When is intruding on solemnity OK?

Now I wonder how many conservatives who follow the lead of Virginia’s attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, are adamantly opposed to building the Muslim community center two blocks away from Ground Zero.

My reason for wondering is this: Cuccinelli declined to file a brief supporting Albert Snyder’s side of the case against Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church. That made Virginia just one of two states to pass on the opportunity. The Supreme Court will decide the case soon.

Rather than rehash it, click here to read my Richmond.com article on this matter. By the way, I agree with Cuccinelli’s take on this one.

Anyway, after you read about Cuccinelli’s concerns for freedom of speech, even when the speaker is being deliberately obnoxious at military funerals, you’ll see he’s not willing to protect the families of fallen military personnel from being offended at the worst time.

How are the sensibilities of the families of people who perished in the 9/11 attacks all that different from the families at such funerals?

Since most reasonable people of any political persuasion agree that the owners of the property in Manhattan have the "right" to do as they please, within zoning regulations, etc., we hear from those opposed to the community center -- who call it the Ground Zero Mosque -- that such a purpose would be/could be offensive to the families of 9/11’s victims.

They're saying it's terribly inappropriate, which is understandable, even if one disagrees. Yet, almost anything one does today will be called inappropriate by someone. Most of us worry about such things when we feel like it.

So, is the No-Ground-Zero-Mosque movement also saying the presence of a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan is more offensive and inappropriate than what the Westboro hate group does at funerals?

Think about it.

What could be meaner or less appropriate than a group of professional haters from Kansas showing up at your child’s funeral, waving outrageous signs -- God Hates Fags! -- that say your lost loved one deserves an eternity in hell, because he or she died fighting for a country that enables homosexuality?

But a fair reading of the First Amendment says the government can’t stop them. So, Cuccinelli and other conservatives can live with that intrusion into a solemn occasion. How is a community center that can’t even be seen from Ground Zero less appropriate?

In the current scheme of things, how many conservatives have more tolerance for a Westboro hater's rights, because he calls himself a Baptist, than they do for the rights of any Muslim under the sun?