Falwell That Ends Well

The imperative not to speak ill of the dead is obviously a nonstarter. Indeed, there is a whole class of dead persons of whom it would be ill to speak otherwise: Jim Jones, Idi Amin, Stalin, Mother Theresa, Bob Hope, and so forth. (How easy it is to skirt Godwin's Law.)

Whether Falwell belongs to this class is an open question (well, not really), but the notion that the question is mooted by concerns of etiquette is preposterous.