A Ray of Sunshine in Columbia

What a terrible week for news. North Korea appears to have tested a nuclear device. Murdered children are buried in Pennsylvania and Ontario. A report suggests that over 600,000 Iraqis have died since the US invaded that country. Gunfire erupts in a Toronto-area shopping mall. A baseball player crashes a light plane into a New York apartment building.

Amidst all this sadness, there was a bright news story -- a new species of bird has been discovered in the cloud forest of Columbia. A joint Columbian-British team of scientists announced the discovery of the Yariguies Brush Finch, a fist-sized bird with a reddish plume and bright yellow feathers. The bird is considered "near threatened", but its discovery has already led to the Columbian government setting aside some of the forest to be protected.

The one sad thing about the whole thing is the back story about the bird's names. The Yariguies tribe used to live in the region in which the bird was found. According to some stories, the tribe committed mass suicide in the sixteenth century rather than submit to Spanish colonial rule.

To see a picture of the bird (and to get more information about the discovery), check out the following link to the National Geographic website:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061010-new-bird.html?source=rss

The Living Sunset

I have spent a great deal of my life living in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Although there have been benefits to living in Vancouver -- the oceans and the Gulf Islands, Kitsalano, the mountains -- I always missed having four distinct seasons.

At the moment, we are at the beginning of autumn. The days are getting shorter. The nights are getting colder. Some mornings, you can see your breath when you go outside. Best of all, the leaves are changing colours, painting the land with a palette of yellows, oranges, and reds.

One of the joys of living in Ontario is being able to drive in the countryside and look at the autumn leaves. In a lot of ways, it is like watching a beautiful sunset. It is different every time you look at it and you know it is not going to last. Perhaps that is what makes it so beautiful.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I try not to be one of those Canadians who mistake anti-Americanism for nationalism. You know the type -- the ones who act as if the only benchmark for being Canadian is how much we are not like our neighbours to the south. Recent legislation, however, makes me wonder if perhaps some of the hyperbole might actually be warranted.

On September 28, 2006, the Military Commissions Act passed in the United States, giving the president unprecedented powers. According to www.bushwatch.net, the legislation violates 4 out of 10 articles of the Bill of Rights. Given the near religious reverence most Americans feel for their Constitution, I am amazed by the lack of vociferous response.

More surprisingly, the MCA suspends the right of habeas corpus which has been a hallmark of our justice system since the signing of the Magna Carta. There is something so patently un-American and so totalitarian about permanent detention without a trial that it staggers the mind to see both parties voting for the Act. (And yes, I am aware that Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus during the Civil War, but I am also aware that the Supreme Court ruled against him.)

If you listen to the most pessimistic critics, the Act pretty well authorizes torture, since the US President is now the judge of what constitutes torture, rather than international agreements like the Geneva Conventions. Torture may yield information, but you don't necessarily get the truth. As emotionally satisfying as torture may be to certain types of people, the fact is that results gained from torture are not worth the blood spilled to obtain them.

Even if the results are good, I think there is a bigger issue at stake -- the nature of what America (and Canada, for that matter) stand for. I, for one, do not believe that you can protect democracy with secret police and hidden gulags. If we really value concepts like justice and equality and democracy, we have to fight according rules that reflect our beliefs.

If the terrorists don't honour the rules, screw them! We can still beat them, like we beat the Nazis in World War II. (I know, our conduct was marred by things like strategic bombing of Germany and Japan, nuclear strikes against Japan, and the like, but the western Allied chose to pass fight according to rules that hampered them and cost the lives of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines.) It may be more difficult and more costly, but winning the so-called War on Terror honourably is more likely to result in a lasting peace than winning by any means possible is.


Unfortunately, this is a return to the Fortress America isolation that rears its face periodically when the US feels insecure. This was a deplorable response to world events in the 1920s and it is even more deplorable today, when the US is actively flexing its hyperpower muscles and putting hundreds of military lives at risk. What the US government seems to forget is that once one party decides they can set the rules aside, there is no incentive for other parties to stick to the rules.

Toronto: We're Number Two!

Well, the regular baseball season is coming to an end and my Blue Jays are not going on to the playoffs. While I would have preferred to see them in the pennant race, I have one consolation to cling to -- we're number two!

I know what Ricky Bobby says -- "If you're not first, you're last" -- but I am willing to settle for second place this year. After all, this is the first time since 1993 that Toronto finished above 3rd place. After years of hearing about "rebuilding" the team, we actually were competitive.

With any luck, we'll get some decent trades in the off-season and some healthy players during next season, and we'll be off to the World Series next year.

Good News on the Frog Front.

Today my wife and I visited the Luther Marsh conservation area east of Arthur, Ontario. It was a very pleasant way to spend the day, even when it began to rain.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was the number of frogs we saw. At one point, we took a trail down to the marsh itself and the path came alive with giant grasshoppers and frogs of varying sizes. Some were the size of my thumb, while others would have taken up a decent amount of space on my palm.

It was nice to see so many amphibions, especially when you consider how endangered they are. Even though I am decades away from boyhood, I still found it exciting to watch the little creatures hop from the path to the tall grasses.