Yet another reason to own a mac: Bill Gates pays the demon spawn, Ralph Reed, $20,000 a month for 'services rendered', or something. Ewwww. What function can Ralph Reed possibly serve for Microsoft? I always knew Gates was a Republican, and MS a conservative company, but I never considered that Gates might be a religious-right nutjob. And note to bgates@microsoft.com: if you really want ideas for Longhorn that bad, just buy a copy of Tiger yourself. There's no need to read entrails of sheep, no need to consult tarot card readers, and no need to pay Satan's half-brother $20,000 a month either.
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth:
AMERICAblog.com has learned that Microsoft is currently paying a $20,000 a month retainer to former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed's consulting firm Century Strategies. Which now begs the question of whether Reed was in any way involved with Microsoft's recent decision to abandon its decades long support for gay civil rights in order to curry favor with anti-gay bigots of the radical right.
... Now, just think a minute. Microsoft finds itself under criticism from the local evangelical leader, religious right shareholders, bigoted employees and who knows who else. They don't know what to do. Who do they turn to? Well, if I'm in a religious right pickle, I'd turn to my $20,000 a month retainered religious right consultant, the former leader of the religious right, Ralph Reed.And which side do we think the former head of the religious right would favor were he advising Microsoft what do when trapped between the Scylla and Charybdis of the gays vs. the religious right?
A. Stick to your guns and defend the gays? or
B. Find a way to stiff the gays and move more in line with the religious right?
Well, shiver my timbers, Microsoft ended up going with option B.
Update, per the comment thread at Americablog, perhaps Ballmer is the actual 'trigger man', since Gates is a proclaimed atheist (and more power to him, if true), and thus is totally cynical for hiring Reed. Regardless, why any liberal-minded person would own a PC is beyond my comprehension.
