Westboro: We'll Picket Boston Marathon Funerals

We'd call this a new low for Westboro Baptist Church, but these are the people who threatened to picket Sandy Hook. Now they say they'll picket the funerals of the Boston Marathon victims, the Raw Story reports. The church's reasoning, per a press release: "GOD SENT THE BOMBS! How many more terrifying ways will you have the LORD injure and kill your fellow countrymen because you insist on nation-dooming filthy [gay slur] marriage?! ... Massachusetts invited this special wrath from God Almighty when it was the FIRST STATE to pass same-sex marriage."

A We the People petition calls for the WBC to be banned from the funerals, and a Twitter account associated with the Anonymous hacktivists threatens the church: "Dear @WBCSays, I wouldn't f--k with the people of Boston when they're mad. #BostonBeatDown." It was Anonymous that thwarted the Westboro's Sandy Hook plan, the Raw Story notes; the hackers publicized the hotel where church members were staying, and a human shield was formed to block them. Yesterday, the New York Post ran a piece by Libby Phelps Alvarez, a granddaughter of WBC founder Fred Phelps who left the church—and now fights for gay rights. (More Fred Phelps stories.)