dream ranch

I don’t know whether to be more worried about hungry bears or presidential candidates.

“In several encounters last week, bears grabbed, tossed or absconded with the bear-proof food canisters, according to rangers at Yosemite National Park. Something like a robber stealing a safe, then taking it home to figure out how to get the goodies,” Tom Steinstra of the San Francisco Chronicle reported this morning.

This reminded me that I own two bear-proof containers and always have had trouble opening them myself. I find the one on the right particularly troublesome and have relegated it to my kitchen as a mouse-proof container for packaged pasta, lid always ajar.

This is in turn reminded me of the chills I felt yesterday when reading that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said, if elected, he would track foreign visitors the way FedEx tracks packages as a way to combat illegal immigration.

Admittedly, I do not know the details of Cristie’s plan. I reacted largely to the FedEx headlines, which triggered scary thoughts of bar codes and tattoos. He probably means something more clerical and benign, but his idea initially seemed even harder to imagine than Donald Trump’s giant wall.

I’ve come to agree in an odd way with the pundits who give Trump credit for stepping up debate in the GOP presidential wilderness.

Now you’ve got candidates like Christie, hungry for attention as Trump continues to rake in all the poll goodies, apparently trying to take even bigger swats on issues like immigration than the roaring real estate guy. Just after I wrote this I saw that Scott Walker said that building a wall between the U.S. and Canada is an idea worth considering.

With sign like this on the campaign trail, I feel like climbing in a bear-proof container until picnic season is over.