Environmentalists: The Earth Liberation Front claims to oppose "sprawl," whatever that is. Here's how they do it: they burn down suburban houses. Nobody hurt in this latest rash of fires outside Detroit and in Philadelphia, but the group, and it's ideological and methodological ally Animal Liberation Front (ALF), is historically a violent one:

[Graham] Hall, a British journalist, was kidnapped at gunpoint in October 1999. The letters ''ALF,'' 4 inches high, were burned into his back with a branding iron. An ALF spokesperson's comment: ''People who make a living in this way have to expect from time to time to take the consequences of their actions.'' Hall's ''crime'': He made a video documentary critical of ALF.

Extremists? PETA supports them.