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 Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart by Alice Walker.

…you have never brought a greater good, no matter where you traveled. That is because what is good is integral to itself. That is also why it is not worthwhile to change yourself, your hair or skin or eyes. What is integral to you will always be superior to what is tacked on, simply because it is yours. p. 202

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.

WAL MART LOSES BREAKS SUIT… The common pleas court in Philadelphia has ruled in Braun v. Wal Mart and Hummel v. Walmart that the comapny forced employees to forgo their legally entitled 15-minute breaks on a regular basis. The fines and damages could reach $169 million for the retailer.. Keep reading…

UNIONS RUN THE TABLE IN CHINA… First there was one, then 19 and now all 62 Wal Mart stores in China are unionized. Now unions in China are different from unions in the western world, but the announcement today will send shock waves through the Bentonvile behemoths structure. Keep reading…

REUSE IS GOOD, BUT… Details are sketchy as to exactly how this happened, but according to KCRG-TV, a woman in Boone, Iowa, has filed suit accusing Wal Mart of pharmaceutical malpractice for printing some of personal medical information… Keep reading…

DO YOU THINK, GEORGE…? How does Edleman, a company ranked number one with nearly three times the annual fees of its nearest competitor produce such a turkey as Wal-Marting Across America? (And did anyone there realize that Walmarting is a perjorative?) Keep reading…

AND FROM THE RV WORLD… The Recreational Vehicle community – which uses the term Wally Docking to describe stopping for the night in a Wal Mart parking lot – knew about Jim and Laura from the start thanks to a letter recieved and posted on 2 October to RV Net: Keep reading…

WALMARTING AND NEW COKE… A COINCIDENCE? Over the years I”ve known and worked with and for a number of public relations firms in major cities across North America. Everyone makes mistakes like New Coke, but I don”t think I”ve ever seen anything as inept as Wal-Marting Across America. Keep reading…

A FREELANCE JOURNALIST”S RESPONSE… Long before I bacame a blogger I was a freelance journalist, a magazine editor and a regular contributor to corporate communications for TRW. I take exception to Laura”s claim that: …now we”re being attacked. Why? Because we dared to write positive things about Wal-Mart. Keep reading…

GO POUND COFFEE GROUNDS… Every Wednesday I assemble a digest of my past week”s post here and publish them on my personal blog Have Coffee Will Write as Wal Mart Wednesday. This week one of my regular readers felt compelled to share a personal Wal Mart story. Keep reading…

WHAT”S REALLY AT STAKE… With all the hoopla over Edelman and Wal-Marting Across America, I thought it was time to check back in at the other Wal Mart astroturf blogs. I took some time this morning to stop in at Working Families For Wal Mart and read What”s At Stake: Keep reading…

AND THE FLOGGING WILL CONTINUE… I”m almost starting to feel badly for Wal Mart and Edelman the way people are piling on the Wal-Marting Across America debacle. (Just kidding.) This morning the New York Post runs the headline: Wal-Mart”s Smarking Over Blog Flogging. Keep reading…

ACCESSING 1.1 BILLION CUSTOMERS… In terms of retail markets India is a mother lode with a population of 1.1 billion potential shoppers and the Bentonvile behemoth wants them all to shop at its big boxes. But that might not happen according to Forbes magazine: 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 river777. Keep reading…

MORE ON THE SMALL-MART MOVEMENT… I missed this story when it came out, but a reader sent it along and it”s still worth reading because it represents how smart communities can look beyond the big box and not become just another whistle stop on Wal Mart”s revenue railway. From Fortune: Keep reading…

BANKING ON FOR WAL MART… This week the Federal Deposist Insurance Corporation closed the comment period on talks to decide if Wal Mart ought to be allowed to operate it”s own industrial bank. In a 52-page document, Wal Mart said such a move would present no unusual risks or problems. Keep reading…

VERY MIXED SIGNALS… For those readers not familiar with it, Post Secret is a website where people send in postcards illustrating some secret they have that is eating at them. With all the very real troubles in the world, it saddens me to read cards like this. Keep reading…

TRUST MART…? TRUST MART…? What Wal Mart called speculation earlier today USA Today, via The Wall Street Journal, is calling fact: the Bentonvile Behemoth intends to purchase the 100-store Trust Mart chain in China for $1 billion. According to USA Today: Keep reading…

COULD WAL MART BALE ON GAYS…? In a move that may be totally unrelated but yet begs some connection, Wal Mart confirmed that Dee Breazeale has left the company. It most recently named Breazeale as its representative on the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Keep reading…

WAS EDELMAN GOOGLEWASHING…? Here”s an interesting spin. Like McDonaldization, Walmarting is a pejorative referring to the way chains pave over all things special in communities and Seth Finkelstein suggests that the flog (fake blog) may have been intended in part to Googlewash the word. Keep reading…

TOP OF THE FOLD…? As The Writing On The Wal reported yesterday, Wal Mart is buying Trust Mart in China. What I find amazing is that while this is an important story, the paper of record, The New York Times, thinks it”s big enough to play above the fold on page one. Keep reading…

WHEN IS A BANE A BOON…? The Chicago Sun Times has a story this morning that gives a twist to the story of Wal Mart”s entrance into the Chicago market. Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Ganno said building five supercenters on the South side was: almost like a payoff. Keep reading…

ROTFLMAO…! From Gaping Void who writes: My own opinion? Edelman isn”t stupid enough to have let this happen on purpose. Something else is going on. My guess is Walmart pulled a Cleopatra on them and Edelman”s taking the rap. Hat tip to Branding & Marketing who writes: Keep reading…

HEH…! HEH…! So where was Jim and Laura”s lookout? Art by Tony Montana Keep reading…

GOBBLE… GOBBLE… Yes. Turkey. But not the bird. At what point does being a Wal Mart Shopper become the single greatest shared human experience outside of birth and death possibly sex? The Bentonvile Behemoth wants to find out. From Turks: Keep reading…

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 Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart by Alice Walker.

Raging Grannies, said Yolo, Gray Panthers.

Or buried in nursing homes, said Kate. p. 201

Holly Martins at Radar writes: Congress… has never been a bastion of intelligence. …As far back as a century ago, Samuel Johnson was demeaning the nation’s legislators as a “circus of rogues and fools.”But when it comes to sheer stupidity, the men and women of the 109th have distinguished themselves as a breed apart.

10. Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY)
9. Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI)
8. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT)
7. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)
6. Representative Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
5. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
4. Representative J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
3. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)
2. Representative Donald Young (R-AK)
1. Representative Katherine Harris (R-FL)

Of her No. 1 pick Martins writes:

If dumb Congress members were the X-Men, Harris would be their Wolverine-a mutant possessing fearsome skills, the product of a demented government experiment gone horribly wrong.

I think Marvel should sue.

In most online communities, 90 percent of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9 percent of users contribute a little, and 1 percent of users account for almost all the action. Blogs have even worse participation inequality than is evident in the 90-9-1 rule that characterizes most online communities. With blogs, the rule is more like 95-4.9-0.1.

That fits Have Coffee Will Write and The Writing On The Wal. What about your blog?

Over the last three years the number of students I work with who have some form of Autism has increased. Not that the rate of Autism is increasing, it is, but rather that schools have asked me to work with more students with this disorder. Because of this I have become more interested in what we know and don’t know about Autism.

Last month a friend of mine who works with special needs children from new borns to age three told me about a possible connection between television and Autism. Then I read In Search of the Cause of Autism by Greg Easterbrook which asked the same questions my friend raised.

This morning I found Does Television Cause Autism? by Michael Waldman, Sean Nicholson and Nodir Adilov; and Easterbrook’s take on their research.

The short answer is that it really does look like exposing young children, under the age of 3, to television significantly increases the chances that the child will develope Autism.

This is the money quote from Easterbrook:

If screen images cause harm to brain development in the young, the proliferation of these TV-like devices may bode ill for the future. The aggressive marketing of Teletubbies, Baby Einstein videos, and similar products intended to encourage television watching by toddlers may turn out to have been a nightmarish mistake.

Nightmarish indeed. I can’t begin to imagine how the parents of my students will react to this study and what parents of newborns and toddlers may do. But the American Academy of Pediatrics thinks they ought not to do nothing.

If television viewing by toddlers is a factor in autism, the parents of afflicted children should not reproach themselves, as there was no warning of this risk. Now there is: The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends against any TV for children under the age of 2. Waldman thinks that until more is known about what triggers autism, families with children under the age of 3 should get them away from the television and keep them away.

Researchers might also turn new attention to study of the Amish. Autism is rare in Amish society, and the standing assumption has been that this is because most Amish refuse to vaccinate children. The Amish also do not watch television.

The implications for day schools, nurseries, video and television production companies and a wide range of other players are staggering.

It takes Weekly Standard writer Matt Labash 888 words about Kinky Friedman to get around to Kinky’s run for governor next month. That has to be the longest lede for a political story I’ve ever read. And even then Labash comes at the story from the side when he notes that a voter interrupts his conversation about music with Kinky.

Just then, a voter approaches, and takes a seat at our table as if she were an old friend. Her name is Kelly Wages, and she’s voted for Republican incumbent Rick Perry in the past, but now she’s undecided, like much of Texas. Perry leads the pack of four candidates, but with an anemic 35 percent, meaning that he’s hemorrhaging even Republican support. “Why should I vote for you?” she asks Kinky.

Most politicians would take this as a cue to begin sucking up. But Kinky shoots me a get-a-load-of-her look and goes the reverse-psychology route. “Because I have no political experience whatsoever.”

Now that’s Kinky.

From Beau Cleland: Hello all, this is a general update with some anecdotes thrown in, edited for security of course. I’m still at Firebase ***, which is a cool-sounding name for a small group of ramshackle brick buildings and a Hesco wall tucked in a river valley in the middle of Uruzgan province. I can’t talk specifics, but there aren’t a whole lot of Americans here, and…

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

0522 There”s Gotta Be Another Way

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 Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart by Alice Walker.

And in this primeval landscape I was calling for Grandmother until I was hoarse and on the point of tears. Because it was coming to me with a horrible certainty that I was by myself in this frightening place and SHE WAS NOT THERE!

Yes, said Kate. I thought I could avoid it, I guess. p. 201

It seems the people of Kansas are rising up and preparing to throw the rascals out. The November election now seems, by all accounts, the Democrats’ to lose. But I think more importantly the Democrats are about to get a two-year window in which to prove they have the ability to lead. The sense to govern wisely and the brains not to fuck it up.

From the chairman of the The Johnson County Sun:

As we prepare ourselves to make political endorsements in subsequent issues, I can tell you unequivocally that this newspaper has never endorsed so many Democrats. Not even close.

The point is, I can name on two hands over a half century the number of Democrats we have endorsed for public office.

[Snip]

So, what in the world has happened?

It means denigrating even abstinence-based sex education.

Here’s what I predict. On Wednesday, 8 November, there will be a mass bloodletting in the Republican party. There will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth as the cancerous growth on the Conservative body politic is hacked away and cast into cleansing fires.

The administration of President George Bush will retreat to bunkers in undisclosed locations where it will hibernate for its final two years.

And both parties will restructure and consider how to heal the damage done by six years of uncontroled spending, disdain for the Constitution and citizens of the United States and the hubris driven international adventurism that has create a world more dangerous than any since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Theo/neocons will get an Armageddon. Just not the one they expected.

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan.

From SGT “Roy Batty”: This is your midterm exam for Combat Existentialism 101. Please ensure that you use a Number 2 pencil to answer all questions. Completely color in all answer bubbles; do not check or tick the answers. Please answer all ‘Other’ questions using ten words or less. Reaction time is a factor in this test, so please pay attention and answer as…

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

1658 Richard Edelman Takes Responsibility
0720 The Silence About “Jim” and “Laura”

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 Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart by Alice Walker.

I can”t imagine having a hobby, said Yolo.

I can”t either, said Kate. Everything I do I want to be essential. p. 200

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

1310 Reason #24 to VOTE NO on ISSUE 3

For the first time in many years I wish I had a subscription to the Plain Dealer just so I could call up the subscription department and cancel it. As a fine example of journalistic and civic leadership, the editorial board of the Pee Dee has dropped its pants and assumed the position writing: “It’s time for Ohio to take a gamble.”

Take a gamble?

Let me translate that for you. We’ve no idea how to make the uber wealthy who have been sucking at the public teat for 50 years behave responsibly and since all our jobs are swirling down the toilet anyway as the city crumbles into a Mad Max-esque movie set we figured what the hell, lets throw the dice and really go down in flames, at least it’ll make good copy.

Feck! Even the GOP thinks this is a bad idea.

It’s time to get out of town.

From AirborneJD: She is handsome, rather than beautiful. Her black dress covers her from head to toe, with only her face showing under a black head scarf. Still, her open, expressive face is attractive in a motherly way, as she smiles and looks down at her curly-haired baby, the child’s fist crammed firmly into his mouth. Sitting on the woven carpets in the bare room…

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 Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart by Alice Walker.

Maybe someone who drinks a lot of coffee, said Kate.

We said we”d try to think of sex as something really, really special, said Yoho. p. 190