Slashdot Mirror
Steve Ballmer Responds to Discrimination Issue
sriram_2001 writes "In a long email to all Microsoft employees, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laid out the reasons for Microsoft changing its stance to neutral on the anti-discrimination bill. He explains that Microsoft wanted to focus on fewer legislations and that the anti-discrimination bill was one of the bills that they didn't have the resources to follow. Also, far from caving in to Rev.Hutcherson, Microsoft told him to take a hike when he asked them to fire 2 employees for testifying during the legislation consideration period. He goes on to explain how though he personally supports the bill, a lot of employees and shareholders don't. Finally, he raises the question on whether corporations should get involved in social issues."
Microsoft has never done anything but get involved in social issues. Who the fuck does Ballmer think he's kidding?
Microsoft has bought wholesale into the media-generated myth that religious issues matter to the majority of the populace, and made a conscious decision to allow a vocal but fundamentally powerless minority to dictate their corporate policy. Unbelievable.
What the courts couldn't do, a member of the American Taliban managed to accomplish with a few meetings and one veiled threat. I'm horrified, yet impressed as well.
Boycott everything - they're all trying to fuck you one way or another
Ah, yes. I agree. I too miss the days when they used to throw the Christians to the lions for sport.
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
Why would a woman who happens to be attractive catch shit from me for her beauty? If she were flaunting her looks, that'd be a different story. It's one thing to dress well, it's quite another for her to dress with the purpose of making men stare at her body and other women jealous.
As for the picture of the family, what's wrong with that? I don't know anyone who would actually bring in a picture of them doing more than hugging their wife. Most people, myself included, would not be offended by a picture of two gay men just hugging each other.
As for public displays of affection in the cafeteria, again people should be discrete. What sets most people off about homosexuals is their behavior is not normal and so many are not discrete about it.
Homosexuality is not normal, it is abberant behavior and ironically it is only religions like Christianity which give homosexuals inherent worth as humans. From a biological perspective, a homosexual is worthless because they are genetic dead ends. I am a conservative Christian and have been around many homosexuals. Some of them I really like as people, many I find are too sensitive, too quick to stereotype and too disrespectful of others. In a way though, they are just a canary in the coal mine about the direction that American society in general is headed.
I am a calvinist, not an arminian legalist. Homosexuality is not much of a moral problem because it is a "canary in the coal mine" moral problem for society. Romans 1 warns that as a nation turns away from God, it will become a major problem because God turns people over to their own evil lusts and allows them to grow even more depraved. We conservative Christians (that is a religious statement, not political) are not monolithic. The calvinist-leaning among us are the ones who tend to look at homosexuality's growth in America and say to America as a whole: repent.
The reason that homosexuality was not a problem in America for the first 100-150 years of its existance was that America was a more Godly nation. No amount of legislating morality will make us Godly, just legalistic and then we'll end up roasting alongside the Pharisees who did the same thing in ancient Israel. The rule of thumb is that the more a nation struggles with homosexuality, the more that the nation as a whole has moved away from God.
As a Christian, this saddens me because there is no easy solution for the masses. We aren't the "next Israel," we aren't the "greatest nation" and we most certainly aren't right with God. In the words of Paul, we "are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, Godhaters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."
Look at the way we encourage sociopathic behavior in corporations and call it good. See how the corporate culture causes people to use and abuse each other for a mere bonus! Greed is held up as a virtue rather than vice, people toss out their children and spouses for "self-realization" with a newer, cheaper lover. We tolerate corruption that rots our nation's institutions like a termite-infected tree and we high five many of those who lead the way. Look at Donald Trump, the man is a monster according to the commandment to love others and keep them safe. He throws out little old ladies from their family homes so that he can build a limo parking lot for his casino! Yet many idolize him and he's actually got a modest following in our country.
This is the real problem. Our corporate and political cultures revel in blatant evil and dare to call it righteousness. It is because we do this that we have forgotten the true righteous core of God's morality and God in His anger has basically walked away from America. It didn't begin with men secretly but
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!