The British government has put a halt to the Fred Phelps sideshow before it has even begun:

The Phelpses, whose protests at military members’ funerals in the U.S. have prompted lawsuits and legislation, apparently had planned to fly to the United Kingdom to protest a performance of “The Laramie Project.”

The play about the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay student who was killed in 1998 in Laramie, Wyo., is scheduled to open today at Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

“Both these individuals have engaged in unacceptable behavior by inciting hatred against a number of communities,” a U.K. Border Agency spokesman told the Times Online, the online site of The Times of London. “The government has made it clear it opposes extremism in all its forms.”

In America, the Phelpses have a Constitutional right to free expression, something I and others have repeatedly defended here on this blog.

Swastika Guy and Michelle Malkin, too, are certainly welcome to exercise their right to free expression as guaranteed by the Constitution, as we reserve our own right to combat their speech with free speech of our own.

It is tremendously disrespectful to the memory of 6 million dead Jews, gays, and other so-called "undesirables" during the Holocaust, not to mention the 400,000+ Americans who lost their lives fighting in World War II to cheapen their legacy by comparing a mainstream American politician to Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, or any of their associated political ideologies.

People on the right who call President Obama a socialist don't know what socialism is. People on the right or left who would call President Obama or Bush a Nazi don't know what the word means.

I don't care where the comparison occurs, whether it's on the steps of our State Capitol or on this community blog where anyone can create an account and write for free, it's wrong. So please stop it.