I saw people with signs in front of the Marriott Resort & Marina, but didn’t look at them. I thought it might be a labor dispute of some kind. Or maybe it was similar to the Manchester Grand Hyatt being picketed for something an owner donated money to.

The group protesting the protesters.

^{Courtesy photo}

I was more worried about crazy drivers and pedestrians jumping out in front of my car. My girlfriend, who hates when I honk at drivers that don’t move on the red lights. Or if I yell something out the window at apedestrian who seems to slow down while walking in front of my car.

So I was completely shocked when she rolled down the window and cursed at a pudgy middle-aged woman, wearing an American flag for a skirt. Then I saw the signs. One said “God Hates Fags.”

I found out earlier in the day, the Comic-Con crowd had gotten prepared for this. They had heard that the Westboro Baptist Church was planning to do protest them. And a collection of Jedi Knights, anime girls, and others, had made some signs of their own.

Those folks had signs that included “God Hates Jedi,” “Kill All Humans,” “Fags are Sexy Beasts,” and my personal favorite – “God Hates Kittens.” The cat pictured had a Hitler mustache on it.

Now, the Westboro folks had an Obama sign, but instead of the Hitler mustache drawn on it, they had devil horns on his head. The sign read “Antichrist Obama.”

The anti-protesterseven got a mock rally cry going. It went “What do we want? Gay sex! When do we want it? Now, now, now!”

My girlfriend said, “I felt bad yelling, since the woman had a 10-year-old kid with her. But I figured, so what. He needs to hear that, and realize his mom is a complete idiot.”

After I ran my errands, I drove by hoping to interview someone with the church. They had dispersed. I’m not sure if they were forced to leave or what.

I wanted to ask about the American flag skirts they wore, which had the flags upside down. I wanted to get their views on things.

Instead, when I got home Thursday night, I checked their Web site.

I see they have a whole page called “Upcoming Picket Schedule.”

That includes a stop in Iowa City, for the funeral of a soldier that died in combat. Another in Lincoln, Nebraska. That’s for a judge they felt was soft on crime. They end the paragraph on that with: “God hates Nebraska. Nebraska is going down…town clown!”

There were too many protests to list.

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