… and Non-Believers

Yes, our new Potus has, for the first time in an address by a President, explicitly included in his description of America that faction among us who don't have imaginary friends. Hemant Mehta commented on this, but I saw it live via satellite and felt included. My fellow curly-headed 47 year old with a foreigner for a father took the oath of office, and included me. Not by name, but by my most often ignored demographic categories. In the name of Fair and Balanced, the name of Jesus was also uttered for the first time during an inaugural ceremony during a painfully theistic invocation. Many in the VIP section crowd appeared uncomfortable with it. Ted Kennedy, brother of the first Irish-American and/or Catholic president, was there to see it. Then he was taken to the hospital. Four former presidents dating back to the election of 1976 were there. And I forego naming the other 2,000,000 or so present at the moment. The scene was so overwhelming that the President Elect (a seasoned and elegant public speaker) briefly fumbled during the oath. Quite a day!

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When Holidays Collide

One might say that this year we have an inordinately appropriate pair of largely ignored January holidays. Today is Martin Luther King day, and tomorrow Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th president. This morning PZ Myers posted excerpts from Kings Letters from a Birminagham Jail, plus links to…

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Think Like a Headhunter, Maximize Your Odds & Stand Out.

I am a recruiter, or if you prefer, a headhunter. As I joke on my Linkedin profile, I don't get too wrapped up in titles. I find and deliver specific talent to companies. In essence, I sell people to other people to pay my mortgage. While I make an important distinction between finding people jobs and finding talent for companies (disclosure: the companies pay my fees), I think a recruiter's unique perspective can inform and assist folks looking for new opportunities. When people ask me what I do for work, I joke that I gamble for a living, but it is closer to the truth to say I constantly search for ways to maximize the odds of my own success, and so should every job seeker. Searches I take on are often contingency searches, which means I only get paid when I present the winning candidate and the company successfully hires them,so I am careful where I spend my time. This is one of the first things I want to share with folks looking for a job: The person you contact matters, the way you make contact matters, and your presentation matters. Lots of layoffs are taking place, and the first reaction is often panic, fear, and gloom. One might feel like wallpapering every available surface with a resume and cover letter, but honestly that isn't going to help.

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Parting Shot: A Rant

The obsession the Right has had for lo these many years with people's sexuality has received a final "gift" from the Bush Administration. This is like grade school stuff. It's classic "If we don't tell them about it, they won't want it" thinking. Many on the Right feel everyone should have the freedom to own weapons. They think, implicitly, everyone is capable of proper usage of guns and that just because a certain number of individuals clearly intend to use them to the detriment of others, that that is no excuse to keep them out of the hands of everyone else. They are supportive of education in proper use of firearms. So why the different attitude toward sex? I expect this question never to be answered in such a way as to be persuasive to those who think sex is something that ought to be left in the gutter and in the closet, who think that teenagers ought not be told about it in the vain hope that they won't use it, but I am so utterly and profoundly tired of this infantile crap.

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A different point of view regarding the Israeli occupation of Gaza

Do you think that you're getting a neutral perspective of the Israeli occupation of Gaza when you rely on the U.S. media?  Think again.  Ask yourself this simple question: Where can you get a carefully-documented viewpoint that you would have if you were a resident of Gaza? The Media Education…

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