Studying human nature at the border

 An Israeli soldier describes running a West Bank checkpoint.

Excerpt:
The true nature of the soldier’s mission usually dawns upon him shortly after he arrives on the scene. He might be told, as I was in one of my first shifts, to close a checkpoint for some reason or other. A Palestinian child comes by and asks to pass on his way home from school. When the child discovers the checkpoint is closed and he cannot get home, he begins to cry. Recalling the freedom and responsibility to exercise his clear-headed judgment, the soldier decides to let the child through. A while later, ten crying children come by. They all heard about a new way to pass through the checkpoint even when it is officially closed.

At this point, facing the crying children, the soldier realizes he made a mistake—not because these children are dangerous, but because he cannot afford to be fooled by ten-year-olds, or by anyone, for that matter. There cannot be an efficient way to pass through his checkpoint. Any such way may be used against him, against his mission. He cannot tell harmless ten-year-olds from ten-year-olds who were sent to trick him. Everyone should know that at his checkpoint it is up to him and him alone to decide what will be their fate. 

 

He's still a murdering dictator

Foreign Policy warns against seeing North Korea's  leader Kim Jung Un through gauze-clouded glasses, now that the mainstream media are buying more into his government's propaganda.

Jung Un imprisons anyone who disagrees with him and allows his countrymen to starve and stay cut off from the modern world.

He's a monster, no matter how far Entertainment Tonight goes to gloss over that fact.

Loretta Lynn state of mind

Watch this for the pantsuits. And Loretta's pronunciation of "hurricane" at 1:04.

Less bass, more kitteh

The Aurora shooter

A studied read on Holmes as well as on the other infamous Colorado mass murderers of late, the Columbine duo.

Excerpt: These researchers find that aside from terrorism, most of these mass murders are committed by criminals who fall into three groups: psychopaths, the delusionally insane, and the suicidally depressed. 

Today's job market

Unless you work in a medical field (in which case you can almost be a violent felon and not worry about being fired), hunting for work these days is a bitch. This blogger does non-scientific but telling research.

Excerpt: I know that when I apply for jobs, I like to imagine my résumé near the top of the pile; this helps me sleep at night (in addition to scotch). Because of this experiment, I’ve decided to not bother submitting to Craigslist positions that are more than one day old.

 Here's you some Johnny Paycheck. Remember, I'm in Nashville, y'all, and there's not a life dilemma that country music hasn't addressed.

Attention to detail

This blogger says people who use grammar correctly are better employees, whether they are writers, mathematicians or janitors. Knowing the difference between "it's" and "its" means you pay attention to detail.

Excerpt: Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn't make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet. In blog posts, on Facebook statuses, in e-mails, and on company websites, your words are all you have. They are a projection of you in your physical absence. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can't tell the difference between their, there, and they're.

In the pic below, the misplaced comma in the description of a panda's diet changes the whole meaning of the phrase, turning "shoots" and "leaves" from the nouns they should be into verbs).