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Tim Cook Speaks Up

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Re: Tim Cook Speaks Up

#761

Excellent news. I am from India where being gay is a crime in this country. Leaders of this country believe that being gay is a disease and it can be 'cured'[0]. According to Indian Penal Code 377[1], if you are gay you can be imprisoned for life. I had a friend and two years ago he committed suicide because he was gay. In India it's not easy to be gay. Parents and societal pressures can make anyones life living hell…

Read through the comments of an indian news website. Makes me sad. We should love more. I hope people are better than that. A lot of sexuality based and religion based hate. I hope things improve. I hope people love more. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Being-gay-...

Read the comments on Yahoo or Redstate. You will find similar comments. Don't judge a country by the cranks online.

Re: Tim Cook Speaks Up

#762

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what's wrong with that statement (I'm also not a native speaker). Please let me know how I could have worded it better. (In my native language, Dutch, it's common to refer to people of mixed race as having "mixed blood". I can find similar statements made in English on Google)

As a native English speaker (not the OP), I'll take a stab at this explanation: No 2 males could have a biologically conceived child (i.e. you must have a female carry your baby). I may be waaay behind on current reproductive technologies, so please correct me if I am wrong. Therefore, the 'blood' of the child (aka DNA) will be not be a combination of the parents (i.e. the people raising the child).

Thank you! It took only 4 hours for someone to show up. I was getting worried.

(The fact that OP is more concerned about the PC-ness of using "mixed blood" then understanding basic biology is somewhat alarming, but I will let that pass)

Re: Tim Cook Speaks Up

#763
post #755

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crikey, I always assumed the Times Of India had an intelligent readership.

Far from it. People subscribe to it for their daily dose of cleavage in their newspaper supplements that can be passed of as journalism. In other words its mostly a tabloid. Some 10 years ago it used to be a really nice newspaper though and I mean really good. Their editorials used to be held up as examples of good writing skills. Now you would find typos, grammatical errors, not to mention factual errors. EDIT @zimp…

> People subscribe to it for their daily dose of cleavage

Murdoch paper, by any chance?

Re: Tim Cook Speaks Up

#764
post #740
post #707

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Maybe I misunderstand you, but every single Dutch person I know refers to mixed race as 'halfbloed', which means half-blood, which, now that I think of it, sounds rather racist.

As a dutch person, why do you think that sounds racist? It's like bloodlines. One half from one bloodline, one half from another bloodline. It's mostly used to refer to offspring from two differently colored people (not necessarily races), but I don't see the term "halfbloed" as particularly racist?

You could read "half-blood" as only one half of the blood being of the "good" type. That is, you're only "half" as good as a person which has only the "good" type of blood.

Re: Tim Cook Speaks Up

#765

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're quoting a rather meaningless poll given the low sample size: "The latest Field Poll was completed February 5-17, 2013 among 834 registered voters in California." Since we're quoting statistics, here are some from the CDC. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) represent approximately 2% of the United States population... In 2010, gay and bisexual men accounted for 63% of estimated new HIV inf…

From the poll I cited: The maximum sampling error estimates for results based on the overall sample of 834 registered voters have a sampling error of +/- 3.5 percentage points, while findings from the random subsample of 415 voters have a sampling error of +/- 5.0 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. http://field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2443.pdf FiveThirtyEight rates Field Poll (at least for poli…

We're going to have to agree to disagree - I think 834 people is too small a sample size to draw any conclusions.

Btw, if the campaign for "marriage equality" were truly about equality, it would also include polygamous heterosexual families in Utah looking for recognition in law, as well as religions where marriage partners can be under 18. Thus the campaign for "marriage equality" has a narrow definition of equality and should be renamed the campaign for "same-sex marriage".

Re: Tim Cook Speaks Up

#766
post #163

Congrats to Tim! I've been waiting for this for a while. I've wondered though if he will have any problems traveling to foreign countries now. I don't know how much he travels, but, Russia has some bad anti-gay propaganda laws so there's at least one semi-important country to avoid.

He will have no problems. He is the head of one of the most high profile companies on the planet.

Re: Tim Cook Speaks Up

#767
post #697

I am hetero, and I always asked myself: why all that fuzz about people being gay or anything else. I don't need to be proud to be gay or hetero or whatever, I just don't get it.. I have gay friends and never had anything against people with other sexuality, but I truly hate the Gay Pride in our country. I think it is pathetic to be proud of your sexual orientation and feeling a need to show that off. This will defini…

"I think it is pathetic to be proud of your sexual orientation and feeling a need to show that off." What makes you think that?

Phobes find gay folks threatening, and react in all kinds of strange ways.

Coming out takes balls. Someday, it won't make the news. I think we are only one generation away from equality in America. In other parts of the world, it could take a long time.

Re: Tim Cook Speaks Up

#769

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, forced out. Is that more palatable? He was, for all intents and purposes, fired. For expressing a political opinion. In a country that prides itself on being a democracy. If that isn't stifling political discourse, what exactly is it?

Nobody kicked him out of the country. He was "forced" by the community that thought his views intolerable out of a company that is community driven.

Just the same if he was a racist or a Nazi. Simply unfit for leadership.

Re: Tim Cook Speaks Up

#770
post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This entire response essentially says that you disagree with his position on the issue. I also disagree with his position on the issue. But here's where we differ. I believe in his right to express his opinion without fear of losing his ability to make a living. You, and the rest of the liberal lynch mob that forced him out, are doing nothing more than suppressing his rights. And thus begins the end of democracy.

>>You, and the rest of the liberal lynch mob that forced him out, are doing nothing more than suppressing his rights. You have to admit, using your rights to take someone else's rights away.... is a dubious position to hold.

He has the right to be a racist, homophobe, Nazi or whatever. That doesn't mean he can lead a company.
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