I am simply tired of this stuff: AT&T lobbies Wisconsin GOP to nuke Wisconsin’s best-of-breed co-op ISP for educational institutions

Something similar just happened in NC. I realize there’s a lot going on here, and that there are two sides to every story. But I have a sneaking suspicion that Grover Norquist’s “shrink government to small enough to drown in the bathtub” gambit would have a bumpy ride through the unmowed Lawn of Unintended Consequences if it were given a real chance to do so without a bailout.

So prove it, I say. Show me some evidence. Pick a state, Republicans, and really go for it. Privatize, cut taxes, go wild. But in return…don’t ask for any federal bailouts (beyond perhaps the total value of your citizen’s federal taxes) if and when the shit hits the fan. You don’t get anything from the rest of us until you cry Uncle!, and acknowledge that your worldview is broken, and you need to change things before we can have rational discourse.

And who knows, it might work. I can accept that; I’d be interested in seeing that (I’m a recovering libertarian). But right now, your assertions are unproven, and I argue, dangerous. Go experiment without risking the entire nation, if you don’t mind.

So, I’ve been thinking about T-Mobile’s new $50 Prepaid plan that includes unlimited talk minutes, unlimited text, and 100MB of 3G data. 100MB certainly ain’t much in today’s terms…but the kicker is that data doesn’t shut off after 100MB, it’s throttled to 2G. That’s slow, but a) it’s what the iPhone started out with, and b) it works for lots of things. Maps. Facebook updates. Foursquare checkins. Mail.

It’s an easy and inexpensive way for someone previously without a data plan to start to understand how this always connected stuff works. For me, it’s been a profoundly different way of interacting with the world. Not always good, not always bad…but really different. And with this, it’s effectively free. Nice.