The Weekly Tendown March 11-17 2012

Dear Internet:

What am I watching that causes Netflix to suggest I'd give 3.6 stars to a movie made for 11 and 12 year olds?

And is the metric limited to Netflix - when I do my google searches, is it giving me results geared for 11 and 12 year olds?  Is that why I keep getting all the Family Research Council stuff?  I have to read that a US Senator says the Bible refutes climate change - is that because I don't get exposure to thoughts more complicated than that?  Is there an entire alternate slate of Republican presidential candidates who talk like grown ups? And what happened in Fred I?  How can I be expected to hop into this intriguing story about Fred's music teacher without a full immersion in the backstory?  You're making my life unnecessarily complicated, Netflix.  Maybe lower the target age of my films a couple additional years.

Tendown 118. is here. This is 119.

1. Here's What It Means to Be an At Will Employee
 

My baseball team wears orange uniforms for Friday home games.

There's a law firm down here where employees had been wearing orange to work on Fridays, then going out to the bar after work.  14 of them got fired for wearing the orange clothing.

Whenever I teach employment law, I try to stress the following to students - that unless you have a contract with language to the contrary or are with a union and the conditions of your employment are part of a broader contract (unions are collections of employees who gather together to increase their bargaining power, you can read about them in the history books, except in Texas) you are employed at the will of your employer.

And that means you can be fired at any time for any reason other than an illegal one.  Shirt color=not an illegal reason.

It could be that there's a corporate handbook that offers some type of language that talks about termination procedures/causes, and that might provide an avenue for argument (although there's also probably handbook language that says something like the employer can change the policy at any time).  But most people in the United States (me too) are in the position of the 14 people at the area law firm.  If one day someone doesn't like the color of your shirt, the next day you don't have health insurance.

My latest interview was via Skype this past week; it will be a couple of weeks before I'm told if I make the next round. I still have yet to hear from the job about which I've been speaking the past few weeks.  I'm confident that status will have changed a week from now.  This week is an adjunct interview, as if I can't land one of these bigger positions for fall, I need to keep increasing the number of adjunct pools in which I swim.

2. Want To See What Happens When 2 Dudes Kiss at a Santorum Rally?
The crowd chants U-S-A as they are ejected.  It's at 3:30.

3. Yes, Please.
The 49ers worked out Peyton Manning this week.

Right now, I have Manning as the second greatest quarterback who ever lived. 

I am an unabashed supporter of this attempt.  I don't dislike Alex Smith, but there's a reason why, despite his being a free agent, he hasn't had any more market interest than Chad Henne.  If Peyton Manning can approximate Peyton Manning, you do what you need to do to make that happen.

(I'd still rather be the Colts.)

4. 2/3 of Alabama Republicans
Don't believe in evolution.

And that's the end of my interest in the thoughts of 2/3 of Alabama Republicans.

5. 10 Congressional Candidates You Might Consider
Are here.  Including Alan Grayson.

6. TransVaginal Comics
If you missed some of the Doonesbury strips commenting on the transvaginal ultrasound debate (by debate, I mean that Republicans think a top marginal tax rate of 35% is tyranny but requiring that a doctor stick a wand inside a woman without any medical need for doing so is good conservative governance, by debate, I mean that health care reform that would massively reduce the number of Americans who die every year because of a lack of health insurance is fascism but telling doctors they are required to mislead patients if correct information would lead that patient to exercise a constitutionally protected right is just good, patriotic legislation) such as:



The consider, from the Houston Press, how rest of the comic world might consider the same terrain.




7. Birth Control McCarthyism
The best piece you'll see about the issue of contraception, essentially making a favorite Tendown argument, that the centerpiece of the conservative belief system is authoritarianism, can be found here. Submit to the authority of the man in the sky, the man in the corner office, the man in the house is how your conservative friends see the world.

8. But They Know It Shouldn't Go Up
The 3 Republicans running for Senate in Missouri were asked what the minimum wage is (given that they all oppose its increase; one saying it's "high enough" one saying we shouldn't let government put wage restrictions on business - you know, tyranny).

None of them know what it is.

9. I Watch 4 Star Wrestling Matches
I got a good deal of the 2012 backlog watched this week.  None of the matches made my 2012 MOTY list but I did see the following 4 star matches:

Jan NOAH: Go/Taniguchi v. Marufuji/Sugiura 4 ¼

Feb NOAH Kotaro/Aoki v Kondo/Yamato 4

Feb NOAH Nakajima v Ishimori 4 ¼

Feb NJ Richards/ Romero v Devitt/Taguchi 4 ¼

I haven't seen any March yet.  Before Wrestlemania 30, my hope is to rewatch and rank every Mania match ever.  And by Survivor 25, I'd like to rank the top 25 Survivor players ever.  I make plans.  

10. It's About Time.

Theocracy Jewelry.  Just like Jefferson would have wanted.

That's all for this time.  I'll be back next time.  If there is a next time...

Your pal,

Jim