Microsoft Reverses Stand on Discrimination Bill 374
sriram_2001 writes "Bowing to intense pressure both from outside as well as its employees, Microsoft has reversed its stand on the anti-discrimination bill. In a company wide email, Steve Ballmer says that though the Washington legislative session is over for the year, they'll support any such legislation in the future. However, he adds that they'll be supporting it in the US only as they don't want to involve the company in debates in countries with different cultures and value systems. He also says that he doesn't think Microsoft should be involved in most public policy issues." Announcement about the email's release on the Scobleizer main site.
Before it gets Slashdotted... (Score:5, Informative)
Here's the full text of the email (with the spacing errors corrected).
Official Email Location (Score:5, Informative)
It's a good day for some of us Microsofties that were really upset at what happened.
Re:So is microsoft not evil (Score:4, Informative)
No one is all evil, not even John Travolta.
Not involved, you say? (Score:4, Informative)
http://buyblue.org/detail.php?corpId=143 [buyblue.org]
They give a lot, to both parties, but mostly to the Republicans.
And anyway, aren't the bigots exactly the people you WANT to discriminate against? From what I've heard, it's a hell of a lot easier to stop being an asshole than to stop being gay.
On the other hand, I'm not gay but I am an asshole. Haven't been able to stop yet.
Re:sounds reasonable.. (Score:4, Informative)
You apparently think this is a clever jest -- but actually, historically this is correct; fertility was a necessary condition for a sacramental marriage union.
Allowing nonfertile heterosexual couples to wed was, indeed, the first true break with the original Christian theological concept of marriage. Homosexual weddings are just a difference of degree rather than kind.
The non-theological historical purpose of marriage, of course, was to unify economic interests. In that it can be regarded as the precursor to the limited liability partnership for commercial scale ventures, and to a properly enforced will for personal property.
Re:So is microsoft not evil (Score:3, Informative)
So is the chick from King of Queens, and the nekkid chick from JAG. And let's not forget our favorite fatty, no not Rosie O'Donnel, but Kristie Alley.
Here's a heads up to aspiring OTVIIs:
The pilot mocked it all up!!!!
Re:Official Email Location (Score:3, Informative)