If it were up to the majority of Virginia voters, Moran would be long gone. But he is an ultra-liberal in the People's Republic of Alexandria (also known as "Old Towne" since it has a long colonial era history) which is filled to bursting with federal "workers." They seem to want him. Ptui.

Jim Moron needs to go, but alas, he represents liberal northern Virginia, so I won't hold my breath.

Color me cynical, but I am willing to bet that the actual motive has less to do with concern for the animals than it does with self interest. First rule of politics: follow the money!

Is that Jim "Insider Trading" Moran?

Maybe he's shorting circuses on the Street?

[1.] The political survival of these monsters, their capacity to THRIVE in naked corruption, is the ugliest expression of human nature in American public life today... Far uglier, by proportion, than anything happening in Penn State locker rooms. Liberals love Moran; liberals love government no matter how abject it is.

[2.] But it's entirely possible that shipping elephants around on trains to be screamed at by throngs of people isn't a good idea. We've had several generations of society who know elephants best by what they've seen at the circus, but that seems not to have caused people to improve the world on behalf of elephants.

Fine. But there's nothing "exotic" about lions and elephants. They are quite common in the circus. Nope, nothing exotic here at all.

Now a chair and a whip vs a cage full of wild, anti-human vegans would be a real test of courage.

Another reason to not like Moran. Recently he was the main push to get a new Fed government building built in my area, 6,000 people. He pushed it for the added jobs, but when the public opinon turned against it, 6,00 extra commuters, 6,000 extra cars in an area ith some of the worst rraffic and no metro acess. He ran the last election as the one opposing the building.

Another bit of trivia, within Morans area is a place called Baileys Crossroads, which was the winter home for the elephants of the Bailies circus.

Now if we could only get humans defined as exotic animals, I'd like 15 days off of work every time I travel

Not a fan of performing animals, particularly dangerous ones, but with all the problems this nation is facing, Moran needs to be shown the door. It's not that I don't care about animals. But it's not like this hasn't be going on for decades now, without too much incident. If this were some new and over-the-top cruelty -- and this is neither -- I'd be all over it. But Congressmen have more important things to worry about.

Are there any situations in which you think animal treatment crosses the line and becomes abuse which should be illegal? Every time someone wants to protect animals you seem against it. Do you have a line? Can you give me an example of something that should be illegal? Or are you "anything goes" and animals should have the same rights as say, a chair?

Fifteen hours maybe, but fifteen days? This is just a way of banning circuses having animals without calling it a ban, much as was done with light bulbs - you can still make and sell 100-watt incandescent bulbs, IF you can circumvent one or two of the Laws of Thermodynamics, they are not "banned" at all, at all. So circuses can have animals if they "rest" them for fifteen days after travelling - which is at least one day more than a bookibg, for one thing.

A Congress that is doing this is a Congress that isn't doing any damage in general.

(Yeah, they're damaging circuses, but if we want to talk about "the economy", that's rounding error of rounding error, so I don't care in that context - in the context of stupid meddling, yes, they should stop.)

When Congress "tries to fix the economy" or "make jobs", it fails miserably and is often actively counterproductive.

So I'm happy to see them not "being seen to be doing something" about The Economy.

Because that's worse than idleness.

Bah. Animals in the large circuses are treated darn well. As to smaller ones, do we need federal law here? Isn't animal cruelty already a crime?

I feel it's one more step toward the government banning me from keeping my parrots as pets...

When it happens, that'll be the end of many beautiful and brilliant species.

Don't forget to look for unintended consequences. What happens to every performing animal that, due to the new restrictions, is unable to perform enough to pay for it's keep i.e. keep the circus in business? Maybe a zoo somewhere, or maybe death. Now isn't that an improvement!

"Or are you "anything goes" and animals should have the same rights as say, a chair?"

Animals do have the same rights as a chair, which is to say, none. They are not capable of carrying out -- or even understanding -- the responsibilities of citizenship, so granting them "rights" is meaningless. Actually, it's worse than meaningless, because it gives activist lawyers a cloak to wrap themselves in while they attempt to impose their private agendas on the public.

So what about abuse, you say? Here's the thing: animal-rights advocates have set up a false dichotomy. Just because animals don't have rights, that doesn't give humans the legal or ethical premise to abuse them. Last I checked, all 50 states had laws against animal cruelty, and have had them for a long time. "But... but... animal abuse still happens!" Indeed, and it's tragic. But, you notice, there are already laws. Laws are just words on paper; they don't have the ability to physically prevent someone from doing something. So what makes anyone think that more laws will help?

And finally, there's this issue of defining "abuse" down to include anything the activist doesn't like. This is what happened with sexual-harassment laws, with the result being that all respect for that part of the law is gone. (And with it, some respect for the people that the law was supposed to protect, that being mainly women...) Is having an animal perform in the circus really the equivalent of beating and electrocuting? Probably the most abused animals by far are dogs and cats, yet there's little public outcry. But animals considered "exotic" have to be treated like fine china.

What CD said.

People are, as a rule, shits.

Ditto again with CD.

I'm sure every circus has gigadollars that they can replace an elephant, at will, regardless of cost for having two elephants that they ship from location to location.