Every movement has its fringe, its lone rangers, who take an ideology to radical extremes out of fervor for its cause. No matter what the consequences. Or….to produce the exact consequences they perceive will advance an ideology. They may be the unfortunate exception. Or the manifestation of carrying an idea through, on its own course of logic, to its inevitable conclusion.

What happened Wednesday at the Discovery Channel headquarters was the surreal and hellish fury of a ‘radical environmentalist’ enraged….not at the world….but the people who inhabit it.

The gunman, identified as James Lee, was killed by police following four hours of negotiations but the hostages are all safe, said Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger.

Manger said the suspect had “metalic canisters” strapped to his chest and back…

In a rambling manifesto on Lee’s website, believed to have been written by Lee, the writer rails against “disgusting human babies,” “parasitic infants,” and says people should “disassemble civilization.” The manifesto also calls on Discovery to “broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet.”

Furthermore…

“I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup and I want proof they are doing so. I want the new shows started by asking the public for inventive solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it,” the alleged manifesto reads, adding:

“Nothing is more important than saving … the Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels. The humans? The planet does not need humans.”

Shocked and saddened, two things came to mind rather quickly.

I recalled this MercatorNet article on the activist movement that really wants to save the planet by eliminating people.

And I appreciated again the fundamental message of Humanae Vitae: Once we go down the path of deciding that we can control the creation and elimination of human life, there will be no limit to the transgressions of the power over it.