Right - it's part of your contract when you become a member at Sam's Club. Better to be banned than sued for breach of contract.

Right - and once you become a monopoly, you behave like one without tight regulation - which we're lacking. That's why it's time for municipalities to start offering Internet along with water, sometimes electricity, contracted group trash pickup, etc. The Internet still needs a backbone and lots of secondary networks, but I think last mile is no longer a viable consumer product thanks to the telcos screwing that up.

Depends on the company. If they're large enough that this requires changing at the server level - not every employer is just going to change server settings for one employee.

And what about VoIP? The guy works from home. Just Googling over a Satellite link is too high of a latency to maintain your sanity.

That's why their database should be of serviced addresses. That way you're not magically covered when a new address exists.

I would prefer that. I would pay as much as a few hundred just to have that assurance before closing on a house. I just bought a home with no assurances of broadband, but for some of my choices I really wasn't sure and it weighed heavily in my decision.

I'm just waiting for a "free market" troll to come in here and say that this is self-regulating. Just don't buy service from them, they'll say, and the market will sort it out..somehow. And...I really don't know how that argument will make any sense.

Exactly - unless it's somewhere like Sam's Club where you're under contract to do so. And I always go out my way to be patient with them, as annoyed as I am that they exist. Or at least when I had a membership - it's not generally worth it to me.

They're not just not doing business, first of all. They're pulling out of a contract at the city level (if even that), when what the state does is out of the city's control. Or at least threatening to. Now what's the definition of extortion?

This is exactly what they are doing.

I've been threatened and shouted at for just walking out with a $3.99 Blu-Ray and even held out my receipt while walking by. Guess it depends where you live, but I'm not in a major city or even a large suburb.

Or at the very least, the business can make a cake / work of art that is generic and has no message - but is that really possible if it's not off-the-shelf? Being forced by law to put a particular message on a cake for someone is a violation of your freedom of speech. Refusing to sell a standard product to someone is discrimination, and I don't support that.

That's when you say in your gruffest voice "I'm a lady!" And then see if they apologize profusely.

I actually did that one the phone with cable Internet tech support when they questioned whether I was really the customer. I wasn't, I was calling on behalf of a woman whose computer I was working on. They were extremely apologetic and it was hilarious.

So they're taking the moral high ground with extortion? Yeah, that doesn't seem right.

I hate to say it, but I personally love walking out of Best Buy while their "security guard" yells at me but then does nothing about me not stopping. It's not stolen, and I'm not going to be treated like it is.

(yourareacode) 867-5309. Chances are, it's already in the system too.

Your basal metabolic weight is higher the more you weigh. She was at equilibrium at ideal + 30lbs. It takes energy expenditure to keep even fat cells alive (somewhere around 5-10 calories per lb of body fat). So once you lose those 30lbs., your BMR has decreased by 150-300 calories per day. Eating more than your BMR, of course means you gain weight. Eating less than the BMR will lose weight.