Well, naturally, nobody should be able to force anyone to handle anything they don't feel like handling. Of course, one perhaps oughtn't to complain too much about handling X if they've sought employment in the X-handling business.
The courts, also naturally, disagree, noting that such a requirement is worth, oh, say, $150,000:

The Work Connection, which referred workers to Gold'n Plump, has agreed to pay $150,000 to the class for requiring applicants to sign a form stating that they would not refuse to handle pork in the course of their jobs and for turning away workers who refused. The Work Connection will no longer use that form and will offer placement at GoldÂ’n Plump to job seekers previously turned away for refusing to sign the form.

The really lucrative discriminationgeld, however, is in the prayer-break field.

Under the decree Gold'n Plump will add, for one area of its plants, a paid break during the second half of each shift in addition to a break early in the shift and lunch breaks it had been providing as required by law. The additional break will accommodate the religious beliefs of Muslim employees who wish to pray during the course of the work day. The timing of the breaks will fluctuate during the year to coordinate with the religious timing for Muslim prayers, which is governed in part by sunrise and sunset. Gold'n Plump has also agreed to pay $215,000 to a class of Muslims who may have been disciplined or discharged when they took breaks to pray.

What, did Canada's HRCs come south for the winter?

P.S: I realize now that this is not so different from how the UAW works, which essentially requires a substantial minority of its workers to refrain from handling any auto-related materials whatsoever. Indeed, so enlightened is the UAW that it allows its autoworkers to avoid entering any sort of facility where any automaking might be undertaken!

Posted by: Open Blog at 12:42 PM | Comments (53)
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Kinda. It's not a movie until the deal is actually announced.

I sorta figured that Michael Cera might hold out for more money, but I'm surprised he's the lone hold out and still holding out.

Dude, you're a child actor. Keep in mind the rather poor record of child actors converting into successful adult actors before turning down a job and pissing off people who'll be in a position to help you in the future.

Pretty much every actor from the show has heat. Don't let a good turn in Superbad make you into a dick.

Thanks to PetiteDov.

A Thought About Arrested Development: It was the first sit-com mystery show. At least AFAIK. more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:41 PM | Comments (47)
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Hmmm... presumably he's a capitalist. And naming a capitalist to the Treasury post reassures the market.

I wonder what greater conclusions we can draw from that.

U.S. stocks rallied and the Standard & PoorÂ’s 500 Index rebounded from an 11-year low after President-elect Barack Obama picked New York Federal Reserve Bank chief Timothy Geithner to head the Treasury.

“This news could really give the stock market a badly needed shot in the arm,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, wrote in an e-mail to clients. Geithner is a “fantastic choice to help lead the financial markets out of the wilderness.”

Posted by: Ace at 12:26 PM | Comments (44)
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Well, Pelosi does have that Hypnotic Botox look.

But I guess CBS' viewers are just stupid.

What is confusing? Pelosi supports card check. Seems pretty simple to me.

What the hell claim is CBS trying to make?

Posted by: Ace at 12:12 PM | Comments (27)
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Awesome.

The leaks will flow like wine.

I'm reminded of Fletch.

STANWYK: Will you kill me? You'd be doing me and my family a great favor.

FLETCH (intakes breath, shakes head as he considers, then: ) Sure.

Hillary, having an independent constituency as well as some slim hopes of eventually being president, will, I pray, resist some of Obama's most left-wing terrorist-coddling impulses.

Heh: Bill Clinton's speeches to be vetted by Obama's team, as part of Hillary deal.

You can vet the speeches all you like, bub. The fun starts when he goes off-script.

Thanks to MarkyT.

PS: Bill Clinton wound up paying for those blow-jays after all, huh?

Posted by: Ace at 11:37 AM | Comments (79)
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On or around January 20, 2009.

C In Az suggested this in the latest meetup thread (note: all-star Chicago event tomorrow). Sounds inspired to me: things are bad enough now, but the media blitz around the time of the Obamascension will definitely drive any sane person to drink.

(Btw: I don't know what he intended, but I don't think this means everyone flying to one place. Just a day of alcoholic counterprogramming from sea to not-rising sea.)

Posted by: Open Blog at 11:06 AM | Comments (26)
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Not Real? A commenter calls shenanigans. Hey, he's probably right. I'm gullible. But I'm keeping it up.

I'll tuck the link after the jump. The link itself goes to a publisher's blurb for a cookbook, so it's not exactly x-rated in language.

However, the premise of the cookbook is pretty foul.

No, not hobos.

Not cannibalism... per se.

The title of the cookbook is Natural Harvest: A collection of XXXXX-based recipes, wherein XXXXX stands for something most men do not want anywhere in their diet pyramid at all. And most women are pretty down on it too.

Yeah, you getting the idea here?

Think about whether or not you want to hit "continue reading." Again, it's not really pornographic per se -- just... well, a notion you probably weren't looking to be confronted with today. more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:06 AM | Comments (86)
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After pardoning a turkey, Palin gives an apparently impromptu interview as other turkeys are slaughtered in the background.

I'm sure this means something, as Andrew Sullivan will soon be informing us. Perhaps David Brooks will write a column about how Ivy Leaguers are too sophisticated to be photographed anywhere near a working farm. Not sure.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:55 AM | Comments (113)
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Via AllahPundit, who I assumed was just posting dreck because there's not a lot of news. But no -- it's pretty damn good. As he says, "Comedy Gold."

Some girls react to David Cook's American Idol win over David Archuletta.

What's my point? The younger you are, the, um, stupider you are. Things that meant so very very much to young voters -- like Barack Obama -- may mean as much to them in four years as David Achuletta will mean in four months.

Posted by: Ace at 10:33 AM | Comments (54)
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So the Sun reports, anyway.

He and Cat Stevens announced a joint tour. They'll be singing Stevens' signature father-son estrangement song Cat's in the Cradle, but with a "happy, uplifting" new ending in which the father wins back his son's affection with wine, pornography, bumper cars and molestation.

Posted by: Ace at 10:25 AM | Comments (42)
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