A departure from the usual...

Alright, I'm doing the weight loss thing again, but this time I'm getting help. I've decided to go to the Quick Weight Loss Centers of Atlanta and do their program. I'll be documenting my progress here at Snark from the Edge. Since I've let this blog lie dormant for so long not even Russian spam-bots are reading it any more I don't think I'll be disappointing anyone.

Executive Branch Departments We Don't Really Need, Part 1

There has been a lot of talk lately about the US Government being too big and too wasteful to be effective in governing. I'd like to think some of that is more feature than bug, but there is a lot of fat to be trimmed. I'm going to start with the Executive Branch and hopefully move on to the Legislative Branch sometime before I die.

How not to get a job at my store

Jobs and joblessness have been a pretty big topic over the past five years. Lots of people losing jobs, lots of people giving up even looking for a job and leaving the workforce for good. It's a genuine economic crisis, I know first hand because I work in one of the poorest cities in America and have the survey results to prove it. It's a manufacturing town, but the plants don't make products to sell directly to the public so much as they sell these products to another industry which is in a severe downturn at the moment. Naturally this means the plants are slowing down, cutting hours, cutting employees, and in some cases just shutting down.

Censorious Asshat alert! Engage Streisand Effect!

Ok, I'm not normally one to jump on this kind of bandwagon, but these people have royally annoyed me. I first learned of the situation while reading Popehat, so hats off to them.

A blogger, who clearly identified himself as a "freelance journalist" sent a series of questions to the group Straight Pride UK. He received a document from their press liaison titled "Press Release". He then published said release and now they are claiming copyright infringement, have filed a DMCA take-down notice with his hosting company and are threatening to turn everyone who posts this over to the police.

So, in keeping with the great American tradition of defending free speech, and with the permission of the original author, the "copyrighted" post is re-blogged, in full, below. To Oliver, I say fight these thugs, in court if necessary; I'll throw a few quid your way just on principle. To the asshats at Straight Pride UK (who have apparently deleted their Twitter account now), I say come at me. Send my host a bogus DMCA and I will dispute it. Since the DMCA is an American law, and I'm an American citizen, writing in America, and posting on an American server you'll have to file any legal action over here. Good luck finding a solicitor willing to kill his career on that hill.

Oliver's original post follows past the jump. Read and enjoy!

Boston, Insurance, and Charity

The recent events in Boston, MA have appalled us all. Three people dead, the youngest of whom was only eight years old, and hundreds wounded. Senseless violence was planned and carried out against innocent people, and for no good reason.