someone who promises to make funeral-goers "squeal like stuck pigs" should probably be kept under close watch by authorities.

"I think that he's is a sociopath," Phelps reportedly said of his father. "I think that he fits that based on his inability to empathize with others, his calculated cruelty, and by laughing at the harm he causes. I've seen that growing up with him."

While freedom of speech is incredibly important, we think mourners of any stripe should be able to express their grief in peace. We hope that fans of Elizabeth Taylor's work, both on-screen and off, will be able to do so without facing the threat of abuse and violence from a group of deranged and potentially dangerous individuals.