Jon Caldara. Love him, hate him; boil him in oil. Tar him; feather him; haul him out of town on a rail. Rest assured, he will thank you for the extra publicity.

Just spell his name right (it’s not c-a-l-d-E-r-a). And give him this much credit: The man is funny.

In the staid and stuffy world of think tankery, Caldara’s libertarian-leaning Independence Institute is anything but. In his nearly two decades at the helm of the Denver-based institution, he has teased, taunted, quipped, spoofed and deadpanned his way around the hyper-serious and self-important political culture of the State Capitol. And of course he has been shamelessly — make that, proudly — self-promotional every step of the way.

Consider his latest e-newsletter, which came across the transom today. Before getting to the usual pitches and updates, it begins with a lengthy response to a critic — exceeding even the high bar Caldara has set for himself. Pardon the extensive excerpt that follows. It is meant neither to endorse his political tilt nor further engorge his ego — though the latter is a likely side-effect. This is just to give you a chuckle as we near the end of another long week at the legislature and in Colorado politics in general; we’ve edited out his target’s last name just in case he really exists:

We are getting a lot of great questions about our Earth Day Fossil Fuels Art Contest.

For instance, a very curious Andy ___ kindly wrote to ask us the following questions, which I’ll share verbatim and try to answer here:

1. How do you live with yourselves, when you support climate denying organizations that will cause thousands of deaths in the short term and untold destruction in the long term?A: Well, Andy, it’s very difficult. But my gas-heated home and my well-chilled beer helps take the sting out of my remorse.

2. Do you care about anything other than money?A: Absolutely. Sex.

3. How are you going to use money after you die sooner than you would otherwise as a result of destroying Earth’s environment? Lining your coffins doesn’t count.A: Oh, Andy, after I die I’m leaving all my money to the angry feminists to use in their fight to get their sense of humor back from the environmentalists.

4. Do you think a bunch of energy industry lobbyists know more than 97.5 percent of all climate scientists?A: Know more about what? Making money from government research grants? Definitely not.

5. Do you think calling people who would prefer to live and for there to still be a habitable (sic) planet after they die “enviros” is a slick burn?A: Slick? Oh, no, not at all. We’re just happy when anything burns.

6. How much did the devil pay for your souls?A: Actually, I sold them to the Koch brothers first, who then marked them up considerably and sold them to the devil. Hence my TV show, Devil’s Advocate with Jon Caldara, every Friday night at 8:30 on Colorado Public TV, Channel 12.IndYes, we get emails like this all the time, and we love ‘em. You can love Andy right back by voting for the best Fossil Fuels Art Project at our 32nd Annual Founders’ Night Dinner on April 27, 2017…