Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
Dan from Madison Part two is here.
Some time ago I put up a couple of posts here and at LITGM that highlighted what I propose is a huge comeback by wildlife – specifically near and in cities. Most all commenters agreed that they see many animals on a daily basis in or near cities that would hardly ever be seen twenty years ago.
I find this topic absolutely fascinating. One commenter suggested that I pick up a copy of “The Beast in the Garden
As a follow up to my posts about urban wildlife I am reading and reviewing a suggested book, “The Beast in the Garden” by David Baron. I hope to have my review done in a few weeks. But for now, lets look at a cougar menu, from page 51 – you may even be able to use this as your quote of the day:
They have been known to eat grasshoppers, snails, mice, rats, lizards, turtles, snakes, squirrels, rabbits, bats, gophers, weasels, prairie dogs, skunks, beavers, raccoons, opossums, armadillos, marmots, porcupines, turkeys, chickens, geese, grouse, badgers, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, bighorn sheep, domestic sheep, pigs, goats, cows, horses, elk, moose, alligators, bison, bears, and other cougars. But a mountain lion’s favorite meal, by far, is venison.
One more, the occasional human. Ah, diversity.
Today on a Fox News live feed I saw some people littering up the Golden Gate bridge with some unreadable banners about Tibet. In the same news cycle I read about protesters “for Tibet” in London and France mucking up the running of the Olympic torch. In France it appears that they even decided to take it up with a person in a wheelchair who was probably living out some sort of dream by moving the torch. Nice.
To this very simple blogger it seems that all of the Beastie Boys front row seats, bridge scaling and Richard Gere speeches are doing exactly zero for the people of Tibet.
I would have to assume that the only real solution is a dirty one for those who want to “free Tibet”. Two words: Send Guns.
I suppose nobody who is doing all of this protesting, bridge scaling and other nonsense is interested in the real solution, but are more interested in making a statement and feeling good.
A little while ago I got slagged pretty well by our esteemed commenters for the practice of watching copyrighted material on websites that were not authorized to show it. It was a pretty good discussion that I learned a lot from. I thought about these conversations last week while I was cleaning up my basement.
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