Please Don't Feed Me to the Bears

Donna Munson set out to help the friendly bears around her remote home in Colorado. Feeding them and taking care of them she probably felt they would appreciate her kindness. Unfortunately, bears are wild animals and her generosity proved fatal when a 400 pound Black Bear killed and started to consume her.

Unlike humans, animals lacking our cerebral cortex have simpler means of thinking about things. Mostly there is little thinking at all. Feed an animal, it associates you with food. This is true for your Beta Fish in your aquarium or for a powerful predator like these bears.

Mrs Munson's actions, certainly proved dangerous to herself, they also pose a menace for anyone that might come across one of her hungry bears. Last week, I was hiking in Norther NJ, by myself and I was told to be on the lookout for another 400 pound bear that was seen nearby. Armed only with my telephoto lens off I went, hoping for a shot at long distance. Normally, black bears are shy and will retreat when humans are around. Their sharp noses and our noisy habits usually give away our presence long before we get to spot them. However, if someone like Mrs Munson was around making them used to humans giving them food, this bear may have sought me out, attacked me and ripped out my liver and ate it.

Mrs Munson's actions have also been a disaster for her bears. Two of them have now been shot dead.

It seems wherever humans go they have this innate need to feed wild animals whatever the repercussions. Many of these people seem to believe these animals are like the ones seen in Disney pictures and need our help. In Monterey California I have seen them feeding prairie dogs whole twizzlers. Can an animal that small survive after eating a twizzler? In NJ we have dozens of people trekking up to the local parks to feed deer, geese and wild turkeys. Since NJ has a large bear problem, hopefully there no Mrs Munson's around feeding them.

Here is an example of the activity around a 200 acre park in NJ where every day dozens of people trek up to feed the wildlife. This wildlife has exploded with unexpected repercussions for the park and the other animals that inhabit it.



Every day or so a bread truck dumps hundred of pounds of bread to feed the deer. This has helped the population in this small park to balloon to over 200 deer. This number is unsustainable and is sustained by people feeding them and by the deer foraging in people's backyards destroying their shrubs and plants.



As you can see above, the park itself is rather strange, no vegetation exists below four feet of the ground. In fact deer have eliminated the habitat for birds, toads, frogs, salamanders and many other creatures. The wild flowers and orchids that formerly existed on the forest floor have all been eaten. Where are the wild blueberries?

All this concentrated feeding has invited another menace - disease. Normally, deer don't feed at communal feeding troughs, swapping spit and assorted viruses and bacteria. Out west hunters bait stations have helped the deer version of Mad Cow disease to propagate. With no predators, these deer are only limited by the cars that hit them on the road, which is almost a daily occurrence.

Idiots that feed wild animals need to stopped, whether by being lectured or fined. No, these are not Bambi and Yogi bear - they are wild animals and should be treated as such. And, most importantly, lacking any predators to control the population a well devised hunt is necessary to cull the herds to sustainable levels.

And, please don't feed me to the bears.

Bibi's Final Blunder, a One State Solution

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Israel is back on the settlement bandwagon and intent on laying claim to all the historic lands of Israel. With American money bankrolling the Jewish state, that of course makes us complicit in whatever they do. Obama has been attempting to curtail these settlements, while the administration of Bibi Netanyahu is trying to go full speed ahead. With that it is interesting to make the note of the history of this region of the world since before Obama took office.

A huge political earthquake shook the land of Israel in 2005 when the old war horse Ariel Sharon, broke with the Likud party to form a new centralist party called Kadima. Unlike Likud this new party was formed in attempt to disengage from Palestinian territory, remove settlements and pursue a two-state solution. That this policy was pursued by Arik Sharon, a man not known for strategic retreats was pursuing this path is quite remarkable.

Sharon's career goes back to the war of Independence. During the '56 Suez offensive where he led the Paratroopers that attempted to capture Mitla pass, far in advance of Israeli forcing and bottling up Egyptian forces in Sinai. Exceeding orders he precipitated a battle inside the pass that resulted in high casualties which stymied his career for a period of time. Taking part of all the big Arab-Israeli wars Sharon's character was fully on display in the '73 Yom Kippur War where he lead a tank division in the Sinai where his actions were both bold and reckless. Twice the Chief of Staff recommended Sharon be replaced only to be overruled by Defense Minister Dayan.

After initially being caught unaware, the Israeli forces were pushed back into the Sinai before the front stabilized and a counterattack was planned via a corridor that was pushed westward to the Suez canal. Sharon, ever the swashbuckling type wanted to float his tanks to the Egyptian side of the canal, before bridging operations could be completed, before a supply line could be established and before the large Egyptian counterattack had been thwarted. If Sharon had gone into Egypt without a clear supply line he could have met the fate of Rommel in his "dash to the wire" at El Alamein where he ran out of gas. Israel could not afford the loss of one of its top armored divisions. Yet, Sharon was bridled enough to wait for the proper moment. Israeli forces invaded Egypt and surrounded and doomed the Egyptian 3rd Army before a cease fire was imposed by American intervention.

The Pattonesque quality in Sharon is readily apparent, and in later years this was carried forward as Prime Minister and also as minister of housing where he was an avid builder of settlements. These settlers were induced with cheap housing, day care and other inducements; many effectively paid for with aid money from the USA.

The plan was to lure Jews from the USA, Europe and other places to settle here and win the battle of demography and squeeze the Palestinians into every decreasing pockets where they could be controlled. With the Intifada and the incessant fighting these Jews never materialized. Instead the Palestinians were the ones being fruitful and multiplying. Instead the Palestinians with time on their side, would eventually transform Israel into a majority Palestinian state. The long-term outlook for a Jewish State appeared pretty grim.

Sharon's actions of unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and removal of settlements was fought by Likud and it's leader Bibi Netanyahu. The old general's finally coming to realize the larger strategic dimension to the conflict and choosing a strategic withdrawal to defensible lines was a real watershed. Unfortunately, he soon suffered a stroke and left the picture. His successor Olmert never had the prestige to advance much further before he was finally felled in a corruption scandal.

The seizure of power by Hamas and the Gaza rocket attacks weakened the new Kidima party and with the election of Obama, Israel passed back into the hands of the Likud under Bibi. Unlike the Bush administration, Obama did not want to give Israel carte blanch. Our relations with a billion Muslims had to be considered and not be subservient the desires a few million Jews. Many of these Israeli Jews in fact want accomodation and final peace with the Palistians.

If the Obama administration has been cursed with the realization that after 8 years of George Bush and the Israeli lobby giving Likud policies the seal of approval, Bibi is now stuck with the Obama administration not wanting to become a Likud lap dog.

Obama and in fact George Bush have for a time thwarted Bibi's desire to bomb Iran and ignite the whole mid-east in flames. This self defeating plan will result in many more American body bags coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan, sky high oil prices and a host of other evils. From Bibi's perspective it would enhance Israeli-US relationships since those with the Arab would tank leaving Israel still in position as our best friend in the middle east.

Meanwhile, with attention diverted to Iran, Israeli settlers are about to put the final coup de grace to a two-state solution, the plan to expand the Israeli settles to the east of Jerusalem and encircle the Arab areas with new Jewish settlements.

The lynch pin of this effort is the settlement known as E-1 just to the west of Ma' ale Adumim, which is the subject of the Goggle imagery in this article. Just to the west we see a system of roads and roundabouts all going nowhere. Once complete this new complex will thwart any effort to establish a contiguous Palestinian state.

A few hours of Goggle Map "flyovers" of Palestinian and Israeli settlements, followed by looking up photographs of these areas will leave the viewer with an indeligible impression on what is happening here. Palestinians are being forced into ghettos while virtual resort communities with horse stables, pools and other amenities are in walled off sections, exclusively the providence of these settlers.

Once Bibi and Likud's master plan is complete, what is left? The long hard slog will continue for decades and eventually become a Civil Rights struggle for Palestinians's rights. Over time how can the "Jewish State" remain a Jewish State if a large number of its people are non-Jews, marginalized and imprisoned in their isolated communities? Is this where the Israeli public wants to go?

Looking down the road Bibi may yet become the most successful jihadist of all time, the man that took down the Jewish State.