As If You Needed More Reasons To Shop Elsewhere...

Wal-Mart by the numbers:

• According to a study done by Iowa State University, within the first decade after Wal-Mart arrived in Iowa, the state lost 555 grocery stores, 298 hardware stores, 293 building supply stores, 161 variety stores, 158 women's apparel stores, 153 shoe stores, 116 drugstores, and 111 men's and boys' apparel stores.

• Wal-mart runs ads featuring the United States flag and proclaims "We Buy American". In 2001 they moved their worldwide purchasing headquarters to China and are the largest importer of Chinese goods in the US, purchasing over $10 BILLION of Chinese-made products annually. Products made mostly by women and children working in the labor hell-holes China is famous for.

• Their average employee working in the US makes $15,000 a year, $7.22 per hour!

• The company brags that 70% of their employees are full time, but fails to disclose that they count anyone working 28 hours a week or more as full time.

• There are no health care benefits available until a person has worked for the company for two years.

• Wal-Mart holds the record for the most suits filed against it by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A lawyer from "Business Week" (not exactly the bastion for supporting Labor) said, "I have never seen this kind of blatant disregard for the law." They had to pay $750,000 in Arizona for blatant discrimination against the disabled! The judge was so incensed that he also order them to run commercials admitting their guilt.

• Nearly 1 MILLION women are involved in the largest class-action suit every filed against a corporation. Although women make up over 65% of this corporations work force only 10% of them are managers. The women who have become store managers make an average of $16,400 a year LESS then the men.

• With 4,400 stores they practice "predatory pricing." They come into a community and sell their goods at below cost until they drive local businesses under. Once they have captured the market the prices go up.

• The Wal-Mart Corporation contributed $2,159,330 to GW Bush and the GOP in 2000 and 2002.

(from intellectualpoison.com)

You're Not Fooling Anyone, Science!

President Bush said Monday that he believes schools should discuss “intelligent design” alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life.

During a round-table interview with reporters from five Texas newspapers, Bush declined to go into detail about his personal views of the origin of life. However, he said students should learn about each explanation, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported.

“I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” Bush said. “You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes,” the president said.

Proponents of intelligent design say life on Earth is too complex to have developed through evolution, implying that a higher power must have had a hand in creation.

Blogger's Note: Intelligent design? More like intelligence declines.

Only In America...

A Random Observation

What is it about Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah that just strips me right to the core? I swear I could hear that song while frolicking with Orlando Bloom and a box of kittens through a field of over-sized sunflowers and I'd still need to stop and find a box of Kleenex. That song owns me.

Shameful

This is why other countries laugh at us, people...

Cheap Laptops Incite Riot

I Coulda Been A Contender

Here's a silly little website that tells who you were in a past life based on your birthday. Ah, the wonders of the Internet...

Past Life Analysis

My results:

I don't know how you feel about it, but you were a female in your last Earthly incarnation. You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Arctic around the year 650. Your profession was that of a warrior, hunter, fisherman or executor of sacrifices.

Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
You were a sane, practical person, a materialist with no spiritual consciousness. Your simple wisdom helped the weaker and the poor.

The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
You should develop your talent for love, happiness and enthusiasm and you should distribute these feelings to all people.

(so THAT'S why I hate the heat!)

Astonishing Facts From Around The Globe #8

• Sherlock Holmes never once actually said, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

• Celery actually has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

• Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

• It's a rule in comic strips that the person on the left always speaks first.

• United States businesses now spend $21.6 billion annually on deleting and preventing SPAM.

• Family-friendly G-rated films earn far more money than any other rating, yet only 3% of Hollywood's output is G-rated.

• 20% of Americans think the sun orbits around the Earth.

The Most Under-Appreciated Video Game Ever

Film Critic Paul Clinton Makes My Day

"The Dukes of Hazzard" is a prime example of a sad Hollywood habit: taking a popular -- but rather dumb -- TV show and turning it into a totally stupid and meaningless film.

This flick is a car wreck with boobs.

Now, let me just say, if your idea of a good film is a nearly naked Jessica Simpson and completely over-the-top chase scenes, then this movie is for you.

If, however, you're not a teenage boy with raging hormones -- and you like films with an actual plot (instead of walking and talking clichés) -- this movie may put you into a coma. The storyline is so dumb and predictable it wouldn't have even made the grade for an episode of the original TV series.

Blogger's Note: Sadly, I'm certain this movie will still have a big opening weekend. Stupid people are easy to fool and every redneck in the country will load the kids in the back of the pickup truck, put on their cleanest NASCAR t-shirt and head for the theatre in town. You know, make a day of it. Maybe grab dinner at the Wal-Mart snack bar afterwards. What's even sadder is the fact that they'll all leave the movie thinking it was the greatest film they've seen all year.

Halle Berry Did Not Make My List

Name some actors/actresses that you enjoy so much you'd watch them in anything.

My picks:

• Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Bill Murray
• Gary Oldman
• Peter Sarsgaard
• Edward Norton
• Joan Allen
• Ian McKellen
• Frances McDormand
• Brian Cox
• Tom Wilkinson
• Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Patricia Clarkson
• Tim Roth
• Sam Rockwell
• William H. Macy
• Will Ferrell
  

Funny Cause It's True, It Is

At last, all my criticisms of Episode III summed up in one tidy comic strip. Props to Schnepf for finding this one.

(in case you haven't figured it out yet, clicking on the pic will make it both larger and more legible.)

Soul Meets Body

In preparation for the August 30 release of Plans, Death Cab has posted the first track off the album on their MySpace page. Seeing how DCFC is one of my all-time favorite bands, my heavily biased opinion is that the song is great; but listen for yourself:

Click & Enjoy

A Random Observation

What's the deal with KFC using the tune to "Sweet Home Alabama" in their current television ads? Wouldn't that make them AFC?

It's More Fun In Groups

Haven't done something interactive in awhile...

What are your 5 favorite board games/get-together-games to play with a group of friends?

Mine are:

1. Pictionary
2. Scattergories
3. Trivial Pursuit
4. Cranium
5. Balderdash
   

Nicely Done, American Movie-goers

And a follow-up to the previous post...

(from CNN.com)
"Stealth," about Navy pilots (Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx) taking on a rogue drone plane, crashed and burned, finishing at No. 4 with $13.5 million. With an estimated $100 million production budget, "Stealth" will prove a costly money-loser for distributor Sony.

Way To Follow-up That Oscar Win, Mr. Foxx

Ebert confirms what that awful trailer led me to believe...

"Stealth" is an offense against taste, intelligence and the noise pollution code -- a dumbed-down "Top Gun" crossed with the HAL 9000 plot from "2001." It might be of interest to you if you want to see lots of jet airplanes going real fast and making a lot of noise, and if you don't care that the story doesn't merely defy logic, but strips logic bare, cremates it and scatters its ashes. Here is a movie with the nerve to discuss a computer brain "like a quantum sponge" while violating Newton's Laws of Motion.

23 Rules Of Boozing That Apply To Us All

1. Buying someone a drink is five times better than a handshake.
2. Never borrow more than one cigarette from the same person in one night.
3. Get the bartender's attention with eye contact and a smile.
4. Do not make eye contact with the bartender if you do not want a drink.
5. Never, ever tell a bartender he/she made your drink too strong.
6. If the bartender makes it too weak, order a double next time. He/she will get the message.
7. Always have a corkscrew in your house.
8. If you don't have a corkscrew, push the cork down into the bottle with a pen.
9. Our parents were better drinkers than we are.
10. It is only permissible to shout, "Woo-Hoo!" if you are doing a shot with four or more people.
11. If you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to drink in a bar. Go to the liquor store.
12. If you owe someone 20 dollars or less, you may pay them back in beer.
13. The only thing that tastes better than free liquor is stolen liquor.
14. If you bring Old Milwaukee to a party, you must drink at least two cans before you start drinking the imported beer in the fridge.
15. Anyone on stage or behind a bar is 50 percent better looking.
16. You can tell how hard a drinker someone is by how close they keep their drink to their mouth.
17. Never yell out jukebox selections to someone you don't know.
18. Asking a bartender what beers are on tap when the handles are right in front of you is the equivalent of saying, "I'm an idiot."
19. If there is ever any confusion, the fuller beer is yours.
20. Anyone with three or more drinks in their hands has the right of way.
21. Beer makes you mellow, champagne makes you silly, wine makes you dramatic, tequila makes you felonious.
22. A flask engraved with a personal message is one of the best gifts you can ever give. And make sure there's something in it.
23. Being drunk is feeling sophisticated without being able to say it.
    

What They (hopefully) Didn't Teach You In School

I Bent My Wookie

Because it's Friday night and there's nothing going on, I give you 10 sexually tilted lines from the original Star Wars Trilogy:

1. "Look at the size of that thing!"
2. "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."
3. "Luke, at that speed do you think you'll be able to pull out in time?"
4. "Hey, point that thing someplace else!"
5. "What could possibly have come over Master Luke?"
6. "Sorry about the mess..."
7. "I thought that hairy beast would be the end of me!"
8. "Hey Luke, thanks for coming after me - now I owe you one."
9. "I never knew I had it in me."
10. "Back door, huh? Good idea!"
    

Astonishing Facts From Around The Globe #7

• Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to watch TV for 3 hours.

• Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States.

• Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung.

• Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

• Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

• The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.

• During the chariot scene in Ben Hur, a small red car can be seen in the distance (and Heston's wearing a watch).