Eddie: For the past three months or so I have been creating a really long video/picture slideshow with Windows Movie Maker, and decided to put part of it online for your viewing pleasure. Many of the stories I’ve written about are represented in this video. Who knows, maybe one day I will get around to making up a guide with links to the stories. Anyways, enjoy!
It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman, Peter Sayles and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.
WAY NO. 10 TO SAY NO TO BIG BOXES… Today”s way to Say No To Big Boxes is: Organize a community festival, including music, drama, seminars, etc. You could create a theme by focusing each event on a set of countries that are disadvantaged by international corporate policy. Keep reading…
ERIC RIVERA”S LOW-TECH BUDDY… Former Wal-Mart assistant manager Eric Rivera had two things: chutzpah and a key. His low-tech imitator James Rockwell didn”t have a key. But he did have a screwdriver and a can opener. The end result, however was the same: money in the pocket.
Keep reading…
IN WHAT UNIVERSE IS THIS A BIG EXPERIMENT…? Two days ago I wrote about how Eduardo Castro-Wright, CEO of Wal-Mart Stores USA, believes that he is bringing about a massive overhaul of the way Wal-Mart interacts with its customers. If changes in Highland Village, Texas, are a fair indicator… Keep reading…
CHINA, THE DEFICIT AND A PROFESSOR”S VIEWS… The fiscal conservatives are coming up for air after being enthralled by seven years of President George Bush”s economic policies. This morning I read Professor Stephen Bainbridge”s Punditry blog and I found this rather strange observation on Wal-Mart and China. Keep reading…
SHOP! BUY! PLEASE! I”M ON MY KNEES HERE…! Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott is this far away from channeling Crazy Eddy. I”m on Wal-Mart”s customer mailing list and the image above hit my in-box this evening with the this subject line: This Holiday”s Must-Have Toys: Shop Early + Save. Keep reading…
WAY NO. 9 TO SAY NO TO BIG BOXES… Today”s way to Say No To Big Boxes is: Write to or visit local and/or national politicians and urge them to hold corporations accountable for their practices. Keep reading…
YET ANOTHER CLASS ACTION SUIT LOOMING…? It looks like the law firm of Howard G. Smith has gone fishing; in Wal-Mart”s financial pond. The details are as cloudy as a bayou after a hard rain, but Smith, whose firm has a history of class action suits, seems to think he”s found a granddaddy bass. Keep reading…
AT THE WALLY PLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoths, so it”s no surprise that budding video talent has been sneaking cameras in at odd hours. And now for the midnight show at the Wally Plex featuring ThaAmigos. Keep reading…
WAY NO. 8 TO SAY NO TO BIG BOXES… Today”s way to Say No To Big Boxes is: Organize a speaker”s presentation or panel discussion on issues related to your group”s concerns with supermarkets and big boxes. Keep reading…
A PLUS IN THE WIN COLUMN FOR CONSUMERS… There is nothing Wal-Mart hates more than people shinning bright lights into its dark corners, specially when the light is being flashed about by the Tax Man. That”s why it sought to have court records concerning its tax battle in North Carolina sealed. Keep reading…
WAY NO. 7 TO SAY NO TO BIG BOXES… Today”s way to Say No To Big Boxes is: Organize a community teach-in. Bring in speakers who are knowledgeable about your concerns and ask them to give short presentations to your audience. Leave plenty of time for questions and discussion. Keep reading…
WAL-MART FRIENDLY STATES… Whoever chose the headline for Al Norman”s latest Huffington Post piece struck the wrong note. I”m sure there are rare people who suffer from wal-martphobia, but most of us are nor afraid of Wal-Mart; we”re not interested in hiding from the big-box retailer. Keep reading…
WAY NO. 6 TO SAY NO TO BIG BOXES… Today”s way to Say No To Big Boxes is: join a group in your community. If you”re community isn”t on the list, start your own. Keep reading…
WE”RE WAL-MART… WE MAKE OUR OWN RULES… To be fair, the matter below was corrected by a store manager and the district manager and the couple received an apology for their inconvenience. But what I want to point to is not corporate arrogance. but rather what happens when employees are afraid. Keep reading…
WAY NO. 5 TO SAY NO TO BIG BOXES… Today”s way to Say No To Big Boxes is: host a showing of What Would Jesus Buy in your home. Keep reading…
WAL-MART BETTER ON HEALTH CARE…? PART I Maybe. If you kind of squint your eyes and hold your tongue just right. The New York Times makes two passes at employee health care changes at Wal-Mart. The story reads has holes but the Question and Answer piece contains some non-case-ready meat. Keep reading…
WAL-MART BETTER ON HEALTH CARE…? PART II I thought I could cover both pieces on Wal-Mart in this morning”s New York Times, but there was so much non-case-ready meat there to chomp on I decided that each deserved its own post. You can find Part I of the report here. Keep reading…
WAY NO. 4 TO SAY NO TO BIG BOXES… Today”s way to Say No To Big Boxes is: organize workshops or even a one-day boycott of big box stores. Keep reading…
SHE”S JUST A LADY MONK… One of the reasons I prefer reading the Internet than traditional news outlets is that occasionally you come across a story like Flash”s tale of debilitating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, germophobia and misanthropic malaise at 9 p.m. in a Wal-Mart. Keep reading…
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
“So, Eve, how is everything going?” inquired God.
“It is all so beautiful, God,” Eve replied.
“The sunrises and sunsets are breathtaking, the smells, the sights,everything is wonderful, but I have just one problem. It is these breasts you have given me. The middle one pushes the other two out and I am constantly knocking them with my arms, catching them on branches and snagging them on bushes. They are a real pain,” reported Eve.
And Eve went on to tell God that since many other parts of her body came in pairs, such as her limbs, eyes, ears, etc., she felt that having only two breasts might leave her body more “symmetrically balanced,” as she put it.
“That is a fair point,” replied God, “But it was my first shot at this, you know. I gave the animals six breasts, so I figured that you needed only half of those, but I see that you are right. I will fix it up right away.”
And God reached down, removed the middle breast and tossed it into the bushes. Three weeks passed and God once again visited Eve in the Garden of Eden.
“Well, Eve, how is my favorite creation?” “Just fantastic,” she replied, “but for one oversight on your part. You see, all the animals are paired off. The ewe has a ram and the cow has her bull. All the animals have a mate except me. I feel so alone.”
God thought for a moment and said, “You know, Eve, you are right. How could I have overlooked this? You do need a mate and I will immediately create a man from a part of you. Now let’s see, where did I put that useless boob?”
Now doesn’t that make more sense than that crap about the rib?
The two giants pressing against Myanmar are China and India. The former is the world’s largest communist nation and the latter the world’s largest democracy. China wants stability. But what does India want? That, with India also focused on it’s nuclear neighbor to the west, is the question plaguing the rest of the free world.
From BurmaNet News:
The United States, the European Union and even Myanmar exiles in New Delhi, who have recently demonstrated outside the Indian Parliament, have all appealed to what Indian politicians proudly proclaim is the world”s largest democracy to live up to those ideals and push for change in Myanmar.
India and Myanmar share a complicated and delicate history, one marked as much by mistrust as amity. In recent years India has shifted its diplomatic support from Myanmar”s hamstrung pro-democracy movement towards the ruling military junta, driven by realpolitik imperatives including greater access to Myanmar”s untapped energy resources and its support in putting down ethnic insurgent groups active in remote border territories.
If India might learn anything from its fellow democracies, it is the danger of choosing the short-term realpolitik over the long-term benefits of helping nations to duplicate its own successes.
India”s foreign policy has never been guided by promoting democracy in other countries.
On the contrary, “democratic” India was the Soviet Union”s main ally in Asia during the Cold War, because it suited the regional security interests of both countries. India has not even pushed for democracy in one of its closest neighbors and allies, the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, one of the world”s last remaining absolute monarchies.
Yet, Buhtan’s King, seeing the benefits of democracy for his people, has begun the process on his own.
All of this is a part of History that Americans don’t learn in school, even in college unless they have to a Political Science student with a concentration in South Asia. There’s much more at play here than Ben Kingsley showed us in Gandhi.
To be sure, India has successfully weaned Myanmar away from its near-total dependence on China for economic and military support. And the strong position the US, the European Union and Myanmar dissidents are now calling on New Delhi to take would risk – to China”s benefit – the precious foothold it has achieved in Myanmar over the past decade.
Like China, India is unlikely to go beyond statements of tacit support for the United Nations” latest – and likely futile – mission to push the military junta towards national reconciliation with the pro-democracy opposition. In essence, New Delhi”s interests are also in the preservation of Myanmar”s political status quo.
Bertil Lintner’s analysis of the 20th century conflicts, alliances and maneuvers in South Asia is a good one.
The more we understand about why Myanmar matters, the more likely we become to not forget.
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the border between science and spirituality by John Horgan.
“The more [the mystical path] climbs, the more language falters, and when it has passed u and beyond the ascent, it will turn silent completely, since it will finally be one with Him Who is indescribable,” Dionysius the Areopagite, 6th century C.E. monk. p. 38
Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: You can increase your output as you increase your capacity to get accurate, clear, fast impressions of what is going on around you. James T. McCay. If we do not picture events clearly, we should not act. p. 114
David Singer is correct: semantics do matter. But understanding the semantics — historically, culturally and politically — is crucial. Writing for the Israel Hasbara Committee, Singer makes a comparison between the use of place names in Myanmar and Israel and attempts to draw political lessons from different usages.
Semantics – especially where place names are concerned – clearly plays a big part in either clouding or clearly defining the real political issues that dog the conduct of foreign relations by many countries.
What is particularly interesting in this current semantic battleground is the role taken by the media. They are split on which terms to use.
President Bush’s choice is not the choice of all in the US media.
The Voice of America, the Washington Post, and Time follow the President and use “Burma” and “Rangoon”. However the New York Times, CNN and the Wall Street Journal use “Myanmar” and “Yangon”.
Reuters, Associated Press and the International Herald Tribune have come down on the side of the United Nations and use “Myanmar” and “Yangon”. They would consider themselves as being even-handed in accepting the choice of an independent arbiter.
Deliberate policy decisions are obviously being taken by individual media outlets as to which names to use – probably indicating their political position on the crisis. This is a healthy exercise in freedom of speech rather than all slavishly following each other in their reporting.
I understand his dilemma, it’s one that I dealt with myself a few weeks ago before consulting a friend in Myanmar about what words I ought to use.
This is what my friend said to me:
Most people use Myanmar when referring to the country, Burmese when referring to language, and Burmese when referring their nationality (I am Burmese, I speak Burmese, and I live in Yangon, Myanmar) However, it’s perfectly normal to hear people use Myanmar for all three (I am Myanmar, I speak Myanmar, and I live in Myanmar.)
But, there’s no hard and fast rule. With so many ethnic groups (e.g. Shan, Karen, Kachin) with members who consider themselves neither Burmese nor Myanmar, the naming practice is complex. The name “Myanmar” was chosen to replace “Burma”, which was really the British colonialists’ mispronuniciation of the people group who lived here upon their arrival. All streets in the city have been renamed to replace British colonial names.
Ah those British Colonials. In Singer’s case the comparison ought to be between Burma and Palestine (names bestowed by the British) vs. Israel and Myanmar (names selected by the people of those nations).
That is why I have chosen to almost exclusively use the name Myanmar when writing about that country.
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Freed man still in limbo.
Old Blue: There was a change recently to how we are task organized for missions in The Valley. I can’t describe why due to “keeping our cards close to our vest.” It’s more of an evolution of the operation than anything else. Operations are maturing, though they have not reached the state that they need to in the end. The change was at least a little bit…
There are plenty of reasons to be perturbed when loons and hate-mongers support a candidacy. But this game of guilt-by-association can be played endlessly. I tend to place greater emphasis on loons and hate-mongers that candidates actively seek out.
Pat Robertson is a loon and an anti-Semite and a vicious homophobe who blamed Americans for 9/11. Giuliani didn’t receive some unsolicited money from him; he actually stood on a platform and embraced him. Why one standard for Paul and another for Giuliani?
If Obama embraced Louis Farrakhan as a supporter, you think Goldfarb and Kirchick would be silent? They’d have a cow because it’s unthinkable. But naked bigotry is more than thinkable in today’s GOP: it’s integral to it.
What’s the difference between Farrakhan and Robertson? I can’t see any. Maybe Goldfarb and Kirchick can spell it out. Andrew Sullivan
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
Summary of my last year on the computer:
I have to scrub the top of every can I open.
I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.
I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.
I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s novena has granted my every wish.
I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.
I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day
Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.
Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.
I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won’t crawl in my back seat when I’m pumping gas.
I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put “Under God” on their cans .
I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.
And thanks for letting me know I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face; disfiguring me for life.
I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with an infected needle.
I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.
I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.
I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don’t support our American troops or the Salvation Army.
I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore and Uzbekistan.
I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.
Thanks to you, I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.
And thanks to your great advice, I can’t ever pick up $5 I dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.
I can no longer drive my car because I can’t buy gas from certain gas companies!
If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s beautician.
Tyrants clearly have very short memories in Myanmar. U Seindiya is a senior monk from Aung Kaung monastery. Over the last 30 years he has donated some 80 pints — 10 gallons — of blood to help save the lives of wounded soldiers. One has to wonder if any of those whose lives he saved took part in raiding his monastery.
From the Democratic Voice of Burma:
U Seindiya arrived at the border on 7 November having been pursued by government forces as he made his escape.
He was wanted by the authorities for leading other monks in his township in protests in September, and narrowly escaped arrest when Aung Kaung monastery in Kawkareit township, Karen state, was raided by troops from the ruling State Peace and Development Council and government-backed Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.
[Snip]
Speaking from the Thai-Burma border, U Seindiya criticized the government”s action against him.
“I spared in total about two buckets of my blood for the soldiers and they didn”t even acknowledge it, and they even raided my monastery,” U Seindiya said.
“We were only walking the streets and chanting metta, so it wasn”t a big crime, but the military made a big deal out of it and chased me through the jungle,” he said.
“The SPDC is acting so unlawfully – in fact, they are out of control. It”s in the soldiers” codes to treat civilians with respect, but now they are treating people as their enemies, and I see this as a breaking of their own rules. This is not good for our country.”
And it is not good for the World.
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the border between science and spirituality by John Horgan.
“Academic religion is the killing jar of spirit.” Ken Wilber. p. 37
Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: While imaginative rumination is basic to effective time management, irrelevancy and obsession are devastating. p. 114
People are marching in Japan to protest that country’s aid in the form of Official Development Assistance ($26.1 million in 2006) to the military dictatorship in Myanmar. While the aid would seem to be for the benefit of the people in the country, the protesters it is really just increasing the wealth of the dictators.
From the Inter Press Service:
About 1,300 Burmese expatriates rallied in the capital”s Yoyogi Park on Sunday afternoon, appealing to the international community to put pressure on the Japanese government to cut aid to their military-ruled country.
It was the biggest pro-Burma rally held here since the bloody crackdown by that country”s junta on thousands of activists late September, during which at least 13 people were killed and 2,000 detained.
The demonstrators marched through Tokyo”s popular Shibuya district waving banners and shouting, ‘Freedom for Burma” and ‘Japan stop official development assistance to Burma.”
“Today”s public rally was the greatest event since the Japanese Trade Union Confederation and Diet (parliament) members became involved,” said Tin Win Akbar, a member of the Burmese Democratic Opposition Party living in Japan, at the protest. “We are making the international community aware through demonstrations and symposiums to pressure the Japanese government to do more.”
People are marching in Japan. People are marching in England. Is anyone marching in the United States?
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Peanut butter diamonds on display.
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