Wal-Martian spotted

I saw this Navy SEAL at Wal-Mart the other day.

Actually I almost didn't see him, because he was camouflaged so well.

Is he "tacti-cool", or what?

Actions have consequences. Who knew?

So a couple years ago, Walmart planned to open five stores in Washington, DC. Of course they were opposed by the unions, who hate Walmart because they aren't a union shop, and by numerous Democrats on the union payroll and assorted leftists, yuppies and hipsters that have recently moved into Washington DC and immediately began decrying the gentrification that allowed them to do so.

DC built three of the five stores, putting them in the better neighborhoods. Part of the deal that they made with DC was that two of the stores would have to be put in the "low income" neighborhoods, aka: the ghetto areas.

Next, the DC council and the mayor pushed through new laws in the District that jumped the minimum wage, first to $11.50 an hour but with another proposal on the table to boost it to $15.00 an hour (but only in large businesses like Walmart) and forced (large) employers to pay for family and medical leave for their employees and set a minimum number of hours for any part-timers that they choose to hire. Walmart, already seeing losses in their big-box stores from internet competitors like Amazon, did the math on what DC's pending legislation would cost it and decided that the two new stores that they had originally planned to build likely would not be profitable. So they did what any other responsible business would do--they cut their losses and walked away from the plan to put the two new stores down in the 'hood.

Naturally, the Democrats who killed this golden goose--and their cheerleader, the Washington Post--are furious now.

District leaders furious Walmart breaking promise to build stores in poor neighborhoods

They seek to blame Walmart for backing out on the new stores and the jobs and goods that it would have made available to the folks in those neighborhoods, but the real fact is that, by voting to enact new measures that raised Walmart's cost of doing business, they pretty much ensured that Walmart could not run those stores profitably, especially in areas where theft and insurance costs are above average and where nearby suburban shoppers are unlikely to shop anyway for fear of the crime rate in those neighborhoods. Originally it was thought that profits generated at the three stores in the better areas would balance out the two less-desirable locations, but when DC raised the cost of doing business at all of them--all while continuing to bad-mouth Walmart for being non-union and paying wages that no one except Walmart employees seem to want--Walmart's board did what they had to and cut DC loose. And the only ones who never saw this coming, apparently, are the ones in DC government who made it all happen.

Good job, DC Council and Mayor. You've proven again why DC cannot be given a vote in Congress and why it should probably lose the limited self-rule that it currently has. When you let children plan the household menu without oversight, it'll be cake and ice cream for dinner every night. And then one day you'll wonder why everyone is sickly and the dental costs are through the roof.

A nice, relaxing day.

No Black Friday for us.

Murphy and I ate more turkey, then I primed pistol brass while watching Ride Clear of Diablo (1954) with Audie Murphy. It also starred western character actors Dan Duryea, ack Elam, Denver Pyle, and Russell Johnson, best known for his later role as "the professor" on Gilligan's Island. You remember him, right? He was the guy who could make radios out of coconuts and who could build pretty much anything out of bamboo and vines, except a boat, of course. Back in the day, he played lots of parts in westerns, including a role in Law and Order (1953) where he shot Ronald Reagan. (Hmmmm...the actual last name of the Professor on Gilligan's Island was Hinkley. Eerie coincidence, eh?) But in this flick, Audie Murphy shot him down in a gunfight in a mine. (Ever fire a gun in a mine tunnel? I have. Once. My ears are still ringing.) The movie also features Susan Cabot, who played opposite Murphy in many of his movies, mainly because she was one of the few actresses in Hollywood at the time who was shorter than he was and didn't tower over him.

Anyway, I got four hundred .40 S&W cases primed and ready for the powder measure now, and I've always believed that ammo prepared in the presence of old western greats like Murphy, Wayne, Eastwood and Stewart shoots better and straighter so this should be good stuff.

Now I'm going to go out to the airport and mess with the plane a bit, then maybe go see that new James Bond movie and try to convince myself that Daniel Craig really didn't wreck the whole Bond franchise.

I might also stop by Wal-Mart and see if any of those union flunkies are protesting in front of it, just so I can cross their little picket line and buy something. It's pathetic to think that most of them aren't even Wal-Mart employees but merely shills and paid slugs holding up signs on behalf of unions that want to force their way into Wal-Mart. I'll support any business that keeps unions out just on principle, especially a business that by necessity only hires people to do unskilled drone labor that was never supposed to be career employment in the first place. Big-box store labor jobs are pretty much by definition intended to provide part-time work for people who either want a second income or who are just starting out in the working world. If the people who do work there want more money, they are free to go to school and better themselves or establish themselves there as a good employee and then move on, using Wal-Mart as a positive reference. So to have some fat SEIU toad telling me that I need to pay more for everything at Wal-Mart so that the people who stock shelves, mop floors or stand in front of a cash register can make more money (most of which the union will skim off as "dues") is offensive to me, especially as the union will turn around and use much of that money to buy influence with the Democrats, the political party working to destroy the American way of life as most of us knew it.

Anyway, gotta go. Back later. Have a good "Day after Thanksgiving". And if you're bored, click on the link above and watch the movie.

Wal-Mart after-action report

So after finishing my regularly-scheduled errands, I stopped into Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. Lots of bare shelves there; the locusts have already stripped it of camp stoves, propane, bottled water, flashlights, and pretty much everything else that any rational person should already have in their homes. But still they flooded in, and the parking lot looked like it normally does on the day before Christmas. Inside, the check-lanes all had long lines and the aisles were seriously crowded.

Of course, moving around inside might have been easier except for the fact that so many of these West Virginia women are "double wide", if you know what I mean. Not surprisingly, there seemed to be plenty of Slim-Fast and other diet products remaining on the shelves. Coincidence? Doubt it.

I'd still be there but for my strategy of getting all of my items in a cart or basket, then going to Sporting Goods and buying one box of ammunition..."oh, and all this stuff too, please." The Sporting Goods cashiers hate me. But considering what they charge for ammunition these days, I don't feel too bad about it.

One thing that I am noticing more and more of: Spanish being gabbled about in the aisles. And it's not the employees, either. I swear that half of Mexico is shopping at my local Wal-Mart these days. Or maybe they're Guatemalan. Anyone got the number for Texas Department of Public Safety's Aviation Section?

Another "Damn it!" moment for Hillary as old video of her praising Wal-Mart surfaces

Poor Hillary. She just can't seem to get over on the people that she thinks are so gullible as to buy her current claim that she has always hated and opposed shopping mega-chain Wal-Mart. Trying to court labor leaders, she routinely excoriates the non-union corporation and constantly ducks questions regarding her past tenure as a paid board member of the Wal-Mart Corporation for six years (1986-1992) when she was a mere Governor's wife instead of the ex-President's wife that she now is.

But alas, technology has burned her again. Just like her recent credibility fiasco when she claimed to have "dodged sniper fire" and "run through a hail of bullets" in Kosovo--claims that were roundly discredited when other participants of that trip were interviewed and video from that event was discovered--more video from her past has surfaced, this time showing her beaming and praising Wal-Mart and basking in the glory given her by Sam Walton himself as he compliments her on her contributions as a director of that corporation.

See the video here.

Poor Hillary. She's finding out that it's not as easy to lie to people as it used to be in the old days before technology made so many records and made it so easy to search them. The question now is how long is it going to take her dwindling core of supporters to decide that America wants and needs a President who can be taken at his or her word and not one who is proven to be a liar every time she looks us in the eye and says something.

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