Q: How long does it take rodents to escape from a $500,000 enclosure?
A: About 10 minutes.
Keepers at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore recently moved their resident prairie dogs to a new exhibit, but the rodents had other ideas.
My wife and I visited the Maryland Zoo last fall, but we didn’t get to see the prairie dogs at the time. The zoo (formerly the Baltimore Zoo) had run into serious financial problems, and was forced to shut down many of its original exhibits. Many of the animals, such as these fine furry fellows, remained but were not able to be seen by the public. We didn’t know this at first, but it was pretty obvious that the zoo was not doing well.
For example, the Saint Louis Zoo is an important and beloved institution in our town, and many donors – corporations, wealthy citizens, middle class families, etc. – are proud to have their names on various plaques. My wife is a Zoo Friend, my Grandma is a Zoo Parent, and the owner of the company I work for has obviously made substantial donations. So, I can rattle off three donors to the Saint Louis Zoo that I have met, whereas at the Maryland Zoo, I think we saw maybe one or two plaques honoring donors. That’s gotta hurt.
Annoyed by that GM ad where they swear they’ll build awesome cars now and love you long time, even though they’re the exact same yahoos, but now with taxpayer money? Yeah, these guys were too:
Economy got you down? Need something new to listen to for spring? Used to listen to heavy metal, but always thought the so-called “nu” style really meant “crappy”? Never fear, there’s plenty of great music hiding out there, and what’s better than knowing about some bands that hardly anyone else does?
Jefferson City – The Missouri House voted on Wednesday to approve a resolution urging members of Congress to reject the Federal Freedom of Choice Act. The measure passed by a vote of 116-40.
A lot of people probably had not thought about the Smashing Pumpkins for years, until the Hyundai ad during the Super Bowl this weekend. One of the last big bands of the 90s to implode, they finally broke up in 2000 after two disappointing albums, Eva Adore and Machina: The Machines of God. But did you know that just before breaking up, they released an album straight to MP3, and that it was actually pretty good? Called Machina II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music, it was an unfinished sequel that was published only on vinyl, and very few copies were made. From what I understand, copies were given to the head of the Pumpkins’ fan club, with instructions to release the album for free on the Internet.
I found this a while back, just poking around on the Internet. Although there are some rough cuts (some songs are demos), it nonetheless contains some very good music. My personal favorites are the songs “Satur9,” “Soul Power,” and “Glass.” I definitely recommend anyone to take a look, after all, it’s free!
Then surf on over to Treasury Direct and give them some money. Your own money. If you really believe that’s what needs to be done, then I’m sure you’re already clicking away.
But somehow I suspect that you’re not doing that. Why’s that? Because you don’t want to give your money, you just want them to take it from everyone else.
As you may have read, President Obama has announced that he will seek to place strict limits on executive pay for corporations that receive bailout money. This would fulfill a longstanding dream of the Left: having a centralized power – the government – determine how much individuals should make. Doing so with unpopular executives during rough economic times is an opportunity they don’t seem to be willing to pass up – it’s a great beginning. From there on down, it’s just a short slippery slope to a bureaucrat telling you how much you will be allowed to make, and it won’t be based on your talent or how hard you work.
* You get what you pay for. I used to work for a public university that refused to pay market wage for IT professionals, since, for many positions, it tended to be well above what most of the landed aristocracy tenured faculty made. As a result, many positions requiring highly-skilled workers, such as database administrators, were frequently unfilled or staffed with basically unqualified workers. Imagine this same concept applied to a man or woman whose decisions will directly affect tens of thousands of employees and retirees, their families, etc. Wouldn’t you want the best person for that position? And isn’t that worth something, even a whole lot?
* It’s not addressing the actual problem. Since the problem is that credit markets have frozen up, exactly how does executive pay work its way into the discussion? Oh right, it serves as a distraction, keeping the public’s attention on a boogeyman instead of on the corrupt government that created the problem and perpetuates it. Much like the hate focused on Immanuel Goldstein kept the Inner Party in power in 1984. Who needs Orwell when Obama is happy to be Big Brother for reals?
* You wouldn’t do this in professional sports. Think about it – how crappy would Major League Baseball be if the American League had salary caps and everyone in the the National League were free agents? The AL would suck and the NL would be full of studs (except Chicago, they’d still be the Cubs). Think how much worse it would be if the Commissioner decreed that all players would be paid the same thing. You know what I mean: hardly anyone would be headed to Cooperstown.
Get the idea?
Update: I just wanted to point out that I think that giving massive amounts of public money to private companies was and is a bad idea. For one thing, it distorts markets and disincentivizes good and responsible business. Secondly, it encourages businesses to collude with politicians, leaving consumers and shareholders out in the cold. Finally, the idea of throwing good money at bad rarely works. And when it does (sort of), it’s incredibly expensive.
