So: he was framed. A devious plot. And -- of course -- the HR woman didn't believe him. Because: woman.

There was a guy who used to come to the bar on a fairly frequent basis; this coincided with when he lost his job. Some people, when they lose their jobs, gravitate towards the bar. I assume the reasons are pretty self-explanatory. If an explanation is needed, then: alcohol.

He said he lost his job because of a woman at his work: she had it in for him. He never quite explained why she had it in for him -- details are often hazy when people don't want to go into detail. The key was she had it in for him: that's where it all started, although it obviously started before that.

She complained about him to their company's HR woman. He said it started as a misunderstanding, but that then the woman just began to out-and-out lie about him. Which may indeed be something that someone who has it in for you does; again, details were hazy. He always made a point that his company's HR person was a woman, though:  I assume his reasons are pretty self-explanatory. If an explanation is needed, then: women.

What finally got him fired was the company finding out that someone had viewed porn on his work computer. He said he was not stupid enough to do such a thing. Which would indeed be a stupid thing, but people do stupid things, even when they know they are stupid: the awareness of stupidity doesn't negate the possibility of having acted stupidly.

But he attributed this not to stupidity, but to malice: he said the woman obviously looked up porn on his computer while he was away from his desk, then reported to HR that she saw him viewing porn. They checked his computer history, found the record of porn, and promptly fired him.

So: he was framed. A devious plot. And -- of course -- the HR woman didn't believe him. Because: woman.

A devious plot seems less likely than simple stupidity, but one could argue that technology has made being devious much easier. And things being easier may make them more tempting. Before, you would need the Shadowy Things that were complicated and that only a Spy might have; now you just needed a few minutes and a keyboard. 

Years ago, when the good guy in the movies needed something from a computer, he typed furious code, and then watched a progress bar crawl slowly across the ungainly monitor as the music ratcheted up the suspense. Now you can cue up a cute cat video from Japan pretty much instantaneously. On your phone.

Digression aside, was she that devious of a woman, or was he that stupid of a man? When stupidity is an option I tend to go with stupidity as a reason. But you don't have to be that devious anymore to make someone look stupid. Which is why technology will be our downfall. Just like the computers in Eighties Movies that always seemed to want to start World War Three. And -- at least back then -- the computer would be slow about it, and probably freeze and crash before any harm was done.

- james james