A.M. Links: Bomb Attacks Target Christians in Iraq, Protesters Clash With Police in Thailand, New Home Sales Drop in November

Credit: ?????/wikimedia

• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been criticized in China and South Korea for visiting a shrine which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including World War II war criminals.
• Egypt's interim government has labeled the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
• The Commerce Department says that new home sales dropped 2.1 percent in November.
• At least 37 people have been killed by bomb attacks targeting Christians in Iraq.
• Demonstrators in Thailand, who are trying to disrupt preparations for elections set to take place in February, have clashed with police, who claim that they were shot at.
• A former New Orleans cop who was convicted of burning a body after Hurricane Katrina has asked for his resentencing to be delayed.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Merry Boxing Day.

[Mike M.]

And happy Kwaanzaa to the, umm, ten or fifteen people who celebrate Kwaanzaa.

[sarcasmic]

Racist!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I was watching the news last night about the ice storm leaving about 100 000 people without power in Toronto.

A couple of the families interviewed were Indian - as in from India - and they were both celebrating Christmas. Now I know they can be Christian but the vast majority of Indians here aren't.

This thing we must tread carefully and that we shouldn't say 'Merry Christmas' lest we offend is PC poppycock. It only panders to idiots who probably take offense to anything.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I say Merry Christmas just because some don't want me to.

And I am as rationalist/atheist as one can get.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That's not very much in the spirit of Christmas.

[Restoras]

Restoras|12.24.13 @ 2:10PM|#

'Restoras' is loyal Team Red.

You are so pathetic. Go ahead and find any post of mine in praise of Bush. Go on....I'll wait. In the meantime, do not post a single thing on this board until you can prove your lie.

Merry Christmas, you lying, disingenuous Shit For Brains retard. Still waiting for some proof of your idiotic, unsubstantiated accusation.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I gave you one. Your idiotic claim that Carter and Obama were the most incompetent POTUS's in recent history. You skipped right over the most incompetent by far (Dumbya) because you are Team Red.

[Restoras]

So you can't read either. Don't you belong in a remedial school somewhere? Exactly what kind of logic and reasoning even remotely proves I am a loyal Team Red! piker by pointing out that Obama makes Carter look good in comparison? How does the neglect of including something prove me to be a supporter of that? Did I actually say Bush was better? Go ahead and find some post of mine where I praise the accomplishments of Bush. Go on, I'll wait. While you are looking you won't have time to post here.

[tarran]

Still waiting for some proof of your idiotic, unsubstantiated accusation.

Restoras.

Why are you interacting with that insane bundle of incoherent neurons? All it wants is a wall that screams back at it.

Why, if its screaming bothers you so much, do you encourage more of it by giving it the attention it craves?

It literally is not worth one second of your time. Just ignore it and get one with enjoying all the lost minutes you regain for interacting with sentient humans.

[Restoras]

I know tarran, I know. You are right. I will not respond to its fecalbrain incoherences again.

[Mainer2]

The interactions with the plug and his ilk are so boring. I come here regularly to enjoy the discussions between smart and erudite people. That's interesting, and I learn. Call and response with the trolls is just flat UN-interesting. They are boring.

that is all.

[sarcasmic]

PB actually thinks it's clever. That's the truly sad part.

[Sevo]

sarcasmic|12.26.13 @ 9:53AM|#
"PB actually thinks..."

Pretty sure this really isn't true.

[sarcasmic]

I say Merry Christmas just because some don't want me to.

So you are now openly admitting to what we already know: you've got the maturity of a twelve year old.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I don't do political correctness.

[BigT]

Merry Christmas!

[fish_remote]

I don't do political correctness.

...or cogent thought! You are however a predictably reliable Obama fellator....but what the hey shreeky it's something to put on a resume.

[Steve G]

"we must tread carefully" Fucking seriously? You've actually bought into the whole fox news phony War on Christmaz!!111 ??

[Entropy Void]

From the RNC Facebook Page:

From December 26 through January 1, many families will take time to celebrate African culture and history. Kwanzaa is a wonderful opportunity for all of us to honor the importance of family and community, and it reminds us of the great diversity in America. Happy Kwanzaa!

https://www.facebook.com/GOP

[Entropy Void]

From Ann Coulter:

http://townhall.com/columnists.....i-n1768296

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

[Brett L]

From my family to you reasonoids, enjoy your new shit.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah, it's all over the fricken house. My daughter has this massive Lego civilization going.

[Ted S.]

What with Brett being a new dad, I figured he was literally going to post a photo of his kid's shit-filled diaper or something. 😉

[Brett L]

My wife epically trolled me about two weeks before Christmas by pretending to take seriously and like a sarcastic idea I threw out that we just give each set of grandparents a dirty diaper with a card that said "From the baby, made especially for grandma/grandpa". She doesn't get me often, but when she does, she's really good at it.

[mr simple]

That sounds like my Christmases as a child. Your daughter must be awesome.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

If that's directed at me, yes, she is.

Little Miss Sociable Sunshine Artist-Engineer with ADHD.

[Bronwyn]

Mine, too. I built massive cities, complete with pioneer villages of Lincoln Logs, skyrises of Construx, Barbie suburbs, and Lego castle ruins and infrastructure. And somehow, I always managed to get everything back in the right box.

My sons? Notsomuch

[Fist of Etiquette]

It appears the tiny giraffe has been tossed aside for the giant cow.

[Brett L]

Yes. The wee giraffe will be gummed to death later.

[Tejicano]

I used to see babies and think "How cute!". But now, as my 3 year old is getting better with the whole toilet routine - paperwork and all - and my 5 year old is showing more of his character, when I see a baby my internal reaction is - "Nope, uh-uh, don't want to go back and start all over. And I know exactly what the inside of that diaper looks like. You can have it."

[BigT]

That's why grandparenting renting is the best - all the cute, none of the poop!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's kinda liberating once they begin to wipe their own fricken ass.

[Tejicano]

I entered into parenthood at that weird point in life where most of my peers are grandparents already. I'm old enough to take it all in stride but understand that this is probably my "grandparent experience" since I can hardly expect to be lucid enough if I do live long enough to see these two produce offspring.

[Marshall Gill]

Brett, if you show that picture to my wife I will have to take action!

[robc]

I like giraffes.

I realize that by itself makes me sound retarded or something
so be it

[Fist of Etiquette]

Only if you're painted up like a zombie when you say it on local news.

[Ted S.]

I hope the baby got Mom's genes. :-p

[Brett L]

Me too.

[hamilton]

Sweet looking little one. No monocle, though?

[Brett L]

No, but you can see his Ron Swanson mustachifier picture on the tumblr account at the link. I'm currently searching Amazon for a baby monocle, as I don't trust the orphans in my shop to treat my son and heir right.

[Cdr Lytton]

That's one scary picture. It's like Hannibal Lector meets Snidely Whiplash.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Commerce Department says that new home sales dropped 2.1 percent in November.

I'm sure we can get those numbers up in time for the mid-terms. Before revisions.

[MP]

I have no idea why the 2.1% is highlighted. It's really this stat that's relevant:

The Commerce Department noted that new home sales in November are up by 16.6 percent compared to the same month a year ago despite the monthly decrease.

[2ndClassProle]

Who can afford a mortgage, when there is healthcare premiums to pay for.

[SIV]

Year over year is key.From the previous month is noise.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Egypt's interim government has labeled the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

So, does that mandate lower placement on the next ballot?

[Marshall Gill]

So, does that mandate lower placement on the next ballot?

Lower?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ouch for Egypt.

[The Late P Brooks]

It's about fucking time.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Happy Ice Hockey U20 World Championship

[Ted S.]

Let's hope Canada lose again! 🙂

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Canada is in tough.

Sweden and USA are real good.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Ray Ferrero is no Pierre McGuire, and that's a good thing.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ha. McGuire does rub some people the wrong way. I admit his shtick on Montreal sports radio will annoyed me. He wasn't above condescending to listeners and what was worse the host would back him up! I really thought they both were unprofessional. But his tone changes significantly when he's on NBC.

I remember years ago a sports blog nick named him Screech Monkey. Classic.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A former New Orleans cop who was convicted of burning a body after Hurricane Katrina has asked for his resentencing to be delayed.

If I understand this story correctly, two cops were tried together but the cop who burned the body didn't know it was a cop who shot him, and the cop who shot him didn't know that his victim's body was burned afterward. Because of that they're getting new trials.

[Ted S.]

So they should be tried separately?

I don't see how shooting the guy wasn't illegal, nor burning the guy.

[Agammamon]

Yeah, sort of. It was two separate crimes committed without any conspiracy between the two (alleged scumbag) perpetrators.

If you were caught up in this you wouldn't want whatever the other guy did to taint your trial.

[Ted S.]

Vintage short on how to cook

[sarcasmic]

That was... disturbing.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What a dumb ass chick. I hate people who can't cook but still criticize.

What do you think Smudge will do once he realizes his wife can't cook for shit and lied to him?

Not to say anything, but I could come up with something more than canned pineapples and sausages for mo-fuh sakes at the last minute.

I know. Taking the vid too seriously.

[Ted S.]

But this was 1937, when trendy shit like sriracha wasn't easily available, and nobody had microwaves or other labor-saving appliances.

(This particular short is on TCM tonight between 11:45 PM and midnight ET.)

[Ted S.]

I mean, look at thw way they made coffee back in the old movies!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Funny, just last night we were talking about how our respective families made Neapolitan espresso and Turkish/Lebanese coffee both long enough processes.

My father in law used to make Leb coffee from time to time but it was to labor intensive. He preferred I make him an espresso through my machine.

Life.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

'too labor'

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Good point.

I take it back.

I should have kept that in mind.

/assumes position.

[sarcasmic]

But this was 1937, when trendy shit like sriracha wasn't easily available, and nobody had microwaves or other labor-saving appliances.

Escoffier did just fine without sriracha or a microwave.

[R C Dean]

Escoffier did just fine with a kitchen full of menials to do the heavy lifting.

[The Late P Brooks]

New Orleans cop who was convicted of burning a body

The EPA shall not be trifled with!

[Fist of Etiquette]

I have to admit, this is challenging my victimless crime aversion.

[BigT]

Destroying evidence has a victim - justice.

[Fist of Etiquette]

From there it's only a short hop to "the public good" being a victim. Or "the community's sensibilities". But yeah, I suppose justice shouldn't be something that can be redefined to suit whatever push some politician is making, so I'll accept it.

[Brett L]

My neighbor melted an aluminum pot and had an epic grease fire in his yard last night trying to deep-fry a turkey. Apparently, no one had told him that canola oil and peanut oil have different properties. So he did one with his family in peanut oil, and came home to make another one but just used the vegetable oil he had. He was a really good sport about the ribbing he took when he came over to ask a couple of us neighbors hanging out if he could borrow a fire extinguisher. Other than that, my family and my wife's family got together and no fights were had.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Hmm, so not only did he not have a fire extinguisher already around just because, but he didn't have one handy when deep-frying a turkey? I hope he's at least across the street/asphalt firebreak instead of in direct proximity.

I guess you know what to get him for a late Christmas/New Year's gift, though, heh.

[Restoras]

Did he at least use an Alton Brown Turkey Derrick?

[Brett L]

The turkey never got in the oil. He had cranked the propane burner wide open. I mean, there was so much energy trapped in that oil that he threw the lid on to extinguish the flames and the aluminum lid melted, the pot melted.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I bet you could get a few bucks throwing a video of that on Youtube.

[Ted S.]

These photos would be more interseting than your kid playing with toys.

[Brett L]

You know, I walked by there on my way to get a beer with my neighbor and his brother, who used to rent my spare room. I saw the flames and thought he was just lighting his grill or something. I really should have gone along to take pictures.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

I'm gonna watch Arsenal beat Westham and then try to do some Boxing Day shopping.

[Ted S.]

As long as Arsenal fail in February. 🙂

[robc]

I think it should be legal to punch (without gloves) anyone who refers to today as "Boxing Day".

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

But it's the actual name of the day

[KDN]

St. Stephen commands you English heathens to celebrate his many feats!

[robc]

No, today is "December 26th".

That is the actual name of the day.

[BakedPenguin]

C'mon, robc - Archduke is an Anglo Canadian, which means he's a Brit with better teeth. I bet he's making beer tea or something as we speak.

[robc]

Sorry, I will correct my statement above then:

I think it should be legal to punch (without gloves) anyone from Canuckistan.

[Ted S.]

Zweiter Weihnachtstag. 🙂

[The Late P Brooks]

And I am as rationalist/atheist as one can get.

Atheist, maybe.

[Jordan]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been criticized in China and South Korea for visiting a shrine which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including World War II war criminals.

Does anyone have high expectations for the world's biggest Keynesian/Monetarist Klown?

[Restoras]

Is there a single westernized country that is not underwater in debt? Canada...anyone else?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

No thanks to Quebec which is $260 billion in the hole.

[Restoras]

Do the individual provinces have the ability to issue there own debt, like the individual states do in the US?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes.

[Tejicano]

They've all (Japanese PM's) pretty much got to show up at Yasukuni (the name of the shrine where the war dead are buried) on the Emperor's B'day if they know which side of their bread gets buttered. The press corps that cares about this issue just have to hang around on that day to stir the pot yet one more time. Ho hum.

[Jordan]

Celebrations are being held in China to commemorate the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China.

This is what the Chinese should be pissed about. Mao makes the Japanese Imperial Army look like pikers.

[Restoras]

Radicalized leftists do raise mass murder to an art form.

[The Late P Brooks]

Bloomberg girl is interviewing guy about his program to match skilled programmers without credentials (i e, college degree) with employers via a "side door" arrangement bypassing HR sorting process. She literally cannot grasp the distinction between practical knowledge and an academic degree.

Awesome.

[Restoras]

Having a degree makes you smart! Just ask Scarecrow!

[Brett L]

So, she has an HR background?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

What's her name? I want to google her credentials; I wager Ivy League.

[robc]

Has this ever been a problem?

I know plenty of programmers/IT professionals without a degree and they have no problem getting jobs, including more than one who works for a Giant Enterprise.

Of course, they are actually talented, so that may have something to do with it.

[Brett L]

HR at Big Government in my town seems to be making a concerted effort to drive them out, then be mystified as to why they have to hire consultants to do anything more complex than provision a new employee's account. I've seen that in the private sector, too. Although, usually line managers have more ability to protect competent workers from the vague and terrible edicts of some twenty-seven year old with a business degree who has never done anything but HR.

[UnCivilServant]

It's the who you know paradox. Because HR is chock full of non-technical people, they'll take a keyword salad resume over someone who's competent before passing on options to the technical people who do the actual interviewing (I recently had to go through this process, even though it failed to result in a hire).

I'm actually heartened to see someone patching this error in the corporate structures.

[KDN]

Yeah, I feel like this is less of a problem in IT than anywhere else. Hell, our CIO/CTO didn't have a degree until he was working here for 20 years. And of the twelve people on my team exactly one has a degree in a technology-related field (we don't do any programming, though).

[Tejicano]

Jeez. I remember this friend's older brother back in the early 70's lying about knowing how to program Pasqual because he only knew COBOL really well. He got the job and winged it until he had it down pat. I doubt the IT world has ever been about anything but ability.

[Old Man With Candy]

Could he spell PASCAL?

[Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward!]

"Of course, they are actually talented, so that may have something to do with it."

DING DING DING!

[Jordan]

Has this ever been a problem?

In my experience, it's a huge problem. So many companies have absolutely no idea how to screen technical candidates. No degree = instant rejection for a lot of companies. It's unbelievably retarded.

[BakedPenguin]

Wow. Positions that almost always requires verifiable products that have to perform specific tasks, and they can't figure out a way to screen them?

Idiots.

I'm not a programmer, but I do almost all my work in Excel, and I have a portfolio of specific functions used to perform specific, common tasks.

[Pope Jimbo]

Another big problem I have had is that with the "bad economy" HR thinks they can lowball applicants.

I had to explain to them that just because there were a lot of unemployed liberal arts folk, that didn't mean that unemployment was low in the IT sector. Here in Sunny Minnesota the unemployment rate for anyone who knows how to program is about 2.5% tops. If you can spell Oracle and compose a query it is around 0%.

When I finally got fed up at my last company, I called my headhunter and he had me placed within 2 weeks of me calling him. And a lot of that was weeding out the offers and going on a few final interviews.

I should point out that the 2.5% who are unemployed are terrible, terrible, terrible and they would probably be unemployed no matter what sector they are in.

[Rasilio]

I don't have a degree and I have recruiters beating down my door.

Key lesson, if you have ever done something once you've done it and it goes on your resume (gotta get those buzzword counts up) and then handle the rest in the interview process.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I know Reason briefly touched on this (and I realize I may very well have missed comments section discussion) but if you're wondering why you haven't been hearing the usual torrent of outrage about the Arapahoe High shooter, from noted extreme right-wing organ CNN:

But at times, he acted "weird" and alienated peers with rants about communism and his aggressiveness to win every argument, they said...

"He was a weird kid," Davis said. "He's a self-proclaimed communist, just wears Soviet shirts all the time."

Death to Twitter, long live the new flesh:

The Denver Post originally reported that a classmate in Pierson's economics class described Pierson as "a very opinionated Socialist." Curiously, the story was updated to send the word socialist down the memory hole, and Pierson was merely described as "very opinionated."

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Plus I'll just repost this gem from the "original":

Pierson also appears to mock Republicans on another Facebook post, writing "you republicans are so cute" and posting an image that reads: "The Republican Party: Health Care: Let 'em Die, Climate Change: Let 'em Die, Gun Violence: Let 'em Die, Women's Rights: Let 'em Die, More War: Let 'em Die. Is this really the side you want to be on?"

[Fist of Etiquette]

I think it's pretty obvious that he was just being ironic and it went over his classmates' heads.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I have absolutely no problem taking people at their word here because I personally know plenty just like them. One former classmate posts stuff like this all the time on Facebook, just as histrionic, and he works for the fucking DNC. (He also has a major bug up his ass about libertarians too and was a big fan of the Slate hackjob on Nozick pieces that came out a while back.)

Sucks, because he used to be a laidback stoner and super easy to get along with.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Hurr, I be good at jokes.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meh.

[Steve G]

Dontcha hate that. I've got several 'friends' on FB who I used to hang out/party with in earlier days and are now constantly making me ask, 'who are you?'. My favorite are the guys who were the biggest man-whores, but now that they have families are somehow textbook church-goers. I don't buy it...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Funny how you never hear someone kill in the name of Adam Smith or Frederic Bastiat.

[Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward!]

You've never heard of the Invisible Hand Strangler?!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Invisible Hand Strangler?"

"See, Stan? Why can't you and your derelict monkeys come up with shit like this? Marvel my ass! More like Norm-el!"

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Also from the CNN article:
One neighbor described him as bright but a social misfit whose peers ridiculed him. His mother had transferred him from another high school because of the mockery and altercations, the neighbor said

Gee, maybe if he hadn't been such a rampaging asshole it might have been easier for him to make friends?

The guy lived in freakin' Centennial, CO, one of the more conservative cities in the metro area. If you're going to go out of your way to show people that you want to antagonize them by being an aggressive communist, they're going to find a way to reflect that hostility right back at you.

[wareagle]

and it never dawned on his mother to suggest that being an obnoxious ass was not a good route to making friends or influencing people.

[Cabeza de Vaca]

His mother worked for the government. She probably was a huge influence on his political world view.

[The Late P Brooks]

I think it should be legal to punch (without gloves) anyone who refers to today as "Boxing Day".

I thought it was called that because today is the day you have to put all your reject presents back in the boxes and fistfight your way to the "returns" counter.

[Brett L]

This is the day I let my orphans in the monocle factory play with the empty boxes of my family's Christmas presents for 10 minutes instead of lunch if they so choose.

[Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward!]

You are merciful indeed. I only let them have 5 minutes to scrounge for fruitcake crumbs and drips of brandy.

[hamilton]

Luxury. A handful of gravel and a cup of poison'll do.

[The Late P Brooks]

iWhat's her name? I want to google her credentials; I wager Ivy League.

Betty Liu, I believe.

Probably an English major.

[mr simple]

Yep, U Penn., english degree.

[Eduard van Haalen]

The FBI, the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and a committee of Hollywood employees including Ayn Rand, contemplated the Commie message in It's a Wonderful Life.

http://aphelis.net/wonderful-l.....fbi-files/

[BigT]

George Bailey's friends all gave/loaned him money voluntarily. He had done them favors over the years - Do unto others...

Where's the communism?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wasn't Jimmy Stewart a patriotic American and former Air Force pilot in WWII?

I doubt he'd be a part of a movie with communist overtones. Honestly, I don't see how a community coming together voluntarily is communistic. Add some tanks and killing then maybe they have a point.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Just to be clear, I agree. There's nothing communistic about voluntary pooling of resources observing duties to the poor, and trying to follow the Golden Rule. The altruistic message probably set off Rand's political antennae.

[Rasilio]

He wasn't just a Pilot, he was a Friggin Brigadier General who remained an active part in the Air Force Reserves until 1959

[Marshall Gill]

Wasn't Jimmy Stewart a patriotic American and former Air Force pilot in WWII?

He flew bomber missions over Germany and retired a Brigadier General.

[Ted S.]

I remember many years ago when the CBC/Radio Canada International still used shortwave hearing some movie critic declare It's a Wonderful Life one of the worst Christmas movies because it's selfishly about the George Bailey character, and Lionel Barrymore doesn't get his comeuppance at the end of the movie.

What a way to miss things to try to fit things into your political ideology.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I stopped listening/watching the CBC years ago.

As I matured, I realized the argument it "connected the country from coast to coast" was a tad excessive.

They still use that argument to justify throwing money at it. It's especially a pointless argument to make with the Internet now. Canada won't disintegrate without the CBC.

If it's so important have them raise coin through telethons PBS style. Then we'll see for true just how patriotic Canadians are when it comes to the CBC.

I bet they would struggle.

[Fluffy]

There are identifiable commie messages in just about all of Capra's films.

I still like the films, but they're definitely there.

Even in an Eagle Scout Americana movie like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Capra couldn't resist arguing that a privately owned press isn't actually a free press, for example.

Stuff like that.

[BigT]

LeBron gave us some Xmas presents:

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/20.....eat-lakers

[The Late P Brooks]

I know plenty of programmers/IT professionals without a degree and they have no problem getting jobs, including more than one who works for a Giant Enterprise.

The guy was the guy who started Square (the payment system). I think this program is designed for entry level people, who don't have connections or an established reputation. The basic point was the idiocy, discussed here at great length, of lazy fucks in HR tossing all the applicants without a degree in the first round of sorting.

[Brett L]

I see this all the time, even with kids coming out of the CS/IS program at FSU. The hardest thing in the IT industry to get is the first job. If you can get a coding job and stay there a year or two, you'll never be unemployed long again.

[sarcasmic]

I really and truly hate my job, but I've given up on trying to find a new one. I see the same exact positions remaining advertized for years. Literally. These employers are so convinced that they can find someone who matches 100% with their requirements that they'll reject anyone who doesn't. They all want someone who will hit the ground running, who doesn't require any training at all. Maybe it's a local thing, I dunno. But if your resume doesn't 100% match the advertisement, they're not going to call you back.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

When I used to job hunt there were interesting jobs I thought I could excel in. Not just execute tasks but genuinely kick ass. Alas, the requirements were so laughably excessive it was retarded. I didn't even bother most of the time and when I did - not surprisingly - didn't get a shot.

So. I started my own business and continue to give a big 'fuck you' to all those dopes who let talent slip away.

[Rasilio]

" Alas, the requirements were so laughably excessive it was retarded"

My favorite, in 1997 I had several phone interviews with companies whose job requirements listed a minimum of 5 years experience on Windows 95.

None of them ever understood why I found that requirement so funny.

[robc]

If you can get a coding job and stay there a year or two, you'll never be unemployed long again.

Have the $12/hr code monkey jobs gone away? Do that for a year or two and eat lunch with the IT crowd and everyone will know your skill level.

[Brett L]

Honestly, yes. Although the company I now work for is committed to identifying and hiring talent regardless of degree. But they are a mid-sized IT services and consulting company looking to grow by 20% a year into a large IT services and consulting company. But in-house talent development is terrible now outside of the IT industry. Just a disaster.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

An engineer described to me a coding job he had. Reminded me of textile factories back in the day. Code all day, weave all night!

[Rasilio]

I actually tried to sell this to my employer at one point in the past.

I was the QA manager and I tried to sell them on the idea of dropping out offshore team and going with a totally onsite one which we used as a training ground for the rest of the company. Basically we hire low level staff into the QA department, find what they are good at and train them to do that, then as openings appear we promote those guys into those slots and hire new QA guys.

I even showed them how it would actually be cheaper for the QA dept while allowing everyone else to feed off of us and get people at the start of thei careers but who were already familiar with our products and way of doing business for below market rates.

Sadly they were less than interested in hearing anything I had to say.

[robc]

Friday lunch at Qdoba seems a lot easier.

Or maybe that just how you meet everyone in the IT community in my city.

YMMV.

[Brett L]

Worse than Illinois Nazis?

Later, in the early 1900s, in the wake of the second Anglo-Boer War, the idea was propagated by soothsayer Nicolaas van Rensburg, who has obtained cult status among radical Afrikaner groups.

Van Rensburg was a farmer who only read the Bible and was unable to write anything besides his own name.

[Mike M.]

The final stage of the Keystone XL pipeline may be delayed until the next administration, assuming of course that there IS a next administration.

It looks like the State Department is going to now start a completely unnecessary new "environmental review" that will of course last at least three more years. What complete and total fucking scum.

[2ndClassProle]

These are good jobs for the less educated of us.

[UnCivilServant]

Wait, the environment of the great plains has changed since the last time they did that? Who knew?

[Mike M.]

No doubt the tectonic plates of the earth have moved a nanometer or two since the last review was completed. Of course they have to do the review all over again!

[Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward!]

Congress needs to ram this one right up the Lightworker's arse. I am sure all the Asses running in states where XL work would be done will be thrilled with O's position on this.

[Brett L]

What the RIAA calls piracy, Iron Maiden calls analytics.

data from British company Musicmetric indicated a surge in Iron Maiden piracy from South America. Instead of pursuing legal action, the band toured the continent extensively

The article is so short, even this is pushing the limit of Fair Use. Read the whole paragraph.

[2ndClassProle]

Most bands make more from their concerts than album sales.

[sarcasmic]

Most bands make shit from album sales. Maybe a dime a disk if they're lucky. Performing is their bread and butter.

[2ndClassProle]

Ten cents a song, and cannot go over ten songs. So, if your album is 12 songs long you do not get paid for the last two. One dollar an album. Record companies were making a killing back in the day. To give some perspective, when I was looking to press my band's album from Discmakers, the cost of 1000 was 870 dollars. I bet the Record companies were paying pennies to press the money spent is in production and marketing which the Record labels make the artist pay them pack out of their dollar royalty.

[2ndClassProle]

There are exceptions, but generally how it works.

[Rasilio]

Well they make a bit more if they write their own lyrics and music since the lyricist and composer also get a cut but yeah that is about it.

[Jordan]

Anyone who even kinda sorta likes Iron Maiden, I recommend you watch their Flight 666 documentary on Youtube. It chronicles their South American tour among others. It's very entertaining. What a great group of guys.

[sarcasmic]

That was great. My wife is a big fan, so I recorded it for her. After watching it I gained a ton of respect for those guys.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Man. Your wife is hardcore.

My wife gives a very conservative exterior but loves vulgar (I mean vulgar) humor.

[robc]

Im not a fan at all and that documentary is awesome.

[2ndClassProle]

It was fantastic. Love how Bruce was the pilot.

[robc]

The real article

[BakedPenguin]

I've wondered why bands haven't offered $15-20 rebates on concert tickets if fans buy their album from their website.

[The Late P Brooks]

These employers are so convinced that they can find someone who matches 100% with their requirements that they'll reject anyone who doesn't. They all want someone who will hit the ground running, who doesn't require any training at all. Maybe it's a local thing, I dunno. But if your resume doesn't 100% match the advertisement, they're not going to call you back.

I don't think it's local.

When/How did employers reach a point where they are apparently completely unwilling or unable to train their employees internally? Speaking strictly from my idiosyncratic perspective, I'd much rather find somebody who knows a little bit, and teach him my superstitions and bad habits, than put up with somebody else's.

[sarcasmic]

Unemployment rates make it an employers' market, but their unrealistic expectations only make unemployment worse.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Training is time consuming and expensive for companies I reckon.

I had excellent training at my former bank. They would hire rubes and mold them into good little minions.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not me of course. I could not be tamed.

Hear me roar.

My sister still can't believe I left thinking I would have made it up the ladder. She doesn't realize I couldn't tolerate all the lame ass office-politics. I'm not good at it.

[Fluffy]

Partially I think it's a function of the fact that the skilled labor market is so liquid now.

If you invest anything in training someone (at least in tech) that person can immediately bail and work somewhere else, and you're out your investment in their training, unless you pay top dollar to match their best offer. But if you're going to pay top dollar anyway, why not pay top dollar up front for someone who already has the skills and save yourself the time and money investment in training?

[MP]

That seems reasonable. Companies are willing to train people...to a point. Primarily in regards to company specific policies/procedures/operations. But where there is a baseline skillset that is sought, it's difficult to justify the effort of hiring a generalist and training them up.

Part of it too is a mis-match of expectations. I'm looking right now for an ETL developer. I won't hire a Java developer. Why? I'm sure that a Java developer could do the job, but I'm skeptical that they'd want do, even if they told me otherwise. Given the liquid labor market that Fluffy refers to, such a hire would likely jump ship at the first job offer that more closely aligned with their strengths and thus aligns better with their income opportunities.

[Jordan]

Part of it too is a mis-match of expectations. I'm looking right now for an ETL developer. I won't hire a Java developer.

I think that's reasonable. But on the other hand, you get a lot of companies who are looking for a C# developer, and even if you have 10 years of Java experience, they'll trash your resume without a second thought if they don't see C# on it.

[MP]

even if you have 10 years of Java experience, they'll trash your resume without a second thought if they don't see C# on it

I'd do the same. Unless you made it very clear in the "Objectives" section at the top of your resume that you were looking to shift gears and become a C# guru, the same thing I said applies.

With C# vs. Java, it's not about the language. It's about the libraries. It's the depth of knowledge about the libraries that you're looking for as an employer. And a person with 10 years of experience working with the Java SDK will simply command a far higher premium for a Java based position than a C# position. And thus, even if I hired such a person for C#, I would not pay that premium, and thus they'd be itching to try and cash in on that premium elsewhere once the opportunity arose.

Now...if I was hiring in East Bumfuckistan, I may change my thinking. But in the very liquid labor market that is the metropolitan East Coast, specificity rules.

[Jordan]

It's the depth of knowledge about the libraries that you're looking for as an employer. And a person with 10 years of experience working with the Java SDK will simply command a far higher premium for a Java based position than a C# position.

I disagree. Switching between the two languages is extremely easy. I've used both extensively and have had no trouble switching back and forth with the MSDN library, Java API, Tomcat, IIS, Hibernate, Ibatis, Entity Framework, ASP.net, Tapestry, GWT, etc. This is the sort of thing you can and should determine in an interview, not by looking at a resume. You want somebody who can adapt to new technologies easily.

And I don't think Amazon counts as East Bumfuckistan.

[Brett L]

Yes, and most organizations still think they want you to spend a whole career with them, rather than seeing both development of new talent and bringing in established talent as a way of bringing some often needed variation to their cultural gene pool. I think this is short-sighted. If you develop the talent, you'll usually have the chance to make a counter-offer.

[VG Zaytsev]

If you invest anything in training someone (at least in tech) that person can immediately bail and work somewhere else, and you're out your investment in their training,

That's always been the case.

The difference today is that you can't legally do pre-employment aptitude tests and it is risky to fire trainee employees that just aren't working out.

[Fluffy]

Actually, 50 years ago if you had a facility in a small town in America and you hired "family men" (i.e. married 20 year old guys) and trained them, the odds are that they would not move and you could underpay them for their skill set for the rest of their careers.

[VG Zaytsev]

50 years ago was the 1960s, what you're describing happened to some degree in 100 years ago - or so. But by the 1970s there was labor mobility and employers still trained people. They'd also hire you cheap, gradually increase your pay as you became more valuable and fire your ass for any number of reasons - all of which would be called discrimination now and open the employer up to expensive lawsuits.

[wareagle]

When/How did employers reach a point where they are apparently completely unwilling or unable to train their employees internally?

when they began viewing employees as interchangeable cogs rather than investments. A good employee is an asset and most sound businesses value their assets and work to increase their worth.

Hiring, unfortunately, has become much like site location for a new plant or expansion - far more effort is put into ruling out people/places than in determining whether they are a good fit.

[R C Dean]

Partly, its because training an employee ain't free, and too often the employee takes your investment over to a competitor.

[Brett L]

How much does it cost to have to run 3 searches or hire the wrong employee because you don't have any training in place and have to "make do"? This is the question I think doesn't get asked very often.

[Brett L]

Additionally, so what if they do? If I'm bring in $30k a year coders, dumping $20k worth of training into them over 2 years, and you hire them for $70k/year, I can afford to have half as productive employees AND every one that stays more than two years, even if I give them a 50% raise and promotion at the end of year two is a cheaper employee with more experience in my corporate culture.

[Rasilio]

The answer is of course the flood of anti discrimination legislation that makes hiring/firing anyone a potential minefield.

[Rasilio]

The answer is of course the flood of anti discrimination legislation that makes hiring/firing anyone a potential minefield.

[Sevo]

AP drops all pretense, goes full excuse mode:

"Health care law's rocky start is nothing new"
Yeah, it's a problem but he means well and really bad gov't screwups in the past didn't start well either!
http://www.sfgate.com/default/.....093059.php
I presume Carney is pulling down two salaries now?

[2ndClassProle]

It is rocky now, wait until the employer mandate kicks in.

[Raston Bot]

When the Duke's fortress is overrun during the first half of the 1984 Dune movie, Patrick Stewart leads his men into battle carrying a lapdog tucked into his uniform.

Here's the pick.

It kind of killed the scene for me b/c it's so absurd.

[Brett L]

DON'T TALK SHIT ABOUT GURNEY!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

There are four lights!

[Raston Bot]

and probably the same cadence and intensity in one of his Leodegrance lines.

[Fist of Etiquette]

In Excalibur when they ask him if he's with them or against them, and he says against them, the horse pauses before taking off back to the castle, as if to say, "You sure you don't want to try a second take on that, Patrick?"

[Raston Bot]

Because horses are starved and then eaten during a prolonged seige.

[sarcasmic]

He's saving the Duke's pug! You want him to leave it behind to be butchered by the Harkonnen scum?

[Raston Bot]

Maybe Thufir would just milk it for his antidote.

[Sevo]

"Brain-dead Oakland teen could be moved to new hospital"
This has been going on for a couple of weeks now; some comments are worthwhile, some are truly jaw-dropping. One (not sure is hasn't been wiped) has it that only rethugs think a sky-daddy will intervene in deaths. Nothing's been said, but I assure you the family does not vote R.
http://www.sfgate.com/health/a.....093069.php

[R C Dean]

Its a cultural thing. Trust me, I've seen it too many times.

A lot of black people are deeply distrustful of a bunch of white people telling them they should unplug their relative. Throw in some serious religiosity, and a disproportionate number of the folks who demand that their relatives be kept (pointlessly) on life support (at other people's expense, of course) are minorities.

Just the way it is. Natural causes. Nothing to be done about it.

[Eduard van Haalen]

The article suggests that the reason the kid is on life support in the first place is that her tonsillectomy was botched. Now the same docs who incapacitated her want to kill her. You don't have to be black to object to this. And there seem to be people offering to pay to keep the kid on life support.

So it's not just a black thing.

[Sevo]

"The article suggests that the reason the kid is on life support in the first place is that her tonsillectomy was botched."

Really? How do you know is was botched?

[The Late P Brooks]

Given the liquid labor market that Fluffy refers to, such a hire would likely jump ship at the first job offer that more closely aligned with their strengths and thus aligns better with their income opportunities.

My opinion is obviously worth zilch, but why would you necessarily care? What's wrong with bringing somebody in on a project basis?

[MP]

Because if I'm going to invest in somebody to train them up on all of the Corporate specific knowledge they need, then I'm going to try to get five+ years out of them.

Projects that are one-offs and thus don't require any institutional knowledge to build/maintain are rather rare.

[The Late P Brooks]

when they began viewing employees as interchangeable cogs rather than investments. A good employee is an asset and most sound businesses value their assets and work to increase their worth.

I think this is the root of the problem. A lot of people go directly from here to "It's all WALL STREET's fault because short term number crunchers!" but I think that's overly simplified.

I blame the MBA.

[Brett L]

Yep. From the very beginning, the original MBA asked "how can we treat workers like replaceable cogs", and then set about treating all of business like those subsets of business where they had results. It might behoove companies to observe their training versus hiring costs versus production and then set about investigating where in that space the minimum lies.

[VG Zaytsev]

The workers as replaceable cogs meme goes back to the beginning of the industrial revolution in the early 19th century.

What's changed to end employer training programs are government regulations (both direct and indirect via lawsuits) that have made the labor market less flexible.

[The Late P Brooks]

"Brain-dead Oakland teen could be moved to new hospital"

That could never have happened in a hospital owned and operated by the government.

[The Late P Brooks]

Just the way it is. Natural causes. Nothing to be done about it.

"It happens, sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes."