Wal-Mart: The Crack Cocaine of Big Box Larceny
As if wage gouging and child labor, sociological despoilment and naked pictures of children, the vanishing Siberian tiger and parking lot murders weren't enough reasons to boycott Wal-Mart, now the big box state within a state is driving inner city youths to lives of crime.
The Washington Post's Robert McCartney considers two novel complaints coming from community activists in Northeast Washington, D.C., where Wal-Mart is planning to open a new location:
First, would a new Wal-Mart there really stock the same quality of food and products as its stores do in better-off, suburban communities?
"I'll believe it when I see it," Mya Harris, 24, said skeptically. "Sure, you can put the store here, but what are they going to put inside it?"
Second, and I was amazed when this anxiety was aired in fully half the interviews, residents worry that the store would suffer severely or even fail because of petty theft.
"There'll probably be a lot of shoplifting going on. They'll need a lot of security," Terriea Sutton, 35, said.
Brenda Speaks, a Ward 4 ANC commissioner, actually urged blocking construction of the planned store in her ward at Georgia and Missouri avenues NW partly because of that risk. Addressing a small, anti-Wal-Mart rally at City Hall on Monday, Speaks said young people would get criminal records when they couldn't resist the temptation to steal.
In a recent meeting, Commissioner Speaks also pointed to deteriorating water supply as a reason to keep Wal-Mart out. These big corporations do nothing but poison water supplies and encourage shoplifters, then they write everything off. Lucky for the future of our children, who are the future, neighborhood hustlers appear close to getting Wal-Mart to sign a "Community Benefits Agreement," which will definitely solve the area's problems.
Courtesy of Mark Perry at DailyMarkets.com.
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Meh. I've never understood my fellow liberals marked distaste for Wal-Mart. I don't like the store that much but I buy my dog food there (Ol' Roy). For a lot of people they offer critically low prices, one-stop shopping, and jobs. Mom and pop stores didn't always treat their customers and workers like gold ya know...
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"I don't like the store that much but I buy my dog food there (Ol' Roy)."
Sorry to hear you've resorted to eating dog food. But then poli-sci isn't really a money maker.
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You know how dog food tastes? Just like it smells, delicious!
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And you should see how shiny my coat is!
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I always thought the canned dog food that looks like beef stew has to be delicious. then I tried it.
OMG DELISHUS!
but it costs almost the same as human stew and human stew gives me more satisfying levels of flatulence. But yeah Walmart is totally racist. It's disgusting how they are setting up shop for the sole purpose of turning a generation of minorities into criminals. But the dog food, YUM!
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OMG DELISHUS!
Really? I used to by the Pedigree beef n gravy for one of my dogs. It looked and smelled pretty darn good, but I never had the guts to try it.
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No, not really. The picture looks so good, but the product itself is bland. I suppose it could be good if you seasoned the hell out of it. Truthfully, dogs are less discriminate eaters and have far more sensitivity to spicy foods.
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Not my dog Heather. She loves her some jerked chicken or some shrimp pad Thai. The hotter the better she tells me. Turns 14 1/2 in a couple of weeks.
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Dogs love to eat cat shit and rotten meat. I don't think taste translates well between species.
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Some of us are more discriminating than you imagine.
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In my discussions with lefty friends, it all comes down to walmart not being unionized.
Otherwise, walmart is a boon to poor people in non-urban areas.
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Soo, there's no discussion of how unionization might affect cost?
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Ask your lefty friends how much they shopped at Whole Foods*
*I used past tense because no real lefty worth his/her salt would have shopped there after discovering the evil that is their libertarian CEO. -
That's a terrible food to feed your dog. Look at any of the reviews given by rescue organizations; it's always near the bottom of the list.
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Ol' Roy? Do you hate your dog?
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It's pretty simple. They are (or were for a long time, at least) the largest non-unionized employer in the country.
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Ruby Rhod?
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Yes, and I'm Commissioner Multi-Pass.
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Brenda Speaks, a
Ward 4 ANC commissionerracist -
KRAMER: Yeah, of course you do. And do you know why? Because you're a bunch of yuppies. It's your go-go corporate takeover lifestyles that are driving out these Mom and Pop stores and destroying the fabric of this neighborhood.
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First, would a new Wal-Mart there really stock the same quality of food and products as its stores do in better-off, suburban communities?
"I'll believe it when I see it," Mya Harris, 24, said skeptically. "Sure, you can put the store here, but what are they going to put inside it?"
So clearly they should not be allowed to build it. We can't expect this guy to just not shop there. Nope. The mere presense of a store that carries goods he considers inferior should be prevented.
"There'll probably be a lot of shoplifting going on. They'll need a lot of security," Terriea Sutton, 35, said.
Brenda Speaks, a Ward 4 ANC commissioner, actually urged blocking construction of the planned store in her ward at Georgia and Missouri avenues NW partly because of that risk. Addressing a small, anti-Wal-Mart rally at City Hall on Monday, Speaks said young people would get criminal records when they couldn't resist the temptation to steal."
I was going to make a snarky comment. But that comment really speaks for itself. Wow.
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I was going to make a snarky comment.
I will do it for you: Imagine if the person making those comments wasn't black...
Revs. Al and Jesse, please pick up the Walmart courtesy phone...
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She's just worried that if somebody like Walmart comes in and improves the area, people will wise up and start wondering why the dumbasses they keep electing year after year have only made things worse.
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Wal-Mart exists to make money, and they are very good at it. Part of their business model is tailoring what they stock in the stores to what the surrounding community will buy.
If they will not make money stocking healthy foods in this store, that's the community's fault, not Wal-Mart's.
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I'll believe it when I see it
So that means you're going to let them build it so they can show you, right?
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If you want a libertarian reason to get your WalMart hate on,
Joseph Casias, 30, was an inventory-control manager at a Walmart in Battle Creek, 50 miles south of Lansing, until he tested positive for marijuana in 2009. He has a medical-marijuana card and smokes pot to alleviate symptoms of an inoperable brain tumor and cancer.
I don't fault the judge, it is WalMart being the real dick here.
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They are just being stupid. Fire and hire based on performance, not how they pee in a cup.
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Like school zero tolerance policies, companies zero tolerance policies sweep far and wide with their net. Legalize marajuana and this becomes a debatable issue. Right now, the company feels like its got to cover its ass by treating all MJ users the same.
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If employers can choose not to hire a prospective employee because they smoke tobacco, Wal-Mart can discharge this fellow for whatever reason they wish.
That cudgel swings both ways.
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Yes, and real libertarians like J sub D will find it lamentable in both situations while GOPers like yourself will fall back on partisan snarkiness in response...
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Not a GOP'er, sugar. I do find it terrible in both situations, but the smoker hate (and I am a smoker) really put me off.
As much as I find both situations detestable, "real" libertarians ultimately support the right of the employer to hire and fire whomever they wish, no?
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As much as I find both situations detestable, "real" libertarians ultimately support the right of the employer to hire and fire whomever they wish, no?
I don't pretend to speak for the entire movement, but this one does.
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Me too.
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Finding it lamentable in both situations is not a real libertarian position. Companies should be able to fire or hire for any reason they want. That is the libertarian position.
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That doesn't mean you can't find the way they choose to exercise their freedom lamentable. As long as you stay well clear of "actionable, you're fine.
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Miss the point much?
Don't try to be more or less libertarian than the next guy. Try to be more right.
And before someone says it, by right I mean "correct". As in doing what's right.
Should wal-mart be able to not hire someone for tobacco or marijuana smoking? Yes, it's not our place to dictate employment to them.
Should we also be free to avoid their stores in protest? Yep.
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Companies should indeed be able to hire and fire for any reason they want, but I can also call out a company for enacting policies with which I disagree and choose not to shop there. I can also encourage others to do the same. In fact, during the whole Rand Paul/Civil Rights Act flap many libertarians pointed out that it was private pressure, as opposed to federal law, that desegregated much of the South. If one relies on such an argument then it actually presupposes that private individuals will choose to boycott private businesses who operate contrary to an individual's policy preferences.
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I tend to doubt that Walmart would legally be able to fire someone for taking conventionally prescribed medicine. Whether that is the right situation or not, treating legal medical marijuana differently from any other medication is an equal protection issue.
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Well, it may be a problem with the law, then. MMJ legislation is not known for being too carefully worded. MY point is that Walmart probably can't legally fire someone for taking conventionally prescribed drugs, so they shouldn't be able to for any other legal medication.
Also, I love how they spell it "marihuana" in Michigan. -
Agreed and yes, it was quite a choice spelling wasn't it?
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I don't think JsubD is saying Walmart should be forced by law to employ pot smokers, just that they are being dickish. No contradiction there.
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Opps. Sugar freed that link.
Oh well, If at first you don't succeed ... -
Oh, fuck it.
http://www.freep.com/article/2.....ijuana-use -
Sure! Fuck it! That's your answer. Tattoo it on your forehead! Your answer to everything.
Your "revolution" is over, J sub D. Condolences! The bums lost!
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I'm guessing this isn't about what they found in his pee, it's about what his medical bills are costing the company (brain tumor and cancer) and finding a more socially-acceptable reason to terminate the guy.
with that said, companies should be able to hire and fire whomever they wish. -
I dont see anything anti-libertarian about that.
I do agree that WalMart is being dickish, but as a libertarian, I support the legality of dickish behavior.
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Yes, but how do you feel about Wal-mart's in Israel?
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Goddamn it, who is moderating these boards? They must be passed out in a pile of cocaine or something.
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the moderator is dead!
long live the moderator!
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Does this mean we can talk about Wolk again?
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Because I'm such a nice guy (go ahead, ask anybody around here) I'm generously taking this effort to let you know that absolutely nobody is going to read that deranged rant.
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It's got a blog if that's not enough for you.
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This may prove difficult for you to comprehend but I'm going to try anyway.
Some problems can not be fixed. Not by the family, not by the church, not by the government. Kinda sucks, don't it?
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Nor anal retentive internet fuckwads who can't wrap their mindss around simple truths.
Sigh.
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Tell it to the people in charge who think that any problem can be fixed with legislation.
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as my jewish friends say, if we control the earth, where's my cut?
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Tell your friends that they have to attend the Annual Secret Jew Summit. Being super-ironic Sons of Abraham, we hold it in the basement of Farrakhan's church in Chicago. I can't give you the date, but it rhymes with "Mom Ship-poor".
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Well, HERCULE, I have some news for you.
You're batshit insane.
Also, "HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN"? WTF?
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Hey HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN.
You need to go fuck yourself.
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Couldn't say it better myself.
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At least it wasn't about a certain nation in Asia for a change.
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"A certain nation in Asia"
You mean like Israel?
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These spam-rants wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't have at least one innocuous, topical comment a week blocked by the spam filter.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKqtjJZL244
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Seemed appropriate.
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"if you build it they will come..........and steal"
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what's the prob? isnt this local community action which libertarians support?
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Don't be dense, they are talking about the community action trying to get the local government to block this.
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They aren't trying to block it. They are just pushing for more bribes, er, community investments from Walmart.
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u mean like taxpayer bribes, err...tax abatements fm local govt?
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What an ignoramus:
"isnt this local community action which libertarians support?"
Which comic book did you use to 'learn' about libertarianism?
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the super-ron edition!
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Re: OhioOrrin,
what's the prob? isnt this local community action which libertarians support?
OO, take your Thorazine, it's that time. -
oh that's right, this is local community action libertarians DONT support. thx
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It wouldn't matter how many people voted to kill you, OhioOrrin, it would still be murder. Yeah, even for an obnoxious prick like you.
Likewise, it doesn't matter how many people vote to forcibly prevent Walmart from exercising their right to engage in commerce.
Don't like Walmart, don't shop there.
As to taxpayer subsidies, oh right, those Democrats that vote for those aren't doing it to give graft to cronies, they're doing it for the workers (and it's still just as bad economically).
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isaac - aint like wallmart is a civil right so it IS subject to local voting. stupidtarian...
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It's not like local government violence is any less violent than federal government violence.
I'm a libertarian not a constitutionalist.
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So it's OK to kill you as long as we vote on it locally, eh?
Good to know.
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Stop picking on me!
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Seek professional help. Immediately.
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Dear Herc -
Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo. And thanks for the insights.
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Nice to see someone getting his/her Catullus on.
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Cool story, bro.
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I sure hope they don't get that store built.
The last thing an economically depressed area needs is jobs and cheap stuff.
Government handouts and expensive stuff is so much better.
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That pic is pure hand crack.
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Get Zorin for me!
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"There'll probably be a lot of shoplifting going on. They'll need a lot of security," Terriea Sutton, 35, said.
Brenda Speaks, a Ward 4 ANC commissioner, actually urged blocking construction of the planned store in her ward at Georgia and Missouri avenues NW partly because of that risk. Addressing a small, anti-Wal-Mart rally at City Hall on Monday, Speaks said young people would get criminal records when they couldn't resist the temptation to steal.
This is a pretty fair assessment of what is likely to happen.This is why DC residents can't have nice things.
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They'll need a lot of security,
Wouldn't those be, you know, jobs?
First, would a new Wal-Mart there really stock the same quality of food and products as its stores do in better-off, suburban communities?
(1) Who cares? If the locals don't like what the local Wal-Mart stocks, then they won't buy there.
(2) Yeah, like Walmart is secretly running two different kinds of store, one for the black folk, and one for the white folk.
And, seriously, a black woman sporting a Vanilla Ice 'do?
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Pssst. Mr. Dean...you forgot unions! All those racist strawmen she threw down, she knows it's crap.
It's because Walmart isn't union.
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It's because many of her financial supporters are overpriced local merchants who will get their fucking clocks cleaned by a WalMart in the neighborhood.
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Actually, they do run different types of stores. It's based on perceived community preference. The Wal-Mart in west Plano, near where I live, has a huge wine selection with an interactive computer that recommends foods to go with the various wines. It's not a bad thing; they're tailoring their business to the interests of the area. But it is different from store to store.
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Sure. They have Halal food in neighborhoods with large Muslim populations. That sort of local flexibility is one of WalMart's strengths.
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The WalMart up here in the Catskills where I am at the moment boast like all (or mostly, can't remember specifically) "locally raised" crops and meat. That's a big deal to the hippies up here - but the irony is that most of them all hate Walmart and wouldn't go in the place long enough to read one of their signs talking about it.
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Where's that interactive computer at? I've beeen through that very wine aisle several times and have never seen it. The Wal-Mart on Park and DNT right?
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From the community meeting link:
"Commissioner Green said 4B’s Walmart Committee needs volunteers with technical abilities, including architects, engineers, and those who can analyze traffic data and help draft agreements on the community’s behalf. "
Find me one fucking community with an abundance of unemployed architects, engineers, and contract lawyers willing to bitch about a potentially kickass employment opportunity, and I'll show you a community of progressive fucktards.
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Now if those blacks had shacked up with Mexicans then we wouldn't have this potential problem because their kids would be too lazy to steal.
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Legitimate reason to boycott WalMart? They fired an employee who was a medical cannabis patient in a state where medical cannabis is legal because he failed a drug test for cannabis. Yes they have the right to treat employees any way they wish, but consumers have the right to organize and not buy their crap if they are total assholes. (the previous sentence is a pre-buttal to those who will inevitably call me a statist for not liking WalMart's exercise of their sacred right to treat employees like garbage)
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Uh...or...it could be that Walmart has this is place because their employees move around a lot of heavy merchandise and engage in other somewhat dangerous physical activity. Storerooms are not always the safest places.
Who knows? Maybe Walmart's insurer demanded they have a "no drug policy" for liability purposes.
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Re: Really,
Uh...or...it could be that Walmart has this is place because their employees move around a lot of heavy merchandise[...]
Bigger than... Ikea's? Target's?Give me a break. You have no idea of what you're talking about.
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So you cannot possibly construct a scenario where it makes economic sense for an employer to randomly drug test an employee, especially when that job is filled by someone who works for a low wage and has a low education level?
Also, Target reserves the right to drug test an employee at any time. Now who doesn't know what they're talking about?
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And what about other RX drugs that are labeled "Do not take while operating a car/heavy machinery/etc?" Such as pain meds, anti-psychs, and even OTC's such Benadryl?
Can they not be considered a safety hazard?
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Yes. Your point?
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Bolstering yours.
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I'll take a guess. It's arbitrary and unfair and hence is a perfectly good reason not to like Walmart.
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Au contraire Zebby!
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I guess I'll have to give up on my career as a mind reader.
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He was an inventory control manager, not a fork lift operator. Reading is fundamental, dumbass.
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Linky no worky.
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That's OK. It was merely a link to my original post.
http://reason.com/blog/2011/02.....nt_2133791
I can't get a link to work today to save my ass. Naturally, I blame the server squirrels.
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I, personally don't like that they fire employees who use certain medicine. I would have the same reaction to an employer who fired women for using birth control. The government shouldn't do anything about it, but I think I'd be justified in deciding not to vote for them with my dollars and telling others to do the same.
And yes, WalMart is so dangerous, gee, it's like being a logger or working on an oil rig! I'm sure they must do an intense physical and mental acuity check on each geriatric employee that moves boxes of Charmin.
The employee had never been disciplined and had nothing in his file, and his firing was the result of a random drug test. It was for no other reason than slavish devotion to corporate policy, and perhaps fear of paying for his health care through their insurance, seeing as he was using cannabis to help reduce the physical toll of an inoperable brain tumor.
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I could get a MM card and my company would fire me too if I tested positive, because that's what they have to do to be fair and keep themselves out of lawsuits. Legalize MJ in general and this issue goes away. Then it becomes an alcohol level issue and the business can determine a level that indicates background THC.
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I don't think you and I use the word "fair" in the same way. How is it fair to treat one legal medication differently from other legal medications?
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Because the federal government (and instigator of fair practices) doesn't recognize MM as a legal medication.
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1985 calls Brenda Speaks, demands haircut back.
Please tell me that's a semi-recent picture.
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It's her official picture from the DC government website.
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Who knew MC Hammer had a sex change operation?
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"...young people would get criminal records when they couldn't resist the temptation to steal."
I was going to say "this is why we can't have nice things", but the illogic of the original quote has entirely shattered my fragile libertarian psyche.
We can't let people sell things, because otherwise people might steal them. It's an argument against markets that I can honestly say I've never considered.
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That's because you're not a community organizer.
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pass that weed doc
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OH LAWDY LAWDY!!! THEY IS PUTTING IN DE WALMART AND I CAN"T HELPS BUT STEAL FROM 'EM. OH LAWDY LAWDY, BRENDA SPEAKS!!! HEP ME!!!! HEP ME!!!
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I would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Do you have one? Is it poorly xeroxed?
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Crayon on Big Chief tablet.
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Mimeograph.
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Etch-a-Sketch
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Butt Xerox.
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Mimeographed. Mmmmm, mimeograph fluid.
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You disappoint me, my friend. Futurama references are universal.
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Clearly, you are unfamiliar with the mimeograph and its precious fluid.
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And you are unfamiliar with the concept of "Bending time".
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Not at all. After running the mimeograph for my 6th grade class, I befriended Bender and visited no less than seven alternate universes with him. This happened decades before the launch of Futurama.
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It's sheer genius compared to the other blogwhores we are infested with.
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Is HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN too obscure to create a "Fake HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN" Twitter feed? I'm thinking of spoofing him by posting sane, rational arguments in his name.
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No, it's so underground, it cool. Do it Johnny.
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Only if you make sure to keep commenting on his blog with the twitter address...
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At least it doesn't link to it every chance it gets. I had to go through the trouble of a Google search to find it.
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Interestingly, TRIATHLON anagrams to TORAH LINT.
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"You don't even know what a write-off is!"
"But they do. And they're the ones writing it off."
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Hercule Triathlon Savinien, will you be my Valentine? We can watch Golden Girls together.
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Speaks said young people would get criminal records when they couldn't resist the temptation to steal.
This has got to be the most brilliant way to sell your community/ward to potential businesses. "Come to my ward! You'll get robbed!"
P.S. Brenda Speaks looks like the President of the Simon Phoenix fanclub.
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Holy shit, HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN has a blog.
Yes, it's insane.
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You realize Googling that will put your name and IP addr on a list somewhere, don't you?
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I had a friend who used to annoy me by sending my e-mail address to third party joke sites so they could send me shit he wanted me to see instead of copy and pasting the link or joke himself. So, I rick rolled him a link to Hezbollah's official website. He was not amused, and actually worried about being put on a list. Ah, the early days of post 9-11, those were some good heady times for paranoia!
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Back during the Clinton era, we sent some generic email to the White House email addr, received the form letter reply, and put it in someone else's mail box as supposedly a response to an obscenity laden threatening email. He had a moment of blind panic until he noticed some small mistake we made. Good times, good times.
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Hercule Triathlon Savinien, what are you wearing?
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Can I be a Lord of Flatbush when the new regime comes?
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That depends entirely on your grooming habits. Trim it up like Ms. Sparks does her hair, and you'll be a shoo-in for the position.
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Oh Warriors! Warriors! Come out come out where ever you are...
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If only NYC would become a separate nation, then we could revoke Michael Bloomberg's citizenship.
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The City-State of
ManhattanChina*The Federal Republic of
Long IslandChina*The United Republic of
Brooklyn and QueensChina*The Bolivarian Socialist Republic of
the BronxChina*The Free Republic of
Staten IslandChina*The Principality of
New JerseyChina*The Kingdom of
ConnecticutChina*The Duchy of
WestchesterChina -
First, would a new Wal-Mart there really stock the same quality of food and products as its stores do in better-off, suburban communities?
A planet where stores cater to local preferences?"I'll believe it when I see it," Mya Harris, 24, said skeptically. "Sure, you can put the store here, but what are they going to put inside it?"
"What sells, m'lady."Second, and I was amazed when this anxiety was aired in fully half the interviews, residents worry that the store would suffer severely or even fail because of petty theft.
An unknown activity in other venues, I am sure....Brenda Speaks, a Ward 4 ANC commissioner, actually urged blocking construction of the planned store in her ward at Georgia and Missouri avenues NW partly because of that risk.
Why have any kind of store, given the risk of petty theft? -
My reference to He Who Shall Not Be Named was rejected as spam by the server squirrels. Maybe our long national nightmare is over.
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How is it that Walmart should be held responsible for the production of its vendors furniture?
And how is it that parents getting pictures developed of their kids taking a bath is a reason to boycott Walmart?
I can understand the managers falsifying time sheets to screw employees out of chipping away at their bonuses, but that's what lawsuits and HR is for.
And I'll start listening to 'DC community activists' complaints about a big evuhl Korpurashun when they start recognizing their community programs and welfare are paid for by the taxing of said evuhl Korpurashun. -
Can somebody please block this fruitcake from posting?
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Let him post until he discovers chemtrails.
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Snippet from its blog:
The Innocent Victims of the American-Israeli Military Industrial Complex are counted by the hundreds of millions, starting with the [3K] Three thousand of [911] citizen victims of the American-Israeli Military Industrial Complex by victims created by that Complex, they are just the tip of the iceberg, the Open Air Concentration Camp of Gaza
This sounds really familiar...
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I didn't see any reference to Rhoemites.
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It's mostly about how people who go insane, seem to go insane in certain patterns.
I meant that the po-faced concern for Palestinians as an excuse to Jew-bash is very familiar; as is the Nazi-persecuted Son of God type.
As for Hercule, he's been here a few times before.
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Hmmm.... Mrs. HERCULE TRIATHLON Longtorso SAVINIEN. Sounds dreamy....
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Atom, with one Senior Regional Nuclear Center to hold within its [Sphere of Influence] rings of connected electrons and neutrons in valiance rings
ATOMS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY
Also, you're insane.
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I thought valiance was a funny haircut. Electrons have hair?
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I think it meant to say "valence". But still. WRONG!
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HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN
Please GO THE HELL AWAY.
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The Crack Cocaine of Big Box Larceny
Voodoo Retailology?
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Anyone who's ever sucked the sugary goodness of the liquid used to flavor Otter pops out of said Otter Pop, rather than just biting into it, will recognize that idiot's hairstyle.
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Oh yeah, becauser it's soooo much easier to rob a Walmart that the tiny mom-n-pop unsurveilled Korean market on the corner.
Where was
Vanilla IceBrenda Speaks when they put in that Target up in Columbia Heights? -
Are you serious? Who really gives a damn about unions anymore, aside from the people that work for them and the neocons? I think people hate Walmart because they syphon money out of communities, kill jobs and local business and don't sell a single goddamn thing that isn't made in China.
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Really? That ammo I buy in Walmart is made in China?
Damn. Federal and Winchester be straight up lyin' to me.
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Random House be lyin', too - that Grisham book I bought there last week says "Printed in the United States". The bastards!
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Yes, that is why people hate WalMart. Unfortunately for them, none of that is actually true.
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Shhh! My bosses at FOX don't know I'm a communist. Glen Beck finds out, I'm toast!
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"don't sell a single goddamn thing that isn't made in China."
KK1353, if it's selling, pretty much guaranteed someone's buying.
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What's wrong with selling cheap chinese goods? Sometimes cheap stuff is exactly what is needed.
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You know, part of me, as a charity, would love to donate to a group that takes groups of people in neighborhoods like this out to the suburbs to go shopping at Wal-Mart. The trip would be free. At the end, those on the trip would be told that Wal-Mart would love to open up in their neighborhood, only Brenda Speaks won't let them provide jobs and deals.
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pass that weed bill
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Counterproductive - as one dude said at an HOA meeting: "We can't let people from the poor areas come out to shop here. They'll see how nice our houses are and they'll come back later to rob us."
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If you want a libertarian reason to dislike Wal-Mart, here's one:
They routinely only set up shop when given huge subsidies for local utilities and massive tax-breaks, which off sets any advantages to the township from the increased jobs (from a purely fiscal perspective).
Now I don't blame Wal-Mart for taking advantage of their clout in these negotiations, but it IS an excellent example of the state helping to pick winners and losers via crony capitalism. The anti-Wal-Mart crowd can't grasp that in a truly free market, one that doesn't grant certain businesses advantages that other businesses have to do without, Wal-Mart would not be nearly as prevelant as it is now.
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They set up shop everywhere in the country. If communities would stop bribing them in addition, they'd still set up shop in those places, only the communities would stop footing the bill. Its a false choice the communities are making. Frankly, companies should stop asking for those treats, but communities need to stop offering in the first place.
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If communities would stop bribing them in addition, they'd still set up shop in those places, only the communities would stop footing the bill.
Amen.Free markets FTW.
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Strangely enough, that appears not to be the case here. The city admits they have little leverage over Walmart, since the Wally isn't asking for incentives or subsidies this time.
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Oh they'd still be the biggest game in town, no doubt, but they would be a lot less omnipresent. There are two of where I used to live (Kentucky) that I know for a fact took the communities for a ride, because it was heavily reported on in the local media at the time. I don't blame the company at all for acting in their own self interest; I blame the local gov't for being so quick to "pick a winner", which should be anathema to true capitalists.
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"I know for a fact took the communities for a ride, because it was heavily reported on in the local media at the time."
'Nuff said.
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Don't forget that they had a program/policy to cap employees at 35 hours of work to keep them part-time and then teach them to get medicaid and other entitlements.
Not all of their tax exploitation is rube governments handing over public funds and begging Wal-Mart to take it.If it's stealing when the government takes our money for those programs, it's equally stealing when Wal-Mart empowers people to spend the money. For that alone, most righties should hate Wal-Mart as much as they hate Acorn. (Not to mention Wal-Mart's record of hiring aliens, another big GOP no-no.)
Wal-Mart has also been caught doing surveillance on their employees and shareholders. Well, not counting the surveillance they do of employees at work to keep them from talking to each other, even in the parking lot. That's different--certainly the employer's prerogative. I'm talking about honest-to-god nondescript-van surveillance of people in their homes, including investors and reporters, as well as employees.
I never understand why Libertarians rush to defend Wal-Mart, or to whitewash its track record.
It has some good and some bad, like most mega-corporations. Depending on your leanings, sure, you can see that as either half-empty or half-full, but either way, the glass is not full.It's not Wal-Mart's fault for exploiting the system as it exists (hate the player, not the game) but it is our fault for shopping there or letting our government give them the sweetheart deals. It's kind of stupid to spend our lives railing against Medicare/aid and then giving money to an employer known to be exploiting that system.
I want government to stay out of business, but I also want business to stay out of government. I guess as long as it's someplace I shop...it's okay?
And Wal-Mart's exploitation is mostly on a very local level--the smaller the population, the easier it is to actually influence policies and make your voice heard.
This isn't the president or Congress who have no interest in what we think, whatsoever. This is small townships and politicians that literally live next door to some of us.
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"jcalton|2.14.11 @ 2:40PM|#
Don't forget that they had a program/policy to cap employees at 35 hours of work to keep them part-time and then teach them to get medicaid and other entitlements."
Hint: The solution is to stop distorting the market.
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"They routinely only set up shop when given huge subsidies for local utilities and massive tax-breaks, which off sets any advantages to the township from the increased jobs (from a purely fiscal perspective)."
Uh, in regressive SF, they were not only *not* given any incentives, they were pretty much run out of town on a rail, courtesy of assholes like Speaks.
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I'm sure that's true, in SF. But that case doesn't negate the larger point that they do frequently receive gov't subsidies in various forms.
On this website, I ignore the crap like "indirect" taxpayer costs due to medicaid, etc., and just focus on the direct tax and utility deals given to Wal-Marts all over the country.
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As if wage gouging and child labor, sociological despoilment and naked pictures of children, the vanishing Siberian tiger and parking lot murders weren't enough reasons to boycott Wal-Mart, now the big box state within a state is driving inner city youths to lives of crime.
Not only that; didn't somebody link to a story about male Walmart employees being allowed to stock little girls' panties on the shelves? Obviously it's a kkkorporate haven for child molestors!
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That wasn't a Wal-Mart.
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Wal-Mart: where I buy everything from ammo to zucchini, but not on the weekends because of the weird people...
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Dude, the people I used to see in Walmart when I was working second shift were fucking epic. You think weekends are bad, hit a 24 hour Walmart at 1 or 2 am during the week.
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Boycott Wal-Mart? Yeah, why not boycott low-prices, great selection, great service, a fun shopping experience? I'm never gonna boycott Wal-Mart, I love WM, they're politically incorrect: they sell guns and cigarettes unlike Target. Viva Wal-Mart!
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Jesus, I wish we had a Wal-Mart like the one you're describing. I'll shop there for some things, because they do have the best prices and selection, but the service is always poor, and the lines long (e.g. the electronics dept. never has a person at the counter to answer questions, there are 50 registers, but only 10 open at a time, etc).
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Fuck. I think I just agreed with Gregory Smith. Shoot me (with Walmart-bought ammo) now.
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Great selection: Of shit that will break within a year.
Great service: Define "great."
Fun: ???Look, if you like low-prices and don't give a shit about the rest, okay, viva capitalism. But don't try to dress it up as something it's not. Seriously...fun? It's not like we haven't all been there before.
They should definitely put you in a commercial.
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jcalton|2.14.11 @ 2:50PM|#
"Great selection: Of shit that will break within a year."Horse.................
shit. -
Walmart is a good thing for the first two reasons you mention, but great service and fun shopping experience? Not in any Walmart I've been to. Dirty, crowded difficult to navigate stores. Too few checkout isles open. And the greeters are never even friendly to me.
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Welcome to Wal-mart. Now get your sh*t and get out.
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Actually, some of the Walmart stores in the Orlando area have stopped selling guns. I hope this is because they have objectively determined that demand is not high enough rather than because of caving into some kind of political pressure (like they did over selling hand guns).
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Greggy, meet HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN.
HERCULE, meet Greggy.
Perhaps you two can co-blog about some blogerrific topic?
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I don't know about you, but that picture makes me want a SNO-CONE.
Wait, is that racist or cone-ist?
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Raccoonist.
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Haw-haw!!
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I keep seeing the white fur trim of a Santa hat.
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I think people hate Walmart because they syphon money out of communities, kill jobs and local business and don't sell a single goddamn thing that isn't made in China.
Go ahead and think that.
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I think the left hates Walmart for two reasons: (1) it's a big company and (2) many of its customers are lower-class people they don't want to actually see in public.
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Liberals are all in favor of the poor and down-trodden as long as the smelly bastards stay far, far away. Liberals don't actually want to have anything to do with the lumpy proles.
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Let my people go. . .someplace I don't have to see them.
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Neither do elite conservatives.
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I'm not a conservative, but the DMV-like crowd at Walmart sometimes puts me off, too. But I don't want to ban it as an "elite" libertarian.
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"(2) many of its customers are lower-class people they don't want to actually see in public."
hen they should like walmart. It keeps all those undesirables in one place where they can safely be ignored.
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You'd think, but nooooooo.
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Local business owners take the money and spend it in the community.
Corporations send it to shareholders. That could legitimately be called siphoning. Does siphon connote inefficiency? I don't think so.And they almost entirely sell stuff made not in the USA (as opposed to when both the Walton brothers were alive) and mostly in China or Taiwan. That's not even up to debate.
The jobs thing could be debated, but it's mostly a matter of where you're standing. If you want local jobs, then you want local business because those dollars get passed around locally, creating more jobs. The shareholder in Paris or Dubai isn't going to provide a job in Anytown, USA.
(Unless Anytown is Bentonville, AR)But in a free market, ideally, that money will be best put to use wherever it is needed. The bottom line is, it does hurt jobs locally, but not globally.
Conclusion: For the most part, PBrooks you could go on believing that and you would be mostly right.
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jcalton|2.14.11 @ 2:46PM|#
"Local business owners take the money and spend it in the community."Where do you think the owners (like stock holders) and employees spend their money? On the moon?
You've got a whole bushel of bullshit to hand out."And they almost entirely sell stuff made not in the USA (as opposed to when both the Walton brothers were alive) and mostly in China or Taiwan. That's not even up to debate."
Goddamn Chinese! What, are they trying not to starve to death?"The jobs thing could be debated, but it's mostly a matter of where you're standing. If you want local jobs, then you want local business because those dollars get passed around locally, creating more jobs."
More bullshit. Please show the stockholders of Walmart live in Paris or Dubai."But in a free market, ideally, that money will be best put to use wherever it is needed."
Pretty much an ignoramus on the concept of free-market too?"Conclusion: For the most part, PBrooks you could go on believing that and you would be mostly right."
Conclusion: Go back to your comic book. -
Holy Shit!!! It's Bizarro Vanilla Ice!
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Chocolate Steam?
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Fudgecicle?
I know, That's Racist.
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damn skippy, like we aint got tooths
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If they open stores in stagnant low-income urban neighborhoods and middle low-income suburban neighborhoods, they can use them as pawns later to avoid things like mass-unionization and mandated health care coverage. Wal-Mart will say they will have to close marginally profitable stores in places like the inner city because of the increased cost of whatever it is they don't want to do. Then the same community activists who don't want the stores built now will be on Wal-Mart's side. Wal-Mart will then get an exemption from whatever mandate they say will make them "uncompetitive."
Yet Wal-Mart annihilates its competition in those same markets and gets a lot of its employees from work-welfare programs that provide Medicaid. It has gotten to the point where competitors shut down as soon as ground is broken for a new store.
Ahhh, the joy of getting a free lunch. And getting paid to eat it!
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Local business owners take the money and spend it in the community.
Corporations send it to shareholders. That could legitimately be called siphoning.Is there, or is there not, a free and voluntary exchange of cash for goods and services? If so, then "siphoning" is a completely bogus complaint. The transaction is complete.
If Walmart was robbing people at gunpoint, that would be "siphoning" money out of the community.
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murder_city|2.14.11 @ 2:49PM|#
"If they open stores in stagnant low-income urban neighborhoods and middle low-income suburban neighborhoods, they can use them as pawns later to avoid things like mass-unionization and mandated health care coverage..."And if your grandma had wings, she could be an airplane.
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And I suppose you want me to believe those "local business owners" never take their ill gotten price-gouging gains and vacation in Hawaii.
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Teh black people will steal yo sheet in da nit walmarts.
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I invited the local darkies to do some line dancin', and everytime someone yelled "Ho down" they thought their woman been shot!
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they had a program/policy to cap employees at 35 hours of work to keep them part-time and then teach them to get medicaid and other entitlements.
Assuming it's true, killing the linkage of insurance coverage to employers would go a long way toward ending this.
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Evidently, Ms. Speaks has not gotten the memo. Wal-Mart has been officially blessed by Michelle Obama.
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Her comment might be one of the most racist things ever said.
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All the angst over Wal-Mart is misplaced. At one time, A&P had a larger grip on American retailing than Wal-Mart ever had, and ultimately collapsed under its own weight. Wal-Mart entered its decline in a series of missteps starting in 2008 and is likely on the same path. One can't be that big and come through two years of executive stupidity without losing ground. My guess is that they will end up like Sears, still around but lower-profile and dependent on several proprietary niches.
Costco pays its people a lot more, has better ROI, far lower employee turnover, and much higher profitability-per-employee and per square foot than Wal-Mart. The Wal-Mart "formula" is just that-- something that worked for them once upon a time, and times are changing.
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Thanks
