Soil from Stone

The WordNet definition for “pacifist” includes “adult” in the See Also section. (See http://hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/pacifist and http://www.hyperdic.net/dic/pacifist.htm.) That connection is obviously misplaced and is even a little absurd. The ubiquitous state of war around the world was created solely by adults without consulting a single child. It seems that whoever submitted that connection deliberately compromised the accuracy of the WordNet dictionary for the sake of making an ignorant political statement.

06/28/2006 Update:

Guido Demoor, a father of two, intervened when six [Muslim] “youths” got on bus 23 in Antwerp and began to intimidate passengers. There were some forty people on the bus. Demoor asked the “youths” to calm down, whereupon they turned on him, savagely beating and kicking the man. At the next stop thirty passengers fled the bus. The thugs kept beating Demoor. They then pulled the emergency brake and jumped from the bus leaving their victim to die. -The Brussels Journal

There was only one adult on that bus, and he was murdered by 40 pacifists.

“Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.”

“How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? …Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.”

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2006/06/those-cowardly-belgians.html

Interesting article in June 19th’s ComputerWorld: “100 Best Places to Work in IT 2006″. Here are some of the statistics cited as justifications for three of their top five picks:

-#2 University of Miami: “74% of IT staffers are minorities.”
-#3 Capital Group: “52% of the IT staffers are minorities.”
-#5 Grant Thornton LLP: “43% of its IT managers are women. 29% of IT staffers are women.”

I don’t have anything against minorities or women. I think that if one person is more qualified to do a job, then that person should get the job. It doesn’t matter to me if the person is a black woman from Atlanta or a hermaphrodite from Sacramento. If he/she/it can do the job, then great! The problem is when people start discriminating against one group in order to make up for a perceived injustice to another group.

Do minorities really make up 74% of the IT professionals in the Miami area? Or 52% in all of the Capital Group locations? I’m having trouble believing that. I think you’d have to work hard to hire that many minorities in technical fields–or you have to hire them all from India–because most IT people in the United States are white men. Even in Miami.

I work in an IT department with eight men and one woman. This department isn’t unique. I’ve been in IT departments with ratios of 12 to 0 and 15 to 1. These companies weren’t discriminating against women. It’s just that there aren’t many women interested in these jobs, and many of those who do apply aren’t qualified. Grant Thornton must be discriminating against men from the very beginning by giving a preference to women regardless of technical ability. If the numbers of men and women who apply for positions at Grant Thornton are roughly the same as at other companies, then men competing against women for the same jobs are at greater than a 50% handicap just because they are men. They continue to discriminate against men who seek promotion. If you are competing against a woman for a management promotion, your chances of getting the promotion drop by one-third solely because of your gender.

The article should have been called “100 Best Places for Minorities and Women to Work in IT,” because they don’t look so great for white men.

Update 07/10/2006: Read-worthy post at http://lndavout.blogspot.com/2006/07/response-to-lee.html .