General Musings, Part 1

From time to time, I have mini-rants that don't quite merit a full post or have more to say about something I've already ranted about (usually b/c some cruddy situation has reached a new low). Anyhow, I figure we could just call this "general musings." I'll likely do more of them in the future but I don't want this to be a fully autobiographical account of my life. This is a semi-public forum & I'm paranoid.

I saw this story yesterday & it really burned me.

Okay, a few things to consider:

1. While I agree that you definitely don't get honest answers from people in interviews & stuff, plenty of former co-workers & bosses aren't exactly pillars of honesty. I personally know people who'd be badmouthed by former bosses for not putting a dead-end job ahead of their education, not dating or having sex w/him/her or b/c the boss is a complete & utter bigot. You don't know someone's motivation for speaking + if you don't think these things happen in the real world, you're naive.

2. If I were ever asked to sign something saying I wouldn't sue for possible defamation, I would tell the person that we'll be ice skating in Hell before I sign it. I'd also go into the details I've mentioned above as to why you'd be a fool to sign it.

3. Some former bosses & co-workers are manipulative, jealous freaks who might hate the person in question + want to see that person fail miserably. How will you know they're liars unless you're getting a lie detector machine & hooking them up to it? Even then, lie detectors aren't 100% reliable or accurate. That's why the results aren't admissible in court.

Same thing for checking credit. If I'm not applying for a job where that's actually relevant, you're not getting it. I might even see about the possibility of initiating legal action against you.

I was reading comments to a story on that issue & someone posted this link. You can use it to see where prospective employers are digging. Someplace in there, there's a way to get that information for free but I can't find it.

Final rant. As I watch the GSN show Baggage, I notice many of the contestants (many of them being women, I might add) showing bad sides to their personality that make me dismiss them as hypocrites, selfish, gold-diggers, etc. Here's an example:

Female contestant. 3 male bachelors, one of whom has dropped out of high school. Her justification for making that an issue: "The economy is bad & education is valuable." Did someone not get the memo that thousands, if not millions of college grads are out of work? Did we not hear about the lawyer job market?

So when she's down to this bachelor & another guy who golfs 5 days a week, has an MBA (basically blue collar guy vs. white collar guy), she gets all whiny b/c the high school dropout has a sugar mama. This after she's told Jerry Springer (who strikes me as a cool guy) that she's looking for a rich guy to "take care of her."

Sorry, honey but you're a hypocrite! If you run around trying to get a sugar daddy & won't bother advancing yourself in life, you have no cause to get pissy at a man for doing the exact SAME thing w/a woman. For me, if you don't bother to take care of YOURSELF & have to rely on some rich guy to "take care of you," you need to just start working in a strip club or become a hooker b/c that's what you are. Go sleep w/one of our nation's politicians if you want to be rich & famous w/out trying.

I'll give Anna Nicole Smith this: at least she made no bones about being in it for the money when she was stripping in her early days. For all the badmouthing you want to do about her marrying an old man for money, at least she was more honest about that than your average woman. Evolution or not, we're living in modern times now.

I don't base my romantic views & certainly never picked boyfriends based how much money they have. While I think more of my friends will be those w/money as time goes on, it's certainly not going to convince me to leave my husband.

Another contestant on this show who pissed me off was this one woman who trashed the dog of one of the bachelor's, implying homosexuality on him for owning a small dog.

Let me tell you something, bitch. A dis on my pet or anyone I care about is a dis on me so you'd better be ready to throw down if you say certain things to me (especially if you're a stranger). My husband & I immediately branded this woman as a bitch for that.

If I was the casting director, I think I'd be trying to find better contestants. Some Everyman/Everywoman types that people can like & root for instead of skanky types that you hope end up getting a bad match b/c they deserve it. Not every attractive person out there is an asshole. Nor is every ugly person a saint. Generalizations are an ugly thing.

Now I'm sliding into another rant I just realized I had in me but would rather wait for another post to probe.