Via Weasel Zippers again. This isn’t the first time they’ve used an open letter to try to siphon off buzz from a left-wing icon whose pet cause is in the news. Gore got off easy when they pitched vegetarianism to him as a solution to global warming. The world’s most “voluptuous” socialist gets it a bit harder:

Congratulations from PETA on the reviews for SiCKO. Although we think that your film could actually help reform America’s sorely inadequate health care system, there’s an elephant in the room, and it is you. With all due respect, no one can help but notice that a weighty health issue is affecting you personally. We’d like to help you fix that. Going vegetarian is an easy and life-saving step that people of all economic backgrounds can take in order to become less reliant on the government’s shoddy healthcare system, and it’s something that you and all Americans can benefit from personally. Vegetarians weigh, on average, up to 20 percent less than their meat-eating counterparts—meaning less weight-related problems like heart attacks and strokes—and live about eight years longer. I’m sure that your fans would appreciate having you around longer!

The very shocking, starkly (libertarian) conservative appeal with which it concludes:

Yes, America’s health care system needs to be fixed, but personal responsibility is a big part of why people look and feel as ill as they do.

It’s a big part of a lot more than that. Read this nifty little precis by Steyn about the rather unhealthy consequences of health care is “fixed.”