The PETA syndrome

That's the term I'm coining for the condition of such intense earnestness that one is blind to acts of self-parody. Case in point:

A group of Israeli environmentalists has launched an Internet campaign encouraging Jews around the world to light at least one fewer candle this Hanukkah.

The founders of the Green Hanukkia campaign say each candle burning all the way down produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide, and that -- multiplied by an estimated 44 million households in Israel -- adds up quickly.

"The campaign calls for Jews around the world to save the last candle and save the planet, so we won't need another miracle," Liad Ortar, a founder of the campaign, told The Jerusalem Post.

Lame!

Naomi Wolf posted an "explanation" of her earlier endorsement of the Second Amendment--get this:

I was referring to the historical origin of the Second Amendment, as the protector of local militias that would be more closely accountable to the people than a federal army. Many in the founding period were distrustful of a large standing army: they - and their wives and children - had experienced abuse at the hands of unaccountable soldiers in their midst.

Riiight. Because don't we all associate the kind of "government intrusion that other citizens suffer around the world" with British redcoats quartered in private homes during the pre-Revolutionary days?