THOUGHTBOX

A woman in Alpharetta, Georgia, was denied a sale by an Apple Representative on grounds that she was from Iran. The  story    goes something like this: the woman was trying to buy an iPad and was speaking Farsi with her uncle. An Apple representative approached her and asked the young woman what language she was speaking. She told him it was Farsi, and that she was from Iran, after which the employee refused to sell them anything. He said said that it was Apple policy not to sell products to Iranians:  'I just can't sell this to you. Our countries have bad relations."  Sahar Sabet, the young woman, left the store in tears, feeling "hurt and embarassed". Why exactly did this happen? According to Apple, the employee was simply following the company's commitment to US policy which states that " the exportation, sale or supply from the U.S. to Iran of any Apple goods is strictly prohibited without authorization by the U.S.  government". ...

Jenna Talackova I haven’t approached homosexuality or transgender issues in my posts because it’s something I’m still in the process of fully understanding myself. Especially when it comes to transgender people, which is a difficult subject to wrap around: what’s the essential difference between a man and a transgender man? It’s much more of an identity issue than a sexual orientation/preference thing, and it makes it more difficult to fully understand.  Jenna Talackova Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe every person on this planet is equal and I’m completely against discrimination, but the interesting twist is this: there are people out there who are born with both kinds of reproductive organs, and they have elective surgery (and my understanding is that doctors recommend the removal of one of the organs, as it’s much healthier for the individual to develop with only one set) to remove one of those gender organs and they eventually grow up as the remaining gender. But th...