A Lesson in Natural Selection

James Taranto of "Best of the Web" posts an example of just how natural selection works: "Longtime wetlands advocate" Jonathan Aurthur, 56, committed suicide last month by jumping off a cliff, a Los Angeles Times obituary reports. The family had a tragic history of mental illness; in 1996 Aurthur's 23-year-old son, Charley, killed himself by jumping off an overpass into freeway traffic. But the Times suggests the motive for the elder Aurthur's suicide was partly political: "Friends said [he] was despondent over mounting debt, his son's suicide and the reelection of President Bush." An argument for evolution in action. And a candidate for the Darwin Awards, I'm sure.