[News] About That Insurance Company Hiring Only Capricorns

(y'know, the one I mentioned here on February 5th): My "research" is much more thorough when I lay out the weekly News of the Weird column, because it has more readers and brings in more (i.e., some) income. That doesn't mean that I just slap any old thing up in this-here space, but my rep is on the line in the weekly column. Plus, I write up the weekly a couple of weeks after a news story appears, which gives a chance for other newspapers to follow up the original story and put more data out there by the time I get around to columnizing. Nonetheless, I now find that this story of a "Salzburg insurance company" that hires only Capricorns, Tauruses, Aquariuses, Arieses, and Leos has likely only ever been "reported" by London's Daily Mail, which wrote it up with journalistic malpractice by failing to name the company or anyone associated with the story. On the other hand, what it has going for it is a correct statement of the tricky law involved. "Discrimination" in employment in the EU is only illegal if it is based on specified categories (e.g., race, religion, gender, etc.). Discrimination based on the year of one's birth might be illegal, but not based on the month. That's merely absurd. (Standard Disclaimer: The story could be true. Who knows? Maybe the Daily Mail had a chance to write it up with good journalism, but just failed. Either way, it won't be in my weekly column.) (And by the way, a bow to Alex: He was skeptical of it from the git-go on MuseumofHoaxes.com) [UPDATE: Alex reports that one of his readers posted a link to an actual classified ad in the Salzburger Nachrichten that sought sales and management people of certain star signs. So, it's more likely journalistic malpractice than a hoax.]
     Posted By: Chuck - Tue Mar 17, 2009
     Category:





Comments
Hey, I'm a Capricorn and I work for an insurance company. Does that lend creedence to the story?? 😉
Posted by DownCrisis on 03/17/09 at 09:01 AM
Chuck refers to his "weekly New sof the Weird column"....does anyone know where that can be found? I'm missing out on that!
Posted by Skitt in SW USA on 03/17/09 at 02:19 PM
http://www.newsoftheweird.com/
Posted by Jules in Connecticut on 03/17/09 at 02:29 PM
The news of the weird column is how I found weird universe to begin with. I used to read it on Yahoo News and then he said he was consolidating to this site, and then I lurked around on this site for awhile, giggling like a hyena at the comments. Then I decided I wanted to input my insanity and posted a bunch of useless comments of my own at first, then I realized I'm actually more weird than most of you and stopped posting so much and went back to giggling ...

Not that you all wanted to know that, but hey. Chalk one up for the column 😉
Posted by Nethie on 03/17/09 at 06:23 PM
@ StanFlouride - (As <u>Deutschland Uber Alles</u> plays quietly in the background) It wouldn't be PC for terms like Arian and German to appear in the same story. 😉
Posted by DownCrisis on 03/17/09 at 10:11 PM
Patty, Nethie - you're both free to stalk me anytime! And if Skitt is still around, so is she (haven't heard from her in a while). In fact any of the WU ladies are welcome to stalk me!
Posted by DownCrisis on 03/17/09 at 10:25 PM
That's what I was hoping for!

😉
Posted by DownCrisis on 03/19/09 at 12:37 AM
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