A great example of how Fallwell lies.

Liberty counts all the points all their entrants have earned, the JV teams, etc. And they have more entrants than most colleges, so they have more total points.

They've NEVER beat Harvard. But since they have a lot of 12th place entrants, their total points add up to a lot. But they're a medium level team and in no way compet with the top notch ivies. And these points they add up are not used in the debate system, it's their own classification they made up to claim they're #1.

I'll tell you what else he did before he got famous with his moral majority gig. He was well known in Va. for: (1) pressuring sick elderly people to will there estate to his church. I know people who's elderly relatives were tricked into giving everything to him. Very slimy.

(2) His compound in Va was always guarded by thugs with machine guns. Not a very comfortable situation.

There are many reasons people would like Cary's answer besides political. Of the couples I know where Dad stays home, it's purely financial, as a matter of fact. Wife earns more, so when it was time to choose a parent to stay at home with the kids, they chose Dad. End of story, no big political message. And I think a lot of stuffed shirts would be wise to realize that: down here in the trenches, we make decisions based on what works best for our families, not to make a theoretical political message. We can't afford that, we need to run our families, work, live, try to enjoy life. And that takes real solutions, not choices based on what some talking head on TV says is the right choice.

thanks! I'm going to always have a reference check service bookmarked in case I need to know what an ex employer would say about me. I do have a nasty boss in my background and I'd like to be prepared and know what lies he tells. As another poster said, if they lied when you worked for them, be assured they're still lying.

wow, that stuff REALLY varies state to state.

For example is Virginia, you'll eligible for unemployment benefits even if you were fired for not doing your job sufficient to their desires as long as you weren't fired for misconduct. There's a specific definition of misconduct, invoving deliberate attempts to affect the company's well being; sabotague. Just doing a bad job and being fired for it isn't enough to disquaify you for unemployment.

As I said, it really varies state to state, so don't rely on general info someone posts here without knowing what state they're talking about.

depends on the state. Is it a 'right to work' state?

For example in Virginia, they can fire you for most any reason besides those few federally protected categories (race, gender, physical disability). In right-to-work states, empoyers can fire you for any other reason.

Look forward to creating a new opportunity. Unless you were fired for your race, gender or disability, don't waste time thinking about suing your previous employer.

I know there are good people who want to build career coach careers using the internet, email and the phone, -- but you've GOT to find someone local. They need to coach you in interview skills and that means seeing your face, your eyes, your demeanor when you answer tough questions. It's just not something that can be done without face-to-face meetings.

For references, ask professional freinds, psychiatrist, GP, local university career service, minister, etc.

The people here who try to villify the LW because she lets cats outdoors are a little overzealous! Lots of people let their cats outdoors and it doesn't mean they're horrible people. Not all vets or animal lovers agree cats should be locked indoors. Many people beleive that cats should be able to live as their nature intends: outdoors. Many people beleive that to lock a cat indoors is to deny his true nature for his whole life. It would be like locking a zoo animal indoors instead of letting him run free in the wild. I and my extended family have all had cats who were allowed to go outdoors and they all lived long healthy lives.

Anyway, that argument and self-rightous blame does not belong here. This issue is about the child's stress and the father's choices. Leave cat-raising issue to another forum.

I'd say take a little from all this good advice, but focus on finding a upbeat way to explain your desire to work with a new team.

And then invest $50-$75 dollars on a career counselor who'll help you with positive wording that IS honest, but forward-looking.

Too much information would make you look like someone with a bad attitude or lack of appreciation for professional boundaries. Everyone understands these things happen, but HR people have a lot of resumes to weed out and any excuse will do to whittle the number down: bad attitude, not a team player, chip on shoulder, can't get the job done.

Everything that must come out should be spun into a positive statement about what you learned, how you work, how you solve problems, etc. But really, you should hone a positive statement that you're looking for an opportunity to work with a team that blah blah blah (insert something you DO want that's relevant to your field and makes the company you're interviewing with look good). This is why you need a job coach, it's a small investment that'll be reaped may times over in your first paycheck.

I thought the family was black. There is often a huge asian racism in some african-american communities.