At 10:50 AM -0700 8/26/98, Dan Stromberg wrote:
A company worth working for will have a policy that tells you you cannot. (Ok, those variables are a fuzzy issue - Very bad taste. The violent stuff mentioned in the original article is clear cut, however)
This is not the issue. Maybe a company will have a policy forbidding flaky or unusual variable names, maybe it won't. Maybe it will even encourage such names. The issue is whether the government or the courts has any right to intervene to force changes in such matters. ....
So what's your point?
Creating a hostile environment with the expectation that you'll never hire someone who's black is "ok"?
In a free society, of course it should be legal, even if not desireable to many. Consider some parallels. * The Hitler Corporation is dedicated to selling literature and memorabilia exalting Adolph Hitler. It sells "Mein Kampf." It sells Nazi flags. It sells scale models of the Auschwitz crematoria. All very legal to do, at least in the United States. However, Jewish employees feel offended. They consider the Hitler Corporation to have a "hostile environment." What are their options? In a free society, they walk. In fact, they were fools to ever apply for jobs, and THC was foolish to hire them. * The Carnivore's Den is a meat-only restaurant. Alice B. Vegan feels offended that she is "forced" to serve meat, and she feels her civil rights are being violated by the restaurant. And so on. Non-Mormons feel slighted at Mormon bookstores. Satanists feel slighted at Christian day care centers. And honkies feel out of place at Rastafarian Chicken and Watermelon roadside stands. So? The right to "fit in" in all places is not a right, only a wish. --Tim May "The tree of liberty must be watered periodically with the blood of tyrants...." ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments.