apple juice

Both cases are distressingly telling examples of the authoritarian mentality so often found in right-wing politics — force and mob action to shut down actual discussion. It two sides of the same coin — the right in power versus the right out of power.

Par for the course.

(Via Authoritarian Mindset -Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall.)

If you haven’t heard, right-wing groups are organizing “regular citizens” to show up at these town halls, and essentially heckle, boo, and disrupt the discussion.

Sounds like the party of ideas to me .

“Spending an idle morning watching people look at art is hardly a scientific experiment, but it rekindles a perennial question: What exactly are we looking for when we roam as tourists around museums? As with so many things right in front of us, the answer may be no less useful for being familiar.”

(Via At Louvre, Many Stop to Snap but Few Stay to Focus.)

One of my favorite experiences in Paris was the Louvre, mostly because of this gentleman, Eric Smee:

It was like a mini art class for a few hours. He started the tour by offering an out: He was going to show us less than the other tour guides would, but he’d spend more time discussing each one.

I was pretty happy that we happened to get his tour.

We are way behind…

“. . .Japan’s zip through the countryside at an average of 180 m.p.h. One difference, of course, is that governments overseas have put big money behind these forms of transit. Spain, for example, plans to invest about $140 billion over the next decade to develop a network of 6,200 miles of high-speed rail lines.”

(Via Editorial – America’s Not-So-Fast Trains – NYTimes.com.)

Spain plans to invest $140 billion dollars on rail in the next 10 years.

Where is our plan for high-speed rail?

Great news for anyone in hale-page-diamond lake who ready to be done with comcast, and doesn’t find the city wi-fi to be a great option… qwest spent all week at the end of my block laying new fiber for their highest speed internet service.

Inexplicably, qwest has been limited to 1.5mbps in my neighborhood. They offer much higher speeds less than a mile away.

So supposedly, by fall, we’ll be able to get 20mbps service!

“46th Street Bridge across I-35W reopens July 31 “

(Via City of Minnepaolis.)

Thank goodness! Just in time for commuting to work again…

“I’ve reached a point where I can no longer just sit back and watch this. The iPhone ecosystem is toxic, and I can’t participate any more until it is fixed. As people have told me so many times: It’s Apple’s ballgame, and Apple gets to make the rules, and if I don’t like it, I can leave. So, I don’t like it, and I’m leaving.”

(Via stevenf.com.)

Probably not stuff that your average iPhone user cares about, but this kind of stuff bothers me too… so I chose not to go the iPhone route…

even though it’s the hated and despised white sox… mark buerhle pitched a perfect game yesterday. pretty awesome. and check out this catch made by Dewayne Wise to save the game in the ninth