US pastor calls for boycott of Microsoft, HP

[hm_murdock]

That doesn't change the fact that not every profit-making organization is the "evil empire".

[worker201]

Interestingly, a similar bill went through Colorado about 12 years ago.  The goal of the bill was simply to add sexual orientation to the growing list of things that you could not be discriminated for.  It would have provided homosexuals the right to rent an apartment, just like everyone else.  The conservative element in the state started a huge disinformation campaign against the bill.  They claimed that the bill would offer homosexuals "special rights".  And nobody wants homosexuals to have "special" rights, do they?  Even though the real goal of the bill was to prevent homosexuals from being categorically deprived of their basic rights.

After giant media flame wars and much mass confusion, the vote went just like it does in every other state.  The bill passed in every city with more than 100,000 people.  And failed miserably everywhere else.  Therefore, in Colorado, it is perfectly legal to not give a gay man a job, simply because he is gay.  I think Washington might have the same problem.  Seattle and Bellingham and the Microsoftian suburbs are pretty liberal, and would probably be in favor of such a bill.  And all the loggers of southern Washington and rednecks of eastern Washington will side with the damn reverend.  Watch out for a close vote.

Next, we'll start denying rights to everyone who has ever had anal sex.  And then everyone who has bought porn.  And then everyone with a tattoo.  And then everyone who has ever written/thought/said the word 'fuck'.  From there, the downward deadly spiral cannot be stopped, and this country will degenerate into a black hole of rational thought where only castrated men can survive.  Is that what we want?

[GenuineAdvantage]

Only the giants, not every profit making organization. And I would say "self-righteous", not "evil". But they have a right to make money, so save the complaints about them. Just bend over and shut up, guys

[solemnwarning]

However, HP is also a company that sells crippled hardware systems to grandmas at BestBuy.  They still do some innovating, but their consumer market has eclipsed their corporate image.  And consumer PC companies are crazy.  I could go out right now and get an HP laptop that would not work with Linux - that's part of the Windows market, I guess.

So HP isn't perfect just because their printers are Linux compatible.

HP laptops own!, i have one

HP Pavilionze4700
30GB IDE hdd
DVD+RW
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ M, 1.9GHZ, 512k L2 cache
256MB DDR RAM

Running Debian etch

[veridicus]

I don't get why MS/any company would voice their opinions on these things... Who the hell cares what MICROSOFT thinks? Who the hell is "Microsoft"? What matters is the opinions of the people, in MS and everywhere else.

In the US companies are almost citizens.  They pay taxes (the smaller ones, at least) and they have the government's ear more than the citizens do.  MS wants to have a say in any regulation that affects their HR department or expenses.  In this case one of their motivations is benefits packages.  They don't want to pay for the significant-others of gay employees as they do spouses.  It's all about the bottom line.

[worker201]

In the US companies are almost citizens. They pay taxes (the smaller ones, at least) and they have the government's ear more than the citizens do. MS wants to have a say in any regulation that affects their HR department or expenses. In this case one of their motivations is benefits packages. They don't want to pay for the significant-others of gay employees as they do spouses. It's all about the bottom line.

You're confused.  In this particular case, Microsoft is acting pro-gay, not anti-gay.  If they were anti-gay, it would probably be an issue having to do with benefits packages.  But Microsoft has publicly stated that they do not use sexual orientation when making hiring decisions.  Probably because a gay coder isn't much different from a straight coder, in the office anyway.  By not hiring homosexuals, Microsoft would be ceding many brilliant programmers to their competitors.  Which is definitely against their bottom line.

My take - I figure that Microsoft, HP, Nike, Boeing, etc, already have sexual non-discriminatory policies in place, for utilitarian reasons.  Their support of legal non-discrimination is probably just a PR move - appealing to the strong liberal character of northwestern Washington.  And I have to admit, it does make them look like the good guys.

I seem to recall a big stink a few years ago about how the American Methodist church was going to boycott Disney because they hired gay people to work at their theme parks and paid them spousal benefits for their partners.  And look at how much fucking good that did - Disney's market position is probably stronger than Microsoft's.  Church boycotts are all bark and no bite.  Thank god.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Anyway, I don't like this pro-gay or anti-gay crap, if everyone were gay there'd be no children or everyone would be conceived by IVF, and being anti-gay is bad since it's against human rights, how about being pro-do_whatever_the_fuck_you_like_so_long_as_you_don't_harm_anyone?

[piratePenguin]

if everyone were gay there'd be no children or everyone would be conceived by IVF

Yea but most people aren't gay, and it'll probably stay that way.

I've never heard anyone preach "pro-gay" as in "YOU SHOULD ALL BY GAY, SINNERS!", just pro-gay-rights really.

pro-do_whatever_the_fuck_you_like_so_long_as_you_don't_harm_anyone?

That'll do me.

The thing that annoys me about this USeless pastor is that even if the bill was passed it won't directly affect him in ANY WAY. He just wants to stop gay people from getting rights, what a fucking waster.

I'm not pro-gay, but one thing I sure as hell am is anti-(anti-gay).

[H_TeXMeX_H]

pro-do_whatever_the_fuck_you_like_so_long_as_you_don't_harm_anyone?

... and use a condom ...

[worker201]

Pro-gay meaning in support of gay rights (homosexuals deserve basic human freedoms, and protection of said freedoms)

Anti-gay meaning in opposition to gay rights (homosexuals do not deserve basic human freedoms, much less protection of said freedoms)

Sorry if that was a bit confusing.  I'm not for homosexuality or against it.  But I am in favor of gay rights.

[hm_murdock]

The reason that church boycotts are useless is that die-hard church people have no backbone. Especially when it's going to come to things like MS, HP, Nike... whatever. What? You think these people are going to give up their Windows XP Home on their HPs? What would they get then? A Mac? Ha! Surely you jest.

I had a chance to speak with a man who follows Hutcherson... why? The guy knows that I'm a Mac dude and he was asking me all about it. In the end, he decided that the fact that even though using OS X and using Windows isn't actually that different (aside from X being better), that any difference at all was too much to be assed with. Right after that, I called him a pussy and told him that he's listening to the words of a hatemonger.

That didn't help my position at all

[Orethrius]

You're an asshole though.  Not that there's anything WRONG with that, per se, as I often follow that philosophy myself.

At any rate - I'm amused by how many people missed something REALLY SIMPLE.  This numbnuts picked perhaps the single most superfluous reason he could find to boycott Microsoft!  How about the Downloader.Ject debacle?  How about Sasser / SoBig / Melissa / LoveBug?  Isn't "security of one's belongings" a big issue right about now?  What about the mockery of a trial that was "U.S. v Microsoft"?  Why didn't he pick up on the whole "render unto Caesar" bit?  Simple, really: the basest sin - as taught by the church since pretty much its implementation - is homosexuality.  

"What a GREAT way to bring down a corporation!  I mean, if we pick on their hiring practices, SURELY they'll fall in line with our outmoded way of thinking!"  -- Peckerwood, Watta.