jimlongley wrote:I "switched" from Apple to not Apple a very long time ago, back when I was still writing code in Z80 assembler.
Actually one of the biggest reasons I switched was because of Apple's anti-gun policies.
Jim, this is not an attack against you. I'm just addressing the sentiment you expressed in that second sentence.....
I don't know specifically what Apple's "anti-gun policies" are, although I am sure that they do exist. On the other hand, I'm not sure that anybody could find any major hi-tech corporation, foreign or domestic, including Microsoft, IBM, Google, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, or any others that
aren't anti-gun in some way or other—either by the personal inclinations of their founders and CEOs, or by the actual corporate policies. You can't even build your own computer, install a free open-source operating system on it, or install free open-source applications on it, without using products manufactured, sold, or distributed under GNU or other free open source licenses by people who are for the most part anti-gun in some way or other. In fact, I have only ONE app on my iPhone (and I also used the Android version on my old HTC phone) that I know for a certain fact is written and sold by someone who is pro-gun, and that is my ballistics calculator.
I am sure that some of my customers are "anti-gun," as I am also sure that some of my vendors are "anti-gun." We certainly have the right—although government is doing its very best to crush it through the mandated-by-law purchase of health insurance—to give our business to
only those companies which are overtly pro-gun, or at least
not overtly anti-gun. However, I would be out of business shortly if I applied that standard to my business, and I would be hard pressed in my personal life to obtain any services or even to buy food if that were the standard I apply to my life.
I am an evangelical Christian too, and unashamedly so, but if I were to apply that standard and only do business—either personally or professionally—with other self-proclaimed evangelical Christians, then I would starve to death and go naked in the streets, and there would be no gas in my car or water coming out of my lawn sprinklers.
Google is demonstrably anti-gun, but I use their paid Google Apps Pro service to manage my company email because it is really, REALLY good, and the price is acceptable to me. I offer my clients an email service included in my hosting package, but I will mention Google Apps Pro to them if I think that will best serve their needs. OTH, I have a client who has a gun-related business, and they
were using the Google interface to check their email coming through my server, and they were recently told that Google was blocking all of their domain email because it had gun-related stuff in its content (I
think it was their logo in the signature which bothered Google). I can't blame them one bit for abandoning Google and going back to using my email hosting service, but I will still continue to use Google Apps Pro because it makes my business more efficient. I
always recommend Paypal as a payment processing gateway first and foremost to those of my clients who want shopping cart systems because Paypal willingly shoulders all of the PCI Compliance issues and gateway security, and they are very, VERY good at what they do. Since my clients are ALL small businesses, this is the best recommendation I can make for them. OTH, I met with a new prospective client this past Friday. While they are not philosophically opposed to using Paypal as a payment gateway for their online shopping cart system to manage CHL class registrations and gun-related accessory sales, they are also an FFL, and they are going to be selling firearms online in the not too distant future. Paypal will not process those kinds of transactions, and so we have to explore alternatives, up to and including that of my building their site on another server besides mine, using a hosted shopping cart solution with an integrated payment gateway.
I could go on, but my point is that it is impractical for me, indeed probably for
most people, to limit myself to only doing business with companies which are not anti-gun. In fact, for most of them, how would you even
know they are anti-gun unless they had made some overt announcement like Google's announced policy against including gun advertising in their search results, or Paypal's announced policy against processing online gun-sale transactions? I think it is a safe bet that 99% of the companies out there have "no gun" policies included in their employee policies and procedures. Doesn't that make them "anti-gun?"
I won't shop at Grapevine Mills Mall because they overtly block me from entering the mall armed by posting 30.06 signs at the entrances. But, it is easy for me to observe that standard because I am equidistant from Grapevine Mills and the Northeast Mall in Hurst, and the Northeast Mall doesn't keep me out with 30.06 signs. And even if they did, I can find clothing stores and appliance stores and gift shops and restaurants, etc., etc., etc., without having to go to a mall to find them. But I'll be that if I asked to see a copy of the employee manuals for each and everyone of those stores not located in a mall, I would find them to be anti-gun.
Then what do I do?
Life is short and harder than it needs to be. I don't think any of this is going to change until either I go home to glory, or it is changed at the barrel of a gun and respect and reverence for the Constitution—
ALL of it—is restored.....whichever comes first. But until then, personally, I can't make my business decisions or even most of my personal purchasing decisions based on whether or not the vendor/provider is anti-gun. So with regard to the topic of this thread, such a thing never enters my mind in deciding which cellphone platform I'm going to buy and use.
