Okay, this makes me laugh:

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars.

On to the meat of the argument -- the high level premise is sound ... no, I don't mean sound. Consistent, rather. But, dude, how could they not see the huge problem coming down the pike?

How much penalising can the US government do on perceived slackers?

My fucking word. That's nuts.

If you read the story carefully, it sounds like this is a possible problem; nobody's actually told her yet officially that she has to take the job.

faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

When the waitress looked into suing the job centre, she found out that it had not broken the law. Job centres that refuse to penalise people who turn down a job by cutting their benefits face legal action from the potential employer.

So. The job center definitely told her to look into the listing, but she has not yet been told that she has to take the job. And I am assuming that given this fuss the law will hastily be changed.

I can't believe there are still people who don't know about the LFB anal bleaching thing. But then, I think I know too many things I wish I didn't.

Whatever happened with the gren-ich, CT vs green-wich, RI thing? Didn't the Rhode Islanders get steamrolled?

Finally, I am the poster child for not grocery shopping hungry. I bought pie and mozzarella sticks AND had popcorn for dinner.

I like the way locals pronounce "Terra Haute". It's pretty much "Tear-ho".

Is that "teer" or "tare" for the pronucation of "Tear"?

hee

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars.

Um...if people are being paid for sex in the back room, it's a brothel. No sex, it's a bar. Is there a grey area I'm not seeing?

On to the meat of the argument -- the high level premise is sound ... no, I don't mean sound. Consistent, rather. But, dude, how could they not see the huge problem coming down the pike?

No kidding.

This paragraph:

"The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits."

So does it apply if the job centre gives you a phone number, or does she actually have to be offered the job? Because it seems like it would be a pretty easy job interview to fail and make the problem go away.

And I am assuming that given this fuss the law will hastily be changed.

I think so too.

Whatever happened with the gren-ich, CT vs green-wich, RI thing? Didn't the Rhode Islanders get steamrolled?

There are two pronunciations here. The town of East Greenwich, where all the yuppies and rich people live, is gren-ich. The town of West Greenwich, which is the sticks, is still green-wich among the people who grew up there, but it's slowly dying out.

I'm having old home week. Or something. Me and all my other old slacker friends are getting back in touch with each other. It's nice to know that I have friends that, no matter how much our lives change and how utterly obnoxiously bad we are about regularly keeping in contact, we can just pick up from where we are and there is still the instant connection.

Of course, it may be a self-selecting thing....

The town of West Greenwich, which is the sticks, is still green-wich among the people who grew up there, but it's slowly dying out.

That's kind of sad.

ION, I just sent out an evite for which the time and location may yet change. But we're trying to get 10 people together for dinner as a birthday surprise! I've got to know who can come. Man, I hate group planning.