Notes From A Bear's Journey

    It began, with a batch of photos, the old type, the ones printed on paper.  The benefit of such old-school paper photos, I should note, is that you can not only frame them to display, but when you mail them to others --especially if they're from 25 years ago-- it comes as a total surprise.  So I was doing just that, gathering up some photos from decades ago, adding a little letter to go with them, and dropping them in the mail to old friends.  But unbeknownst to me, when I returned home there would be a letter from one of my friends with...photos of me from decades ago.  I bring this up because I was thinking of the day when I'm gone and someone has to clean out my desk and comes across these hundreds and hundreds of photos.  Who are these people, he or she might say, right before dumping the entire batch into the trash.  And rightfully so (imagine going through your grandparents' photos).  So, what better time than now to start mailing t...

     Agree or not, that phrase "We, the people" --once so instrumental in the founding of our government-- has become a shell of itself.  One could almost argue that even the words "these United States" have weakened since our states now seem to be far from "united."  Trying to define "the people"  --not only here but pretty much for any country-- is now almost an impossibility.  Those are not MY people, or that's not what "people" really think.  Just as the Supreme Court ignored the high percentage of what the "people" wanted, so too have our presidential elections through the decades (I should note that 5 Republican Presidents lost the popular vote but were elected anyway).  And no, this is not about conspiracies or false results, even if 139 Congressional representatives refused to acknowledge the results of the recent election (what??), perhaps afraid of whatever, or perhaps actually echoing a lost trust in our legal...

     So let's start this off with some good news, the removal of fishing net from a whale.  Said the piece in Reuters : One of the divers, 32-year-old marine biologist Gigi Torras, said last Friday's rescue and a little gesture of appreciation from the giant mammal were also a birthday present for her - the 'best ever' in her words.*   I bring this up because I had just finished another article in The New Yorker about the relaxed laws in Idaho on killing wolves. Idaho has long had a reputation as the most hostile toward the gray wolf, a once endangered species; it’s legal to slay pups in their dens there.  But last spring the state legislature dramatically broadened opportunities to target wolves.  For the first time, sportsmen could kill an unlimited number.  Trappers could operate year-round on private property.  Night-vision goggles, silencers, snowmobiles, A.T.V.s—all legal, though such tactics pose ethical concerns about “fair chas...