Church leader tweets picket of Jobs' funeral--via iPhone

Sadness seems like an all-encompassing emotion.

Yet today some might learn that it is possible for another emotion to creep in and steal some of sadness's power without even trying too hard. Disgust, for example.

I am grateful (at least in one sense) to the Washington Post for crawling past my teeth and informing me that the Westboro Baptist Church is organizing a picket of Steve Jobs' funeral.

You might be familiar with this church. It is the same Kansas-based band of intellectuals which protests at the funerals of American soldiers. Because, well, the Church is privileged with the insight that God punishes America because America doesn't punish sin. At least I think that's how this Wittgensteinian thinking goes.

I won't link to their Web site or tell you their URL. (You can Google it yourself.)

These are people, you see, who live life on a higher plane. They seem to believe that they are a little more chosen than, well, quite a lot of people. Perhaps that's why one of the church's leaders, Margie J. Phelps, decided to use Twitter to help announce her protest of the enlightened.

She wrote: "Westboro will picket his funeral. He had a huge platform; gave God no glory & taught sin. MT @AP: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has died at 56."

I fear I might be turned to stone (but I am prepared to take the risk) when I tell you that Phelps tweeted this freely expressed bilge-tinged bagatelle on her...iPhone.