In Iraq, it is a mark of great disrespect to hurl your shoes at someone, as George Bush learned first hand in a news conference. In the brave new world of the “apostle of change” that we’ve just elected, you may get sued by the family members of your shoes for desecration of a corpse, as President Obama’s appointment of Cass Sunstein to “regulatory czar” will usher in a bright new day of animal rights. Here’s his opinion:
“[A]nimals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives, to prevent violations of current law … Any animals that are entitled to bring suit would be represented by (human) counsel, who would owe guardian like obligations and make decisions, subject to those obligations, on their clients’ behalf.”
This guy is nutty as a fruitcake, and a professor at Harvard Law School, two things that often go together. He wants to outlaw hunting, make us all vegans, ban the use of leather products, end medical animal testing that saves human lives, etc. I wish this was an exaggeration, but a short perusal of his book, Animal Rights, suggests otherwise. Here’s a choice phrase from one of his gushing reviewers: “a remarkably fresh collection of essays exploring our relationship–moral, legal, social, and epistemological–to nonhuman
animals.” I guess that makes you just a “human animal.” I don’t know about you, but to me anyone who even uses the phrase seems incompetent to have an opinion on the matter. I don’t have an epistemological relationship with my dentist, let alone my daughter’s fish.
I guess when you talk to the animals enough, you start to think you are one. I suppose that makes sense… I have a dog who thinks she’s human.
More background here.
