I've only recently resubscribed to platinum digital cable (full everything, including dual tuner DVR and HDTV) after a couple years of not wanting it (mostly since Farscape was canceled as it was the only good thing on television). I am not a fan of cable television and I haven't watched ANY television in almost two years. Where I live, there isn't a lot to do unless you want to drive a bit and there is no television signal otherwise.
So, to keep me sane and relax a bit after work, I ordered cable. The problem is that all of the good shows (especially on HBO) are in their second, third - even fifth season. I'd like to watch Deadwood, but I don't want to pick it up 20 episodes into the series. I also don't want to spend $50 or $100 or whatever to buy the seasons on DVD (long after they already aired and too late to keep up with the new episodes anyway). Especially when I already pay for HBO to start with!
So, the only way to catch up has been to download episodes from bit torrent, watch them all, then start watching the series on TV. I don't see a problem with this.
I don't like that everyone is making a big deal about "even police and judges - no exceptions!". Wouldn't you be more concerned if there WERE exceptions? Joe and Jill public can be tracked down, have their data exploited, be stalked, harassed and everything else, but law enforcement and government officials would be considered a "higher class" of citizen and not have to submit to this?
I hate the REAL ID law. This is terrible. But it would be even more terrible if it allowed for multiple classes of citizens.
True. I didn't intend to suggest that driving is a privilege in a practical sense (although I've never driven in my life, pay for taxi cabs and still save money over buying a car and dealing with depreciation).
However, driving is a "privilege" as far as the government is concerned. That's why they can suspend or completely revoke that privilege whenever they want. That's why they can subject you to searches that would otherwise not be possible. And that's why they can force you to take a breathalizer (by accepting the privilege of driving, you accept the requirement of submitting to a sobriety test).
Other things, though, are clearly a necessity. You have to work. You have to eat. You have to live somewhere. You have to cash your paychecks. You have to get medical services. You have to buy things. There aren't ways around these as there are, difficult as it may be, around driving.
Granted, I've never been a fan of consoles and am out of the loop a bit, but does anyone actually have a Nintendo anymore? I mean, no network/internet connection. No internet based multiplay. No really cool games, unless you count dumbed-down disney-quality children's games based on Mario and Kirby, mediocre graphics, a dopey looking presentation...
Nintendo seems to be the Easy Bake Oven of the console world.
I presume that all of the REAL ID attributes that are applied to driver's licenses are also applied to state identifications? I have not seen that addressed anywhere.
See, I have a problem with that. Driving is a privilege and not a right. If you don't want to participate, just don't get a license and don't drive. However, existing is not an option and to do anything (get a library card, bank account, internet access, rent an apartment, get a job) you have to have an identification card.
So the only way to avoid the requirements of this REAL ID thing is to remove yourself entirely from the technological, social and economic grids. You won't be able to live anywhere, buy anything or work anywhere. So as long as you can do without that, you'll be okay.
A handful of updates, corrections and further thoughts on recent Slashdot stories follow; read on for updates on the Real-ID Act, Hollywood consultant math professor Jonathan Farley, the real first losers (and winners of the U.S. Open's Aibo League) at the 2005 Robo-Cup, and more. Details below.A handful of updates, corrections and further thoughts on recent Slashdot stories follow; read on for updates on the Real-ID Act, Hollywood consultant math professor Jonathan Farley, the real first losers (and winners of the U.S. Open's Aibo League) at the 2005 Robo-Cup, and more. Details below.
WAY TO GO SLASHDOT!
No longer are duplicate stories enough. Nor are duplicate stories on the same day or within the same hour. No, NOW WE DUPLICATE THE STORY WITHIN ITSELF!
See what happens when your company grows to 30,000 to 50,000 employees, countless products across hardware, software and support, has global offices, enough "processes" to choke a snake (constantly changing official processes at that) and everything is decided by "commitee" or "council".
I don't think you understand how the software development process is supposed to work:
1) Build software the way you want it. 2) Customers have complaints and suggestions. 3) You fix software in the way you think is best for the customer. 4) Customers complain that it still isn't what they wanted. 5) You tell the customer that they dont' really want what they think they want. 6) Customers threaten to find another vendor and terminate their purchases and support contracts. 7) Developers grumble about how stupid the customers are. 8) Some money man (account manager, sales person, upper management guy) puts some friction on the developers. 9) Developers begrudgingly cave-in and modify the software to the way the customer wanted all along. 10) Produce a completely new major version of your software, without really listening to your cutomers or learning from their complaints about the previous software. 11) Customers complain about how your new software is lacking what they were complaining about wanting in the original version that you originally fixed and that you didn't consider putting into the new version. 12) Process starts all over again.
If you are a billion dollar corporation with a multi-million dollar support and purchases contract with a company, they will gladly fix bugs if you file a bug report. Oh, and if you can provide a business impact case that proves it is seriously affecting your business. Oh, and find someone to take you seriously. And - oh yeah - keep pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing until your complaint finally gets enough attention (or enough other big customers complain about the same bug).
Hell, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to get a bug fixed inside of six to twelve months!
I really don't see what's wrong with proprietary software!
What about your moral obligation to your fellow man? Doesn't that extend to workers outside of the USA?
Yes, when I'm unemployed or looking at a fifth year without a raise because raises are frozen, I'm going to be comforted by knowing that some guy working as slave labor for cents a day in China (where they do indeed have slave labor) has a job. Or that some random person in India has a job.
Why yes, I'll be altruistic about it, because surely everyone from every other country is not in it for themselves. And surely American corporations are not outsourcing to reduce their costs, but to help out third world nations. Why, these corporations are terribly charitable.
In other words, my employer looks at outsourcing as a way to exploit foreign labor for cheaper operation costs. It's money to them. It's business. Why, as a screwed employee, must I be the one to see it as some sort of bullshit moral obligation that I willingly fuck myself over?
Oh, you consider slave labor (China) to be fair competition?
Corporations don't want competition. They just want competition among EMLOYEES, because it serves them. If I have to compete for my job with an American company (as an American) on a global scale, then someone should have to compete with the rest of the globe when it comes to my cost of rent, groceries, education, transportation...
See, it's really hard to be competitive when the competition only goes one way.
I thought this was already implemented some time ago.
I quit playing months ago, because as fun as the game was, there was no reason to do anything. You didn't gain or lose a damn thing for killing someone or being killed. And there was no really massive battle engagement, unless you count the occasional raid on a town.
After about six months, they FINALLY implemented some sort of "honor" system. But I'm not sure if it's the same honor system that was advertised (which is why many of us bought the game in the first place, but it was removed before the game went live). Hopefully, it has some sort of value in combat now to make killing a low level character less enticing and killing a higher level character more enticing. The game really loses a lot of momentum when you're a 10th level guy being mobbed by two dozen 60+ guys who are taking over an area.
I was looking forward to battlegrounds, but I'm not sure it's enough to pull me back into the game. I got pretty bored by the time I dropped my subscription about four months ago.
The problem is that while everyoen tends to get the same amount of sick/vacation/PTO days in any given company, I think it is quite common for parents to come in late, leave early, take time out of the middle of the day or not come in at all and not have it subtracted from their alotted accured vacation/sick/PTO days.
And that is where a lot of single people get frustrated. If you have 20 days from various accruals to use in a year for whatever purpose you wish and you use them to take care of your children and household problems, that's great. If you choose to use them to go on vacation, great. If you choose not to use them at all, that's great.
But if you use them to go on vacation and then you take additional time off throughout the year for family situations and you aren't forced to account for it, it is quite unfair to everyone else.
StarWars people would piss me off if they didn't count the day off. And that was the contrast I was originally drawing. Imagine if the StarWars people took the day off, but they didn't have to count it as a sick day, vacation day or any other kind of accrued day? What if it was just not counted and they were paid for it, just like Jane Doe gets paid for the time she takes off to attend to her family?
When you're the single person in the office, you don't have as much free time and social life as the married people think you do. Why not? Well, because it's the single person who is usually pushed into the odd houred slots (weekends, overnight, long hours, rushed deadlines) - not to mention they're usually the first chosen to have to travel on business and work holidays.
I don't care what someone's excuses are for not being able to do their job or not being able to put in the extra effort that someone else has to. If it's because you have children - that's your problem. It is NOT my problem. If you have a drug or drinking problem, it's your problem, too. NOT mine. No matter what your situation is, it is simply not anyone else's problem. You can either do the work and put in the hours or you can not. It's that simple.
I don't want to hear parents throw around excuses, as if being a parent excuses everything, anymore than I want to hear some crackhead making excuses. Both lead to someone else making up for their slack and both are unacceptable.
Next thing you know, married people are going to demand higher salaries than single people, because it's not fair that single people can spend their money on something other than two or three four year old "accidents" and their braces or schoolbooks.
I'm really tired of parents who justify their behaviors by saying "but I'm doing society a favor by continuing the human race!".
Drop the bullshit. You are not more productive or dedicated or intelligent or valuable, just because you couldn't keep your legs together or you were too lazy to slip on a condom. You never sat down and thought to yourself "I think I'm going to impregnant someone this week and do the world a favor, because I'm such a wonderful and altruistic human being".
You know god damn well that you just knocked it out one night and the condom broke or you were in too much of a hurry to bother with protection or your girlfriend lied about being on the pill and you wound up with an "accident". And now you're stuck dealing with it and try to cover for it by assuring yourself that you're somehow a saint for being a parent. That you now have some greater purpose and that everyone who isn't a parent is somehow a parasite.
My observation is that the less responsible and more impulsive someone is in life, the more likely they are to have children. And if they are irrespoonsible and impulsive in their personal life, they'll probably be that way at work.
And the reason your "single friends" are probably always late when they come to meet you is because they were procrastinating; dreading having to hang out with you AND your two annoying bastards.
I seriously hate that. If your smoking impedes your work that much, maybe it's a sign that you should quit. Imagine if I took five minutes out of every hour to go out to the lobby and masturbate?
I think smokers should be put in a seperate part of the building with modified circulation systems that don't affect the rest of the building. No more smoke-break excuses. You want to smoke two packs a day during work? Great. But do it at your desk, hunkered over your work.
I'm not even sure if I am supposed to take your response seriously, since you claim to be a parent, but have stileproject.com as your homepage... However:
The difference is that parents are able to use their kids or family as an acceptable excuse whenever they like. There is no stigma in doing that.
"I have to leave two hours early every Friday to take my kids to practice", is acceptable.
"I have to come in late today becuase my child has a doctor appointment", is acceptable.
"I'm not coming in today, because my child has the day off from school", is acceptable.
And it really builds up. Who knows if it's always legitimate or not, but using "children" or "family" as an excuse is rarely frowned upon.
But if someone who has other obligations needed time off, they would not recieve the same treatment. Of course, parents talk about how hard being a parent is and try to get sympathy however they can, but the fact is, you're hired to do a job. The same job I am. That you decided to have kids and a family is not my responsibility or my problem. But when you take excessive time off over the year and the rest of the office must cover for you, it is my problem.
If only sick days and vacation days were used, I'd have no problem with it. But I do have a problem that these excuses are often used to take time off that is not subtracted from those sources. They're taken in addition to, because the company can't look bad by being "anti-family".
I also like how you try to make it sound like you bust your ass and it's the single people that slack off. See, we work hard, because we have to cover our own work and yours. And our drive is enjoying our money. Spending it how we like. We don't have this sense of self-entitlement to our salary, our job, our time off, our "off the books" time off or anything else.
Parents don't even do half the work of a single person, because they spend the whole day on the phone talking to their kids or their spouse or someone else about problems they're having with their kids or their spouse. And then, of course, they start babbling to coworkers about their family life or their kids or their spouse. The amount of time lost to parents chronically avoiding their duties because of "family" is riduclous.
And no, that doesn't apply to every parent. There are many parents who make work a priority and don't ditch the other people in the office with work because they had to go meet the principal during work time. But there are a lot who do. Enough that it has become a stereotype.
As you see from the responses to this thread, the number of people who feel similar is not small. And we aren't against you taking time off from work for family. Just when you do it in addition to the vacation and sick time you already have. You should only be able to use sick time and vacation time. Just like it's all the rest of us have.
Most single people are used to picking up the slack of parents in the office, anyway. This time, it just gives the other people a chance to cut out for a day and make the family people who are always taking days off or leaving early (without counting it as a vacation or sick day) to cover them.
Except people like me, of course, who wouldn't see star wars if my company paid me to take the day off and watch it.
The left whines about how the constitution is a "living document" when they want to do things like, say, ban weapons and such. The right whines about how it's a "living document" when they want to change it to pursecute gay people.
Now everyone gets to die by the sword they lived by. It's a beautiful thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Hi, Pot! This is kettle!
I've only recently resubscribed to platinum digital cable (full everything, including dual tuner DVR and HDTV) after a couple years of not wanting it (mostly since Farscape was canceled as it was the only good thing on television). I am not a fan of cable television and I haven't watched ANY television in almost two years. Where I live, there isn't a lot to do unless you want to drive a bit and there is no television signal otherwise.
So, to keep me sane and relax a bit after work, I ordered cable. The problem is that all of the good shows (especially on HBO) are in their second, third - even fifth season. I'd like to watch Deadwood, but I don't want to pick it up 20 episodes into the series. I also don't want to spend $50 or $100 or whatever to buy the seasons on DVD (long after they already aired and too late to keep up with the new episodes anyway). Especially when I already pay for HBO to start with!
So, the only way to catch up has been to download episodes from bit torrent, watch them all, then start watching the series on TV. I don't see a problem with this.
I don't like that everyone is making a big deal about "even police and judges - no exceptions!". Wouldn't you be more concerned if there WERE exceptions? Joe and Jill public can be tracked down, have their data exploited, be stalked, harassed and everything else, but law enforcement and government officials would be considered a "higher class" of citizen and not have to submit to this?
I hate the REAL ID law. This is terrible. But it would be even more terrible if it allowed for multiple classes of citizens.
Hey, fanboys, this wasn't flamebait. This was a practical observation and a question. Don't get your knickers all in a bunch.
True. I didn't intend to suggest that driving is a privilege in a practical sense (although I've never driven in my life, pay for taxi cabs and still save money over buying a car and dealing with depreciation).
However, driving is a "privilege" as far as the government is concerned. That's why they can suspend or completely revoke that privilege whenever they want. That's why they can subject you to searches that would otherwise not be possible. And that's why they can force you to take a breathalizer (by accepting the privilege of driving, you accept the requirement of submitting to a sobriety test).
Other things, though, are clearly a necessity. You have to work. You have to eat. You have to live somewhere. You have to cash your paychecks. You have to get medical services. You have to buy things. There aren't ways around these as there are, difficult as it may be, around driving.
Granted, I've never been a fan of consoles and am out of the loop a bit, but does anyone actually have a Nintendo anymore? I mean, no network/internet connection. No internet based multiplay. No really cool games, unless you count dumbed-down disney-quality children's games based on Mario and Kirby, mediocre graphics, a dopey looking presentation...
Nintendo seems to be the Easy Bake Oven of the console world.
I presume that all of the REAL ID attributes that are applied to driver's licenses are also applied to state identifications? I have not seen that addressed anywhere.
See, I have a problem with that. Driving is a privilege and not a right. If you don't want to participate, just don't get a license and don't drive. However, existing is not an option and to do anything (get a library card, bank account, internet access, rent an apartment, get a job) you have to have an identification card.
So the only way to avoid the requirements of this REAL ID thing is to remove yourself entirely from the technological, social and economic grids. You won't be able to live anywhere, buy anything or work anywhere. So as long as you can do without that, you'll be okay.
A handful of updates, corrections and further thoughts on recent Slashdot stories follow; read on for updates on the Real-ID Act, Hollywood consultant math professor Jonathan Farley, the real first losers (and winners of the U.S. Open's Aibo League) at the 2005 Robo-Cup, and more. Details below.A handful of updates, corrections and further thoughts on recent Slashdot stories follow; read on for updates on the Real-ID Act, Hollywood consultant math professor Jonathan Farley, the real first losers (and winners of the U.S. Open's Aibo League) at the 2005 Robo-Cup, and more. Details below.
WAY TO GO SLASHDOT!
No longer are duplicate stories enough. Nor are duplicate stories on the same day or within the same hour. No, NOW WE DUPLICATE THE STORY WITHIN ITSELF!
Congratulations!
See what happens when your company grows to 30,000 to 50,000 employees, countless products across hardware, software and support, has global offices, enough "processes" to choke a snake (constantly changing official processes at that) and everything is decided by "commitee" or "council".
Except he has an account from back in Feburary.
I don't think you understand how the software development process is supposed to work:
1) Build software the way you want it.
2) Customers have complaints and suggestions.
3) You fix software in the way you think is best for the customer.
4) Customers complain that it still isn't what they wanted.
5) You tell the customer that they dont' really want what they think they want.
6) Customers threaten to find another vendor and terminate their purchases and support contracts.
7) Developers grumble about how stupid the customers are.
8) Some money man (account manager, sales person, upper management guy) puts some friction on the developers.
9) Developers begrudgingly cave-in and modify the software to the way the customer wanted all along.
10) Produce a completely new major version of your software, without really listening to your cutomers or learning from their complaints about the previous software.
11) Customers complain about how your new software is lacking what they were complaining about wanting in the original version that you originally fixed and that you didn't consider putting into the new version.
12) Process starts all over again.
If you are a billion dollar corporation with a multi-million dollar support and purchases contract with a company, they will gladly fix bugs if you file a bug report. Oh, and if you can provide a business impact case that proves it is seriously affecting your business. Oh, and find someone to take you seriously. And - oh yeah - keep pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing until your complaint finally gets enough attention (or enough other big customers complain about the same bug).
Hell, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to get a bug fixed inside of six to twelve months!
I really don't see what's wrong with proprietary software!
What about your moral obligation to your fellow man? Doesn't that extend to workers outside of the USA?
Yes, when I'm unemployed or looking at a fifth year without a raise because raises are frozen, I'm going to be comforted by knowing that some guy working as slave labor for cents a day in China (where they do indeed have slave labor) has a job. Or that some random person in India has a job.
Why yes, I'll be altruistic about it, because surely everyone from every other country is not in it for themselves. And surely American corporations are not outsourcing to reduce their costs, but to help out third world nations. Why, these corporations are terribly charitable.
In other words, my employer looks at outsourcing as a way to exploit foreign labor for cheaper operation costs. It's money to them. It's business. Why, as a screwed employee, must I be the one to see it as some sort of bullshit moral obligation that I willingly fuck myself over?
Or are you asking for exemption from competition?
Oh, you consider slave labor (China) to be fair competition?
Corporations don't want competition. They just want competition among EMLOYEES, because it serves them. If I have to compete for my job with an American company (as an American) on a global scale, then someone should have to compete with the rest of the globe when it comes to my cost of rent, groceries, education, transportation...
See, it's really hard to be competitive when the competition only goes one way.
I thought this was already implemented some time ago.
I quit playing months ago, because as fun as the game was, there was no reason to do anything. You didn't gain or lose a damn thing for killing someone or being killed. And there was no really massive battle engagement, unless you count the occasional raid on a town.
After about six months, they FINALLY implemented some sort of "honor" system. But I'm not sure if it's the same honor system that was advertised (which is why many of us bought the game in the first place, but it was removed before the game went live). Hopefully, it has some sort of value in combat now to make killing a low level character less enticing and killing a higher level character more enticing. The game really loses a lot of momentum when you're a 10th level guy being mobbed by two dozen 60+ guys who are taking over an area.
I was looking forward to battlegrounds, but I'm not sure it's enough to pull me back into the game. I got pretty bored by the time I dropped my subscription about four months ago.
Next week, every geek will take the day off of work to go see a god damn movie.
And the very next day, they'll be back to whining about "why are our jobs being outsourced?!".
Not only am I going to Star Wars next week, I'm planning on taking my staff as well
Yes, because that worked very well for Paul Reubens.
The problem is that while everyoen tends to get the same amount of sick/vacation/PTO days in any given company, I think it is quite common for parents to come in late, leave early, take time out of the middle of the day or not come in at all and not have it subtracted from their alotted accured vacation/sick/PTO days.
And that is where a lot of single people get frustrated. If you have 20 days from various accruals to use in a year for whatever purpose you wish and you use them to take care of your children and household problems, that's great. If you choose to use them to go on vacation, great. If you choose not to use them at all, that's great.
But if you use them to go on vacation and then you take additional time off throughout the year for family situations and you aren't forced to account for it, it is quite unfair to everyone else.
StarWars people would piss me off if they didn't count the day off. And that was the contrast I was originally drawing. Imagine if the StarWars people took the day off, but they didn't have to count it as a sick day, vacation day or any other kind of accrued day? What if it was just not counted and they were paid for it, just like Jane Doe gets paid for the time she takes off to attend to her family?
When you're the single person in the office, you don't have as much free time and social life as the married people think you do. Why not? Well, because it's the single person who is usually pushed into the odd houred slots (weekends, overnight, long hours, rushed deadlines) - not to mention they're usually the first chosen to have to travel on business and work holidays.
I don't care what someone's excuses are for not being able to do their job or not being able to put in the extra effort that someone else has to. If it's because you have children - that's your problem. It is NOT my problem. If you have a drug or drinking problem, it's your problem, too. NOT mine. No matter what your situation is, it is simply not anyone else's problem. You can either do the work and put in the hours or you can not. It's that simple.
I don't want to hear parents throw around excuses, as if being a parent excuses everything, anymore than I want to hear some crackhead making excuses. Both lead to someone else making up for their slack and both are unacceptable.
Next thing you know, married people are going to demand higher salaries than single people, because it's not fair that single people can spend their money on something other than two or three four year old "accidents" and their braces or schoolbooks.
I'm really tired of parents who justify their behaviors by saying "but I'm doing society a favor by continuing the human race!".
Drop the bullshit. You are not more productive or dedicated or intelligent or valuable, just because you couldn't keep your legs together or you were too lazy to slip on a condom. You never sat down and thought to yourself "I think I'm going to impregnant someone this week and do the world a favor, because I'm such a wonderful and altruistic human being".
You know god damn well that you just knocked it out one night and the condom broke or you were in too much of a hurry to bother with protection or your girlfriend lied about being on the pill and you wound up with an "accident". And now you're stuck dealing with it and try to cover for it by assuring yourself that you're somehow a saint for being a parent. That you now have some greater purpose and that everyone who isn't a parent is somehow a parasite.
My observation is that the less responsible and more impulsive someone is in life, the more likely they are to have children. And if they are irrespoonsible and impulsive in their personal life, they'll probably be that way at work.
And the reason your "single friends" are probably always late when they come to meet you is because they were procrastinating; dreading having to hang out with you AND your two annoying bastards.
No kidding!
I seriously hate that. If your smoking impedes your work that much, maybe it's a sign that you should quit. Imagine if I took five minutes out of every hour to go out to the lobby and masturbate?
I think smokers should be put in a seperate part of the building with modified circulation systems that don't affect the rest of the building. No more smoke-break excuses. You want to smoke two packs a day during work? Great. But do it at your desk, hunkered over your work.
I'm not even sure if I am supposed to take your response seriously, since you claim to be a parent, but have stileproject.com as your homepage... However:
The difference is that parents are able to use their kids or family as an acceptable excuse whenever they like. There is no stigma in doing that.
"I have to leave two hours early every Friday to take my kids to practice", is acceptable.
"I have to come in late today becuase my child has a doctor appointment", is acceptable.
"I'm not coming in today, because my child has the day off from school", is acceptable.
And it really builds up. Who knows if it's always legitimate or not, but using "children" or "family" as an excuse is rarely frowned upon.
But if someone who has other obligations needed time off, they would not recieve the same treatment. Of course, parents talk about how hard being a parent is and try to get sympathy however they can, but the fact is, you're hired to do a job. The same job I am. That you decided to have kids and a family is not my responsibility or my problem. But when you take excessive time off over the year and the rest of the office must cover for you, it is my problem.
If only sick days and vacation days were used, I'd have no problem with it. But I do have a problem that these excuses are often used to take time off that is not subtracted from those sources. They're taken in addition to, because the company can't look bad by being "anti-family".
I also like how you try to make it sound like you bust your ass and it's the single people that slack off. See, we work hard, because we have to cover our own work and yours. And our drive is enjoying our money. Spending it how we like. We don't have this sense of self-entitlement to our salary, our job, our time off, our "off the books" time off or anything else.
Parents don't even do half the work of a single person, because they spend the whole day on the phone talking to their kids or their spouse or someone else about problems they're having with their kids or their spouse. And then, of course, they start babbling to coworkers about their family life or their kids or their spouse. The amount of time lost to parents chronically avoiding their duties because of "family" is riduclous.
And no, that doesn't apply to every parent. There are many parents who make work a priority and don't ditch the other people in the office with work because they had to go meet the principal during work time. But there are a lot who do. Enough that it has become a stereotype.
As you see from the responses to this thread, the number of people who feel similar is not small. And we aren't against you taking time off from work for family. Just when you do it in addition to the vacation and sick time you already have. You should only be able to use sick time and vacation time. Just like it's all the rest of us have.
Most single people are used to picking up the slack of parents in the office, anyway. This time, it just gives the other people a chance to cut out for a day and make the family people who are always taking days off or leaving early (without counting it as a vacation or sick day) to cover them.
Except people like me, of course, who wouldn't see star wars if my company paid me to take the day off and watch it.
This whole plan will prove miserable when the world discovers the frightening corners that are cut to meet the low-bid necessary to win the contract.
The left whines about how the constitution is a "living document" when they want to do things like, say, ban weapons and such. The right whines about how it's a "living document" when they want to change it to pursecute gay people.
Now everyone gets to die by the sword they lived by. It's a beautiful thing.