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Britches of enormous proportions

BigBizGuySo, this is another example of what happens when companies get too big...

As most of my acquaintances know, I make part of my income from developing websites. I lease server space from a company called Bluehost for most of my accounts, including my own.

On my own server, I host about 15 sites pro bono for deserving individuals (mostly artists of one kind or another) and community non-profs. About five days ago, these sites all started malfunctioning. Since then, I have been utterly unable to get any support from Bluehost. I’ve sat on hold on the phone twice now for over an hour. Their live chat system is down, and no one has ever responded to the trouble ticket I filed.

In trying to figure out what was going on, I discovered that there are a whole lot of people having similar problems with Bluehost. I think I also discerned why.

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Bad Energy: How Dominion Power & Other Big Corporate Profiteers Crush Consumers with Impunity

This time around, I want to discuss consumer rights vs. the rights of those who seek profit without limits, healthy competition or public scrutiny, and why the rights of profiteers always seem to dominate.

For example, there’s this story, in which our old friends at Dominion Power continue to promote their plan to string a high-voltage power line over a historic section of the James River.

Truthfully, I don’t think I’m as concerned with the aesthetics of Dominion’s proposal as those who so passionately oppose it. What I am opposed to is Dominion’s ongoing attempts to force a project on the people who do oppose it through extortion, intimidation and coercion.

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“The New Portsmouth”: A Hopeful Welcome to New City Manager Lydia Pettis Patton, & More Good News from Around #HRVA

This week, I want to take a break from poking the bear and point out some good things going on around the region. As always, I hope they represent a trend, and I want to encourage the kind of progress these positive actions represent. 

A ray of sunshine? Let’s hope so

I want to start this week in Portsmouth, but for a more positive reason than usual. I’ve spent a lot of time picking on Portsmouth, and frankly it’s been justified. The litany of problems that city faces–when combined with the incredibly poor leadership displayed by it’s elected representatives–have combined to leave Portsmouth in a particularly bad lurch.

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America: Love it or leave it (Another modest proposal)

It seems pretty obvious there are a growing number of people of the right-wing persuasion who simply hate America. Isn't it time to consider some pragmatic solutions so we can find a way to make all of us feel happier and welcome in the particular societal environments in which we live?

It’s likely the haters were always there, but were keeping their hatred to themselves - that is until the 2008 election of the first African-American president, since which they’ve been coming out of the woodwork in mind-boggling numbers.


The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that: “The number of Patriot groups, including armed militias, skyrocketed following the election of President Obama in 2008 – rising 813 percent, from 149 groups in 2008 to an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012.”

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