I'm pretty sure it's my mother. Ages ago, I had supper with Linus Torvalds and although he's not that tall, he's at least 20cm taller than my mother. :)

My mother does receive quite a few PowerPoint-laden emails. So far, Libreoffice has opened them all perfectly. My mother doesn't even know what "PowerPoint" is; she just knows that she gets cute slideshows when she clicks on the attachment.

My mother (who is a grandmother to my kids) runs Debian Wheezy with the XFCE desktop environment. The machine is fairly locked down and I've made quick-launchers for the apps she uses 99% of the time: Email, web-browsing, word-processing, music player and video player.

She's happy and I can administer the machine remotely, so I'm happy.

You are correct... my company is small (10 people).

That's true. All our desktops run Linux so we are at somewhat lower risk for most malware than Windows shops. I understand that it's still not completely foolproof, but so far we haven't had a problem.

I have never fired someone for abusing our Internet policy. I've issued warnings, though.

I own my company, and no... I don't do this to my employees.

I have warned people who've abused the system (I had some casual employees who spent inordinate amounts of time on Facebook, and I've had to clamp down on music downloads that could have gotten me into trouble) but I generally use HR methods rather than technological methods to take action.

Should a Black Photographer be forced to take pictures at a wedding of two outspoken White Supremacists? At a Klan rally?

Probably not, because his or her safety might be endangered.

Should a Jewish deli owner be forced to cater an openly anti-Semitic Muslim...or an avowed Nazi?

Yes, unless his or her safety were endangered.

Should a Muslim waiter be forced to server pork ribs? Or, Jewish for that matter. How about a vegan?

Yes, yes and yes. Islam, Judaism and Veganism prohibit the consumption of pork. They don't prohibit the serving of pork, so there's no undue hardship.

But when you start in on all these other things...

Fortunately, the West is becoming more enlightened and sexual orientation is widely accepted as an invalid basis for discrimination, just as color has been for many years.

Should a business be COMPELLED to accept customers in a non-discriminatory way?

Yes, definitely. A business should be COMPELLED to accept customers in a non-discriminatory way unless it can prove that this would cause undue hardship, and infringing on "sincerely held religious beliefs" most certainly does not qualify.

So getting back to your examples, a hotel could refuse to host the KKK and the Black Panthers at the same time out of legitimate fears for security, or it could demand both organizations to fully fund the large numbers of security guards that would be needed.

A sex worker could refuse a homosexual client because that would qualify as undue hardship for a heterosexual sex worker.

But a bakery certainly could not refuse to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple... where's the undue hardship?

Have you actually READ the Koran? It's basically disgusting hate literature. What do you think inspires the radicals and terrorists?

As long as they blow themselves up when they get there, it'll be OK.

The OP mentioned Middle Eastern countries. I didn't know that the UK and California were in the Middle East.

People in most other countries in the Middle East tend to be too preoccupied with killing one another (only occasionally remembering to surface to denounce the "Zionist Entity") So they don't have time for frivolous things like, you know, progress or betterment of humanity.

Chip-and-PIN is used in Canada. As for tipping, you don't need to enter the tip while the waiter is standing there looking. Or you can enter a zero tip and leave the tip in cash.

Now with any luck, you can switch to the SI system of measurement and join the 18th century as well!