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RedditTaking time out from its nonstop coverage of the "early admission" policies of a few elite colleges -- could this newspaper appeal to an even tinier, more rarefied demographic? -- the New York Times ran a good front-page story this morning on Wal-Mart's new plan, as revealed in an internal memo, to implement pay caps and increase the percentage of part-time employees in its workforce.
Obviously, some at the company didn't feel the workers were exploited enough! The paper also reported something that I have been hearing from Wal-Mart workers for a long time; scheduling is essentially at the whim of managers, particularly impossible for workers who have children, but hard on all workers struggling to plan their lives (and their budgets, given that they might work 20 hours one week, and eight the next).
It's important that the affluent, urban consumers that Wal-Mart so badly needs not be seduced by the retailer's new offerings -- 400-threadcount sheets, organic food and Earth's-new-best-friend image -- but keep the pressure on the company to improve work conditions, by continuing to shop elsewhere, and to protest Wal-Mart's ever-insistent expansion. The company is betting that its new target -- the Starbucks customer -- doesn't really care about workers' rights, but will go starry-eyed at the first few nebulous signs of "corporate responsibility."
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If Wal-Mart is such a horrible place to work, why do they have thousands of applicants whenever they open a new store?
Posted by TonySnowJob at 10/02/2006 @ 2:30pm
Because for many it is the ONLY place they can work.
Posted by jeyepa at 10/02/2006 @ 2:35pm
"If Wal-Mart is such a horrible place to work, why do they have thousands of applicants whenever they open a new store"
the first half of your question has nothing to do with the second half.
in other words, the amount of applicants has nothing to do with how well the company treats its employees.
never bought a single thing from that sh*t hole.
Posted by darladoon at 10/02/2006 @ 2:36pm
"affluent, urban consumers that Wal-Mart so badly needs"
Uh, WM posted an ELEVEN BILLION dollar net income this year.
Why do they "need" affluent, urban consumers again??!!?!?
Posted by Mask at 10/02/2006 @ 2:38pm
DARLADOON - You might want to reconsider. I hear they have good prices on tin foil and if you slip an employee some $$$, he'll make a hat for you. Just looking out for you, Dawg!
Posted by woodyee at 10/02/2006 @ 2:45pm
Posted by TONYSNOWJOB 10/02/2006 @ 2:30pm
Maybe because the Bush Administration has overseen the continual decay of our economy? Leaving fewer jobs for the lower income, less skilled classes. Have you been to some of the smaller towns Wal-Mart operates in? Its a wonder people are still able to put food on their plates in some of these towns.
Posted by BlueTexan at 10/02/2006 @ 2:46pm
Did this article just get edited? "Wal-Mart's Latest Markdown"???
Posted by Mask at 10/02/2006 @ 3:16pm
Posted by RIO BRAVO 10/02/2006 @ 2:55pm
Selective reading again Rio Loco? Read my post again.
"continual decay" was what I said. Its been continually decaying every since we changed from "We the People" to "We the Corporations".
This administation has done nothing but acclerate the further decline of our country. Its called capitalism run amuck. Corporations, a prime example being Wal-Mart, are strictly concerned with the bottom line...which is quite a short sighted approach. Can't have a bottom line without consumers with money and before long Wal-Mart parking lots will start to look like Hoovervilles.
Unless, of course, we begin to see government shift back towards a government for the people.
Posted by BlueTexan at 10/02/2006 @ 3:21pm
Its been continually decaying every since we changed from "We the People" to "We the Corporations".
Posted by BLUETEXAN 10/02/2006 @ 3:21pm
Always curious where the marker is set....what year (ballpark) did that happen, in your opinion?
Posted by Mask at 10/02/2006 @ 3:38pm
Posted by MASK 10/02/2006 @ 3:38pm
I would say the accelaration began under the Reagan administration. It probably began before that, but Reagan helped stack the deck against the people.
But of course MASK, you knew that was the answer.
Posted by BlueTexan at 10/02/2006 @ 3:49pm
Posted by BLUETEXAN 10/02/2006 @ 3:49pm
No...I really didn't. Some on the Left trace it back further, to the Nixon era and his connections to corporate donors or earlier.
Look at "Network" (the film)...that's 1976! And "Mr. Jensen" (Ned Beatty) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/quotes) and his statements on "there are no nations" "the world is a business".
Posted by Mask at 10/02/2006 @ 3:56pm
I read Lisa's constant Wal Mart bashing with sympathetic amusement (sympathetic for Wal Mart, I mean.) McDonalds exec's must go to bed every night and thank God for WalMart, since now they don't have to be the Socialist minded's whipping boy anymore.
ct
Posted by CHIP THORNTON at 10/02/2006 @ 4:11pm
Posted by CHIP THORNTON 10/02/2006 @ 4:11pm
Maybe they take turns.
You know, "Corporate Target of the Left" for a year or two. GM first with "Roger & Me"...then Mickey D with "Super-size Me"....then Big Tobacco with "Thank You For Smoking" (or older "The Insider")...then whatever little art-house film Ms Featherstone has on WM.
They get the Left all heated up...a few protests...and then "suddenly" the target shifts to somebody else and the other guys are forgotten. Next time it might be Coca-cola or Xerox
"Xerox costs us 5000 acres of precious woodlands EVERY MINUTE!!!! There's a new film out called 'Paper Pushers' by Chandragupta Jones....It will WAKE PEOPLE UP as to how Xerox is destroying America!!!!" (You always have to add the 4 exclamations)
Posted by Mask at 10/02/2006 @ 4:45pm
Posted by MASK 10/02/2006 @ 4:45pm
Too RESE??? (hehe)
Posted by Mask at 10/02/2006 @ 4:46pm
No. But true enough and funny as hell.
Posted by usc1 at 10/02/2006 @ 4:49pm
I may come at it from a completely different perspective than they do - proletarian internationalism instead of American nationalism - but writers like Paul Craig Roberts (Reagan Admin. Undersecretary of the Treasury) and the folks at The American Conservative are not exactly huge fans of Wal-Mart, big box stores and the race to the low-wage bottom. So Rio, CPT, Woodeye and TonySnowJob might consider checking out TAC (or Alexander Cockburn's CounterPunch for more Roberts) to see what some conservative dissenters from the "Free Trade = All Things Good" orthodoxy have to say about the current state of the economy.
Now if they could only see that unions and not deportation and closing the border are the best solution to any problems related to immigration...
Posted by cka2nd at 10/02/2006 @ 4:54pm
Posted by LVLIBERTY1 10/02/2006 @ 5:04pm
Did you wake up on the wrong side of the news cycle today LL? Grumpy are we? Yea, thanks to Rep. Hot For Tots, looks like its going to be a rough couple of years with a Congress not solidly in the pocket of the Administration.
Posted by BlueTexan at 10/02/2006 @ 5:11pm
Still, the main discussion here is a social one---basically around the fact that current economy makes a few rich ones richer, and has the average and poor ones become poorer. Up to the point where a new lumpenproletariat emerges, it's people locked out from any social, cultural life, education and economic welfare, just reproducing itself (...and growing in numbers) People are so saturated in consumption and stress and depression and anxiety and greed, they sort of forgot the decades of fight for working people's rights. Predatory capitalism (...does that exist in English?) comes back...
Posted by darladoon at 10/02/2006 @ 5:23pm
Well, LvLiberty1, I wouldn't annex anyone, but if referenda were held in all of these countries and the United States and majorities supported expanding the United States of America to all of North America, I'd stand by the will of the people.
While generally I support open borders, I agree with those Trotskyist groups who argue that there can be legitimate reasons to close a border, for instance to colonial settlers. The current situation of the imperialist U.S. sucking up cheap Latin American labor would not meet any such criteria. Better to support unionization here and abroad to raise wages, benefits and living standards and break us of our addiction to cheap labor. And if the bosses keep killing unionists in the Third World and firing folks trying to unionize here, why, bring on the Revolution, Baby, bring it on!
DSA = Social Democrats = Not my kind of socialists!
Posted by cka2nd at 10/02/2006 @ 5:35pm
"Open borders, and everyone in unions. Why not just annex Mexico and all of it's citizens into the SEIU? But why stop there. We cannot leave out Guatamala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Bring them in also.
"Straight out of the Democratic Socialists of America Platform."
LvLiberty, it is not clear you even know what a socialist is. Secondly, who keeps pushing for open borders? The GOP and there pro-CAFTA position! That's right, LvLiberty, the GOP has been pushing for trade liberalization and porous borders for years. You now hear the Hayworths and Tancredos screeching about immigration but they have been marginalized within the GOP for years. Tancredo openly discusses how the GOP establishment dismisses him and he is hoping to capitalize on that resentment in 2008. If you ever heard him interviewed or read any of his editorials you would know that.
And as to the countries of Central and South America being amalgamated into the SEIU, again, you don't know your history. Our government has a history of staging coups in countries (Guatemala in 1954, for one and Chile in 1973) that resist our trade policies and business interests. If anyone is going to try and amalgamate these countries into anything it would be global capital and American business interests. And, LVLiberty, who was involved in El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s? Oh yeah, the U.S. government under the direction of Ronald Reagan! You lambast the SEIU, again, do you even know what it is they do? Do you actually know what a socialist is? Do you understand the role unions play in liberal democracy? Do you know what liberal democracy is?
But you would not know those things because you don't read history. You just say inflammatory things that make next to no sense. Why don't you bother educating yourself before posting here?
Posted by hhemwm at 10/02/2006 @ 5:54pm
Tell you what... if people don't like Walmart....
1) Don't shop there 2) Don't work there
If others disagree with you, then they will shop/work there if they CHOOSE to. Quit trying to force your views on everyone else.
Posted by John B at 10/02/2006 @ 5:56pm
LVLiberty, seeing as how you are all about "Christian values" and "Family values," has it occurred to you what is happening to the families who send their breadwinners over here one at a time, breaking up the family? And is deportation the answer? You, who hate taxes, might want to consider how much that will cost our government. . .
If you care about low taxes and family values, consider supporting trade policies that are more equitable and don't encourage these types of structural problems. Before going after your "Straw man Socialist," consider what it is you are supporting and whether or not it fits with what you claim is your moral center.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/02/2006 @ 5:56pm
John B, you posted:
Tell you what... if people don't like Walmart....
"1) Don't shop there 2) Don't work there
"If others disagree with you, then they will shop/work there if they CHOOSE to. Quit trying to force your views on everyone else."
You don't have to shop there but I think you recognize that Walmart's business practices are directly related to the socio-economic policies of the U.S, government and that if you have a problem with Walmart's ethics it probably has something to do with the socio-economic model at work in this country.
Secondly, if communities don't want Walmart in their town they have a right to keep it out. There are plenty of "incentives" to keeping Walmart out and fostering local business is one of those things.
People are allowed to pursue their values and if Walmart is undesirable to them then they should do something about it.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/02/2006 @ 5:58pm
And as to not working at Walmart, that assumes you have a good job and there is other employment available in your town. You may have no other option.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/02/2006 @ 6:00pm
John B,
NAFTA has "forced" a set of views on the country. This is a logical reaction.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/02/2006 @ 6:00pm
Don't forget that business interests are also the "views" of a particular set of the public. Everyone is contending for hegemony in our cultural, including business.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/02/2006 @ 6:01pm
John B,
Besides, what do you say to a state like Maryland that passed a law to make Walmart raise its wages and increase its health benefits? That was a democratically elected state house and senate that expressed the will of the voters. What then? Is that not what democracy is for?
Posted by hhemwm at 10/02/2006 @ 6:02pm
There is a point when laissez-faire becomes just plain lazy. The Arkansasization of America is, by any measure, not a good thing. It promotes imported goods over domestic goods, turning American workers into cogs in a third-world machine, with profits going to a single family and those who work hard to prevent the government from pushing Wal-Mart to run its business as if in a first-world country.
No, we don't have to shop at Wal-Mart. But to pretend that its activities have no impact on local communities, states, or the federal economy is either naive or spiteful.
Posted by tjbehrens1 at 10/02/2006 @ 6:10pm
Tell you what... if people don't like Walmart....
1) Don't shop there 2) Don't work there
If others disagree with you, then they will shop/work there if they CHOOSE to. Quit trying to force your views on everyone else.
Posted by JOHN B 10/02/2006 @ 5:56pm
What you are saying would only be remotely equitable if the Walton family were not using it's money and tributary political clout to force legislation that funnels our tax money to it's bottom line.
Until that happens I can think of at least half a dozen things to add to your list to TURN THE FORCE BACK ON THEM.
Posted by fromredbird at 10/02/2006 @ 8:00pm
"Quit trying to force your views on everyone else."
right, idiot, like people who would even walk into that store would care what we say on the nation's blog.....moron.
Posted by darladoon at 10/02/2006 @ 8:32pm
If Wal-Mart is such a horrible place to work, why do they have thousands of applicants whenever they open a new store?
Posted by TONYSNOWJOB 10/02/2006 @ 2:30pm
With starvation being such an attractive option you have a good point. And, if social responsibility and human compassion are so wonderful why do millions of Republicans never express an interest?
Posted by fromredbird at 10/02/2006 @ 9:10pm
FROMRED....
I read on one of RESE's websites that Sam Walton was David ben-Gurion's secret step-brother!!!!!
Posted by Mask at 10/02/2006 @ 9:53pm
The US is in a real competition with China and South Korea
Posted by LVLIBERTY1 10/02/2006 @ 10:26pm
And Mal-Wart is helping the competitors win! And you love helping the communists in China win! don't you? Just to piss off the left.
Where would Jesus shop? Why he would look for the lowest paid employees and shop there. He would spend his money with the commies, like LuvChildlabor.
Remember how NAFTA was going to end the illegal immigration problem?
Posted by crabwalk at 10/02/2006 @ 10:51pm
WOODYEE, I here that Mal-Wart has good prices on Tickle-Me-Elmo dolls, you could get a new one. They are made by 11 year old kids working 12 hr days in horrid conditions, in factories that spill pollutants into the fresh water supply of the nearby villages and pump out mercury by the ton into the air that works its way to your house.
Enjoy your new doll.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/02/2006 @ 10:55pm
I go into Walmart nearly every day and I don't care what you say!
Posted by LVLIBERTY1 10/02/2006 @ 10:29pm
And there you have it, a self described Christian Patriot that gives money daily to China, shops at a store that encourages socialist healthcare policies and has no respect for the opinions of others.
Classic.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/02/2006 @ 11:03pm
Because for many it is the ONLY place they can work.
Hehe....yeah right. More businesses in this country than you can shake a stick at, yet you're somehow forced to work at WallyWorld. I guess if you're one of the 78% of high school "students" from inner-city Detroit that didn't bother to graduate, this might be true. BTW...I'm wondering what a good abortion clinic pays these days. Now there is a career path to be proud of. (Sarcasm)
Posted by Sliver at 10/02/2006 @ 11:09pm
Don't know whether I'm unusually testy these days or whether the stupid folks are getting stupider--Sliver just became ignored Number 14 for me. I'm just a dick, I guess.
Posted by tjbehrens1 at 10/02/2006 @ 11:41pm
Read what a former Asst Sec of Treasury in Reagans admin had to say: ( as recommended by CKA2ND )
""Free trade" and "globalization" are the guises behind which class war is being conducted against the middle class by both political parties. Patrick J. Buchanan, a three-time contender for the presidential nomination, put it well when he wrote1 that NAFTA and the various so-called trade agreements were never trade deals. The agreements were enabling acts that enabled U.S. corporations to dump their American workers, avoid Social Security taxes, health care and pensions, and move their factories offshore to locations where labor is cheap."
The offshore outsourcing of American jobs has nothing to do with free trade based on comparative advantage. Offshoring is labor arbitrage. First world capital and technology are not seeking comparative advantage at home in order to compete abroad. They are seeking absolute advantage abroad in cheap labor."
http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts09302006.html
the job you save, Sliver, may be yours. Assuming you have one.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 12:18am
"right, idiot, like people who would even walk into that store would care what we say on the nation's blog.....moron. "
Most people who are walking around the country feel this way about the people on the blog here.
"With starvation being such an attractive option you have a good point."
Cab you show me on record ONE single person who starved to death in America..any where? If you starve to death in America you must be an idiot and the herd is better off without out you in it...One who have to work to starve here.
Logic on this level keep me coming back here..these types of posts are irresitable...it is too good to be true and must be shared with my children.
Posted by john maasch at 10/03/2006 @ 12:47am
Now THERE's a Dick!
Posted by Sliver at 10/03/2006 @ 08:04am
Posted by ZERO 10/03/2006 @ 01:07am
PLEASE...somebody (besides DARLA)....keep ZERO company in the Phantom Zone of "Everybody Ignored I Disagree With"...
he's soooooooo lonely!
Posted by Mask at 10/03/2006 @ 09:16am
Cab you show me on record ONE single person who starved to death in America..any where? -MAASCH
?????
Starve to death??
John, if you don't like socialized medicine, you don't like Mal-Wart. If you like killing the middle class you love Mal-Wart.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 09:19am
Hey Ponti and friends, looks like the failed US education system just landed another accolade:
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Americans John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for work that helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe and deepen understanding of the origin of galaxies and stars.
Mather, 60, works at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Smoot, 61, works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Cal.
----Has any ID Fellow won a science award?
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 09:22am
"John, if you don't like socialized medicine, you don't like Mal-Wart. If you like killing the middle class you love Mal-Wart. "
Apprently you have most of my posts on ignore list...especially regardig my thoughts on Walmart in the past posts...our companys have refused to do business with them for years...not for the reasons you froth about, rather their rules and policies for vendors. Not really intetestd in being a supplier.
As far as destroying the middle class?....horseshit.....jihadists suicidists pose the biggest threaty for middle clss when they arrive here doing Gods work, and they are coming here soon.....
....there is no corporation capable of destroying any class, rather one of biggest threats to the middle class or every class is GOVERNMENT SPENDING OF THEIR TAX DOLLARS.
The IRS is the source of middles class destruction..reform the tax collection structure to consumption and the middle class will explode to new heights along with the economy....
Imagine a world where the guy who makes $ 60,000 a year gets to keep it all instead or $ $ 39,000 or less .....
but, this is over the head of 95% of the readers here...well, I am off to work as I reach for the upper class....and Walmart is not holding me back no matter how low cheap they sell their products and food...no matter how low they go to keep prices affordable for Americans...they are not going to hold me back...even as they sucker in the poor with cheaper food prices...
jutz....
Posted by john maasch at 10/03/2006 @ 09:35am
Paul Krugman:
Some Republicans are switching parties. James Webb, who may pull off a macaca-fueled upset against Senator George Allen of Virginia, was secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan. Charles Barkley, a former N.B.A. star who used to be mentioned as a possible future Republican candidate, recently declared, "I was a Republican until they lost their minds."
So the right-wing coalition is showing signs of coming apart. It seems that we're not in Kansas anymore. In fact, Kansas itself doesn't seem to be in Kansas anymore. Kathleen Sebelius, the state's Democratic governor, has achieved a sky-high favorability rating by focusing on good governance rather than culture wars, and her party believes it will win big this year.
And nine former Kansas Republicans, including Mark Parkinson, the former state G.O.P. chairman, are now running for state office as Democrats. Why did Mr. Parkinson change parties? Because he "got tired of the theological debate over whether Charles Darwin was right."
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 09:36am
" Hey Ponti and friends, looks like the failed US education system just landed another accolade:"
...cool, but exceptions to every rule....did these guys praise their public schools as they receive their awards?...How are the public schools doing when compared to the rest of the worlds ranking?...
Nobody, except libs and teachers unions praise the public schools...the rest are the true victims....need proof? Talk to your children about their edjucation...ask them about how the economy, government, or matthematics...ask them to spell a feww words......please...
Posted by john maasch at 10/03/2006 @ 09:39am
Posted by JOHN MAASCH 10/03/2006 @ 09:39am
the better queston is, is NCLB working to produce critical thinkers or test takers. I submit the latter.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 09:44am
Posted by JOHN MAASCH 10/03/2006 @ 09:39am
the better queston is, is NCLB working to produce critical thinkers or test takers. I submit the latter.
sorry, John I got no chil'ens. The neighbor kids run the gamut, depending on their aptitude and willingness to learn. My local schools are excellent according to the parents I hang with.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 09:46am
i was looking for yesterdays ED Stein, not archived yet, of Chimpy reading the NIE upside down like My Pet Goat, and found this one...
http://www.comics.com/editoons/stein/
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 09:48am
Posted by JOHN MAASCH 10/03/2006 @ 09:39am
I , again, point you to 2 studies put out recently that show charter schools, and christian charter schools in particular, do WORSE than your feared public system. One study was done by chimpies Ed Dept. That tells me that once again the repube theories hit the hard wall of reality.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 09:51am
Posted by CRABWALK 10/03/2006 @ 09:36am
Always curious about these "conversions"?
Now...do they TOTALLY reject conservatism, along with their Republican part affiliations?
Do guys who for years were "pro-life" suddenly take the NARAL position? Are they suddenly FOR big government programs and more taxes on the "super-rich"? Do they favor universal health care?
If not...then what are they going to do in the Democratic Party?
And if so....haven't they just thrown out ALL their previous principles....to win elections?
Posted by Mask at 10/03/2006 @ 09:54am
Mask,
I believe the truth regarding the recent republican , ah, "problems" in the political field have more to do with some people turning to a possible democrat and away from a republican are derived from the frustration of NO conservative activity in government(which they voted for and did not receive) and not some awaked epiphany of "Hey, we need Feingold!!...my God, where have I been?"...if you get my drift..
Posted by john maasch at 10/03/2006 @ 10:04am
crab,
I have 3 children and have hands on experience in both systems and both system have their faults...its just that the public schools fall down farther and harder than private and the "fix" is always the same...more money and no interior changes...anyway, this is my experience and observations...
Posted by john maasch at 10/03/2006 @ 10:16am
Posted by JOHN MAASCH 10/03/2006 @ 10:04am
CRAB's article (which I've seen on other sources) just seems ODD???
If those former Repubs are still conservative ("pro-life", low taxes, no Federal health care, whatever)....then CRAB just welcomed a BUTT-LOAD of "Republican-lite, evil DLC" types into the Democratic Party.
If those guys have dropped ALL their former conservative stances...and become full-fledged liberals.....then their "principles" aren't very strong and they could easily switch back, come a favorable wind to the GOP.
Posted by Mask at 10/03/2006 @ 10:26am
AndCrb,
Studies you point out are not as convincing as is experience...ever...
Posted by john maasch at 10/03/2006 @ 10:27am
Mask,
Maybe is is a form of suicide bombing..once inside the democratic opertion they will "explode" a sort of influence bomb and try to change the dems from with in...subverively of course..
Posted by john maasch at 10/03/2006 @ 10:29am
can't spell...victim of public edjukashen, of course....
should be ...subversively..I think..
Posted by john maasch at 10/03/2006 @ 10:36am
Posted by JOHN MAASCH 10/03/2006 @ 10:29am
It's just hilarioulsy ironic.
The guys CRAB is celebrating...sound nearly IDENTICAL to guys (like Joe Lieberman) that CRAB would no doubt call "sell-outs".
Either they have no real principles...or they are still conservative and will drag the Party to the Right (or end up with "Lamont" challengers in the future)!
Posted by Mask at 10/03/2006 @ 10:46am
Posted by MASK 10/03/2006 @ 10:46am
Hehe...now I did it...."hilariously" that is.
Posted by Mask at 10/03/2006 @ 10:48am
1: I did not "celebrate"
2: i did not "Welcome" anybody into a party that I do not belong to.
3: I agree somewhat with John wrote about the total lack of "conservative" ethos in todays repubes.
4: just pointing out that even repubes are having a hard time with repubes. I thnk they need to shave the re-pubes. Foley would like that. Then Haster cold cover them up.
5" ultimately parents are in charge of the education system, that is where the buck stops.
6: once again, difference between a private school with admission standards and high costs paid for by well of parents, and a charter school that takes money from the public system, creating the morass it seeks to end.
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 10:57am
Are Amish schools any safer than public now?
Fucking wacko!!!@
Why do they always get the murder/suicide in the wrong order?
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 11:01am
"Two American scientists -- one of whom graduated from Fairfax High School -- awakened early yesterday to learn they will share a Nobel Prize for their discovery of a gene-regulating mechanism inside cells, an advance that in just eight years has revolutionized genetics and led to several experimental treatments for diseases."
"Craig C. Mello of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester -- whose father, a paleontologist, served for years as an associate director of the National Museum of Natural History -- and Andrew Z. Fire of Stanford University's School of Medicine will share the $1.36 million Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their serendipitous discovery of RNA interference, or "RNAi."" WashPost
---one private univ, one public--
Cautiously optimistic, but fearing it was a friend with a bad sense of humor, he picked up the phone anyway. Before long, he was putting in an early wake-up call to his parents, who now run an organic farm in Rixeyville, Va.--ORGANIC FARM!! PANSIES!!
It was Mello's Fairfax High School biology teacher, since retired, who set him on his path as a scientist, his mother, Sally, said later in an interview.
CRAB- Gotta go, will do more searching later on the physics prize. WHERE IS ILOVEPHYSICS??
Posted by crabwalk at 10/03/2006 @ 11:07am
The unfortunate thing about Walmart is that it is a marketing genius and many middle to low middle income people find it difficult to shop anywhere else. You do not have to drive far to find a super Walmart (at least in my city), its prices are the lowest in town and if you do not want to spend the bulk of your income on toliet paper, food, household items, well Walmart is the place to shop. Sure I wish it paid its employees better and gave them health insurance, but it would be nice if all private employers paid their employees better and made sure each employee had health insurance. But since I am ultimately in control of my standard of living and I want to save as much as I can on groceries, I will continue to shop at Walmart until another competitor with low prices comes forward.
Posted by adk0425 at 10/03/2006 @ 1:38pm
Why do they always get the murder/suicide in the wrong order?
Thought this exact thing many times myself.
5" ultimately parents are in charge of the education system, that is where the buck stops.
True enough. Also, could not count the number of times teachers (from all grade levels) have complained about a lack of respect for authority making it incredibly difficult to focus on teaching. Starts with the parents as well.
Posted by usc1 at 10/03/2006 @ 2:20pm
John M.
There may not be much, if any, starvation in this country, but there is hunger, as food pantries have been reporting for several years that the number of people visiting them is climbing. Perhaps LvLiberty1 can confirm that from his personal experience.
Re: Wal-Mart, it is the most powerful corporation in the world and its policies have an enormous impact on its own employees, its vendors and their employees, and the states and nations in which they are located. Wal-Mart was a symptom and is now a primary agent of the class war - Yes, Mask and Sliver, CLASS WAR - that has been waged against the working class by the bourgoisie in this country and around the world since the inflation crisises of the early to mid-70's. This almost completely one-sided class war went into overdrive when Ronald Reagan (Ptui!) fired the PATCO workers, his use of "permanent replacements" setting an example that the private sector followed to crush perfectly legal strikes. "Free" trade, outsourcing, privatization, an elite-oriented monetary policy, boss-controlled automation and a culture emphasizing selfishness and the rawest, most heartless kind of individualism have been the other arrows in the bourgoisie's quiver.
Now, that's my brief and old-fashioned "Red" take on Wal-Mart. For a died in the wool, paleo-conservative critique of Wal-Mart, side-by-side with blistering exposes of the Occupation of Iraq and the failures of Bush's foreign policy, but also cheek by jowl with articles calling for greatly restricted immigration, opposing affirmative action and supporting private and charter schools (thought I'd through you some sugar to go with the vinegar, so to speak), I challenge you and your right-wing colleagues to check out The American Conservative's website and the writings of Paul Craig Roberts on the economy. I'd really like to see whether you folks are open to even conservative arguments in favor of some of the positions that you all seem to associate only with the "far left."
Posted by cka2nd at 10/03/2006 @ 4:13pm
LvLiberty, you posted:
"Are you one of those libs who thinks all conservatives all illiterate hicks? Do you think we are all uneducated slobs from some Jeff Foxworthy monologue? I received degrees in History and Theology so I am least semi-educated."
No, I don't think that. I am responding to YOU and YOUR remarks. I don't have an opinion about conservatives in general.
You make inflammatory remarks, don't support them and then, as your trump card you list websites. Well, that doesn't cut it. You make cryptic comments about liberals and socialists, don't define your terms and then, when confronted with it either change the subject or ignore the questions asked.
I never said you weren't educated. I said you don't know what you are talking about. There is a difference.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/03/2006 @ 4:37pm
Worse, you dismiss people out of hand who don't agree with you and make inflammatory and insulting comments about them too.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/03/2006 @ 4:37pm
And LvLiberty, I am not a liberal. I already told you that.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/03/2006 @ 4:38pm
LvLiberty, you also posted:
"And you show a great deal of ignorance about the economic development that is going on in Nicaragua and El Salvador especially. We have friends in Nicaragua and my wife is from El Salvador and we are extensively involved with her family and development there. The US is in a real competition with China and South Korea in those countries as they are pouring in a lot of business development along with us. It is not US standards yet, but both those countries are booming compared to 20-30 years ago."
This is changing the subject. You are raising issues about socialists unionizing Latin America and then you talk about the state of economic development in El Salvador and Nicaragua. That was NOT the issue I raised. I went after what you said about some sort of socialist conspiracy to bring illegals into the United States and further added that if you are concerned with conspiracy and interfering with the affairs of sovereign nations you might want to look at what the Reagan administration did in El Salvador and Nicaragua during the 1980s. And, to make a further point, Chile in 1973 and Guatemala in 1954.
Again, you change the subject, throw in unrelated information and then think you can make a point by saying that because you know people in Central America that somehow a.) shows my ignorance and b.) proves your point which was. . . well, what was your point? You keep changing the subject.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/03/2006 @ 4:42pm
Besides, you then tell me then in 20 to 30 years Nicaragua and El Salvador will be up to "our standards." And those standards would be what precisely?
Again, you go after socialists for allegedly trying to unionize people and the smuggle them here to the U.S. and then you talk about how we are in those countries changing their economies. What is your point? Should the U.S. invade other countries and convert them to capitalism? Is that better than socialist involvement and again, alleged socialist involvement. You speak of socialist activity and have no proof. None.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/03/2006 @ 4:45pm
Okay, LvLiberty, touche. You are correct and I did say those things about you. I was wrong to do that. I apologize. And I am being sincere here. I take issue with your positions but I should not say you are not educated.
Posted by hhemwm at 10/03/2006 @ 10:15pm
If Wal-Mart is such a horrible place to work, why do they have thousands of applicants whenever they open a new store?
Because they put virtually all of the established local businesses out of operation, leaving the previous owners/employees little recourse but to line up for what's left.
Posted by Jimny at 10/04/2006 @ 12:45am