Reading No Treason by Lysander Spooner. One salient comment:

"The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that --- however bloody --- can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave."

Sage advice, especially given the current rime-locked national discourse. I submit that the "two party" system is actually not two parties, but a binary tree of counterweighted factions.

Posted by Alexander Saint Croix on 15 May 2008 at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Please forgive the headline. I just used two embedded google maps on the same page, and the second one overrides the first one. I could pry apart the iframe code and fix it, but I think it nicely documents the error, so I'll leave it as is. If you want to see my actual evening route down Franklin, select the "permalink" at the bottom of that entry.

Posted by Alexander Saint Croix on 13 May 2008 at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is my evening commute down Franklin. It's only 3.5 miles, and takes me about 15 minutes after 10PM. The most difficult part is in-between I94 and Franklin, at the Cedar Avenue intersection. That entire intersection is messed up something fierce. I can usually jam down Franklin at traffic speed and make the lights--from the University it isn't a bad route at all, but the reverse course is awful due to extensive road damage on the south side of the street. The shoulder is more like a crater field on the moon's far side. Not a pleasant ride at all, which is part of why I skip it in the morning.

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Posted by Alexander Saint Croix on 13 May 2008 at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is my "Dunn Brothers" commute, in which I stop off at the Loring Park Dunns location for a cup of Joe. It's about 4.8 miles, but feels like more because of the heavy traffic on Hennepin. By the time I cross over Nicollet Island I'm usually flush with adrenaline.

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Posted by Alexander Saint Croix on 13 May 2008 at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)