Ann Althouse on James Lee’s enviro-psycho “manifesto:”

The guy seems pretty clearly crazy, and I hope no one dies and he gets the help he needs [I'd say he got it and a half -- Ed], because this manifesto — PDF —  is hilarious, but if anyone dies, it might be wrong to laugh.

Saving the environment and the remaning species diversity of the planet is now your mindset. Nothing is more important than saving them. The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels.

Of course, the Squirrels. That’s such a childish list of animals, and not just because of “Froggies.” These are the animals in a children’s picture book or Noah’s Ark toy.

Cue Denis Leary’s early rant about the animal “rights” movement being driven by aesthetics:

Red meat, white meat, blue meat, meat-o-f**king-rama. You will eat it. Because not eating meat is a decision. Eating meat is an instinct! Yeah! And I know what it’s about. “I don’t want to eat the meat because I love the animals. I love the animals.” Hey, I love the animals too. I love my doggy. He’s so cute. My fluffy little dog.. He’s so cute — There’s the problem. We only want to save the cute animals, don’t we? Yeah. Why don’t we just have animal auditions. Line ‘em up one by one and interview them individually. “What are you?” “I’m an otter.” “And what do you do?” “I swim around on my back and do cute little human things with my hands.” “You’re free to go.” “And what are you?” “I’m a cow.” “Get in the f**king truck, ok pal!” “But I’m an animal.” “You’re a baseball glove! Get on that truck!”

But then at some point in the last 125 years or so, we really did replace Religion With Aesthetics.

Related: And speaking of replacing religion with aesthetics!

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(H/T: Mark Hemingway.)