[Novalug] [OT] Free speech -- Your claim is not sincere

[Nino Pereira]

Paul D. Bain wrote:
> John Warren wrote:
> 
>> On Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 10:33 AM, William Warren 
>> <hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com 
>> <mailto:hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     Miguel Gonzalez wrote:
>>
>>         If I were an employer and read your posts in this mailing list I
>>         would be scared and think twice to interview you. I am NOT
>>         kidding (sorry, I couldn't help it).
>>
>>     If i was looking to hire him i would give him equal consideration..i
>>     don't believe in punishing folks for exercising their Constitutional
>>     rights.
>>
>> It wouldn't be punishment, it would be a basic character judgement 
>> based on public discussions that Paul has been involved in.  He's 
>> basically just made himself nearly unemployable at ANY government job, 
>> ANY employer that will potentially have H1B employees working with 
>> him, ANY employer who was foreign born, and ANY employer with a strick 
>> [sic; "strict"]
> 
>     John, please learn to use your spell checker.
> 
>> anti-violence policy.
>>
>> At one point I was going to see if I could reference him into a job 
> 
>     Uh, "reference him into a job?" What does that mean? The term 
> "reference" is a noun, _not_ a verb.
> 
>> my company is hiring like mad right now, but he wouldn't even 
>> volunteer a bit of his obviously plentiful free time to show me what 
>> he could do.  And now after what he's said here about H1B's, foreign 
>> born [sic; "foreign-born"] citizens,
> 
>     Check that punctuation, John -- it is "foreign-born," not "foreign 
> born."
> 
>> violent conflict with the government and negatively responding without 
>> fully understanding all sorts of  conversational points or 
>> implications, I don't think I could get him an IT job even if I gave 
>> him my highest reference.
> 
> John Warren,
> 
>     I suspect that your reluctance to help me springs from the ill-will 
> that you bear towards me following our altercation on this mailing list 
> (ML) last week, wherein you and I disagreed regarding Slashdot.org and 
> Slash, the OSS "community-ware" on which Slashdot runs. I shall 
> summarize the altercation for the benefit of those who are not familiar 
> with it. You implied that Slashdot receives comparatively little web 
> traffic, an egregiously false claim that I refuted incontrovertibly. I 
> also pointed out that your English language skills leave a bit to be 
> desired. You rejoined in anger, ending the conversation.
> 
>> Everything you do online is subject to review by potential employers.  
>> In looking for work, it should be expected that these conversations 
>> will be reviewed as part of the inteview [sic; "interview"] process, 
> 
>     John, spell checker.
> 
>> especially in the IT industry.  And the IT industry is fully global 
>> now, with IT professionals of every stripe competing on a larger scale 
>> than ever before.  Nobody in need of IT related [sic; "IT-related"]
> 
>     Punctuation.
> 
>> work should be voicing hate filled and violent rhetoric in an 
>> irrevocable public media when the workforce pool is that big.
> 
>     As I have explained to you on this ML before (just a few weeks ago), 
> John Warren, for me, this point is moot. I have no choice but to leave 
> IT. It is obvious to me that, if I remain in IT, I shall continue to be 
> unemployed. Indeed, I have unemployed for over 13 months.

Paul, besides checking spelling (which is easy) and punctuation (which is
a little less easy and, moreover, may depend on personal preferences),
you should also check for words that you may have forgotten. especially
if you belittle others about their faults herein.

So, please insert 'been' in your last sentence.

In this context, I want to say that I'm all for correcting grammar and spelling,
in postings on this  mailing list and elsewhere, but
only when done gently, with as purpose to improve writing in general
and not to demean. Spelling mistakes are often typos that fell through
the cracks, due to haste, dyslexia, immaturity, etc.. And, being born
outside the US doesn't doom you spelling- or grammar-wise: Nabokov
and Conrad are even better evidence than this mailing list.

Nino
(FWIW, foreign-born)