LIFE BOILED AND DROWNED

According to an Associated Press report,

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“Two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have stumbled upon alien microbes on the Red Planet and inadvertently killed them, a scientist theorizes in a paper released Sunday.

“The problem was the Viking space probes of 1976-77 were looking for the wrong kind of life and didn't recognize it, the researcher said in a paper presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.

“This new report, based on a more expansive view of where life can take root, may have NASA looking for a different type of Martian life form when its next Mars spacecraft is launched later this year, one of the space agency's top scientists told The Associated Press.”
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Got me to thinking, along with many scientists much brighter and well-informed than me, that life must be everywhere in the Universe. It will always have to evolve since evolution seems always to multiply and complicate rather than simplify, from inanimate to animate, from unconscious to conscious. This is the most exciting stuff in the world, this evolution of consciousness, the ability of the human animal to become aware of itself adrift in the Universe, master of its own destiny, its ability to contemplate its future, even its own death. The end result has to be conscious life of a variety of types all over the Universe. Contrary to Biblical prophecy and awesome to the extreme, the Cosmos is alive with life and the hugest majority of it unnamed by the mythical Adam nor transported by an equally mythological Noah.

NOT ONLY ANN COULTER

Not too long back, I showed and commented upon a photo of Ann Coulter, pointing up that she might be a hard partier. If she is a conservative, Christian party girl, she and Mel Gibson (another hard-partying dude with conservative Christian claims) are not alone. Here’s an arrest photo of the cartoonist who draws Mallard Filmore, to your left, found on the Huffington’s Post with accompanying commentary by blogger Chris Kelly. Look at his eyes, like Coulter's—another of those really happy people who claim conservative credentials. Look, I'm not happy all the time myself. I've got my stories too, and I've had my hard times, but my suffering has been alleviated by skepticism and atheism. I'm no longer disappointed by "hope of things unseen" or of hope of future rewards for me and punishment for my enemies. All that sort of stuff leads to a face like you see on your left. Giving up fruitless hope sends one into the healthy despair that leads to acceptance and, thus, peace of mind.

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It was Tinsley's second arrest in six months. Which would suggest he has problems beyond loneliness and not being funny. But what was really inspiring was that he picked himself up, dusted himself off, used some paper towels to blot the puke, and composed the strip that appeared yesterday.

(I wish King Features would post it, but they don't. Take my word for it, it reads:)

MORE OUT ON A LIMB! ... MALLARD'S 2007 NEW-YEAR'S PREDICTIONS: HOLLYWOOD WILL CONTINUE TO MOCK "FAMILY VALUES"... MEANWHILE, RESEARCHERS WILL FINALLY DISCOVER A CELEBRITY'S KID WHO ISN'T MESSED UP AND IN REHAB...

The text is accompanied by a drawing of a long-nosed man, presumably a movie producer, laughing, presumably at Jesus on the cross. You can tell he's a movie producer, because he has a ponytail. And it's 1975.

In Indiana, where Tinsley was arrested, driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 is a class C misdemeanor. Tinsley's blood alcohol was 0.14. Which means Tinsley will pay a fine, have his license suspended and, "may be placed on probation and be required to enroll in, and pay for, a substance abuse education course."
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Thank you, Chris Kelly, for that info on the Huffington Post. The sad part is that I know from personal experience that anyone with the intelligence of a half-eaten burrito, trying to uphold and keep alive an attitude of Biblical inerrancy with all the facts modern people have at hand, is almost bound to fold up under the pressure of truth like a toothpick balancing a concrete block. I've got no doubt that many of them are also trying to hold back personal experience of abuse at the hands of other fundamentalists from erupting into consciousness and drowning them in pain. Thus, drugs, sex and alcohol—thus Rummy, Limbaugh, Cheney, Baker and Foley. . . You continue your list with your favorite conservatives.