...I plan on visiting the Smithsonian. Sadly, it hasn't been run very well the last seven years. Maybe the resignation of Lawrence Small will turn things around. Who is Small?
Here's what the Nitpicker has to say about l'affair Small:
But, in the past 20 years, Republicans--and some DLC Democrats--have come to believe in Corporate Pixie Dust. They believe, without any evidence to demonstrate the validity of their belief, that corporations are magical entities which always run smoothly and are led by the smartest goshdarned people in the whole wide world. Lawrence Small is just another example of the failure of that belief. A business-type in a job held throughout history by academics, Small promised--just like his benefactors--promised to bring to his public position the mindset of businessman....
The problem is this: Tattooed around the heart of every true Republican moneyman are the words of Adam Smith, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest." And, for many of those on the right, those words are sacrosanct. They believe that nothing should get in the way of one's self-interest: Neither laws nor the well-being of one's fellow man. This kind of mindset, oddly enough, seems incompatible with an organization like, say, the entire United States government, which is dedicated not to self-interest, but to the desire to "form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..." While there are plenty of "I"s in those phrases, they basically amount to the creation of the American "team" and we've all been told a million times how many "I"s that word has....
I'd been worrying, you see, about the effects of Republican policies on the future of our country, but now I see that they might even be able to fuck up our past.
Heh. Still can't wait to go see the dinosaurs....
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Fortunately, Small has not done much to mess up the everyday experience of the Smithsonian. The biggest disadvantage of visiting now is that the American History museum is closed for renovations, but that's nothing to do with him. The dinosaurs are really cool, though - they redid that section a few years ago and did a really good job with it. Alas, "Uncle Beasley" - the lifesize triceratops model that used to be in front of Nat History - was taken down a decade or so ago and has never been returned. He used to be a tourist attraction all by himself.
Fortunately, Small has not done much to mess up the everyday experience of the Smithsonian. The biggest disadvantage of visiting now is that the American History museum is closed for renovations, but that's nothing to do with him