All else aside, I’m glad to see the Giant Rat is still getting around. We had one of his brethren here in Berkeley for a few months, outside an auto dealership/service shop that got bought out by a union-buster. An agreement has been reached and the picket line’s gone. A rather festive one it was, too, and some of us miss seeing the Rat as we go down Shattuck Avenue.

Those Rats are made by a guy in Chicago, who sells them exclusively to unions: Great Moments in Niche Marketing.

Because Wal-Mart was always bad for urban areas. And rural areas.
[snip]
In New York, one of the major objections to Wal-Mart has been its lack of union jobs and living wage. Every time they try to discuss a new location, the Giant Rat comes out (a 10-foot-tall inflatable rat that is situated outside nonunion shops). Now, there are nonunion businesses in town, but they tend to be of the type, like Costco, where nonunion status is maintained by giving the workers better than they’d get with a union.

Wal-Mart, if you’ll remember, closed its stores in Quebec rather than bend to the province’s right-to-work laws.

I’m no fan of the organization, mainly because it can keep it’s prices so low because it is indirectly subsidized (perhaps directly too, dunno) by government giving welfare (too) to it’s employees, IIRC.

I also recall that it is not just disliked by liberals/progressives, but by some conservatives too, if this is representative. Not by the current admin, of course, because Wal-Mart (IIRC) gives quite a lot money to their campaign funding.

I merely pointed out, by highlighting the sequence of events, that this is unlikely to change anyones mind about it, because it did the best thing under the surprising circumstances.

The real fool here is Andrew Young, who comes across as quite a power-mongering opportunist as opposed to someone who is genuinely interested in social justice.

Wal-Mart, if you’ll remember, closed its stores in Quebec rather than bend to the province’s right-to-work laws.

I may be wrong, but as far as I know, there are no right to work laws in Canada.

Even if there are, they didn’t play a role in this instance. The workers voted to join the union (kinda) and then a few months later Walmart closed the store.

Also, they only closed one store. There are still about 50 Walmarts in Quebec.

And this is damning of Wal-Mart, and leads to conclusion that Wal-Mart is bad for urban areas because…

Because Wal-Mart was always bad for urban areas. And rural areas.

Andrew Young was focusing on the Korean/Jew-owned food stores, but he neglected to mention the black-owned small businesses that would be put out of business by Wal-Mart. The clothing stores and the shoe stores and the appliance stores.

In New York, one of the major objections to Wal-Mart has been its lack of union jobs and living wage. Every time they try to discuss a new location, the Giant Rat comes out (a 10-foot-tall inflatable rat that is situated outside nonunion shops). Now, there are nonunion businesses in town, but they tend to be of the type, like Costco, where nonunion status is maintained by giving the workers better than they’d get with a union.

Wal-Mart, if you’ll remember, closed its stores in Quebec rather than bend to the province’s right-to-work laws.

Oh, and Sarah? Go stir shit somewhere else.

I’ve heard the same thing. There are also multiple lawsuits which have been brought by employees all over alleging racial or gender discrimination.

Hey everyone. This is my first post on your blog. I just started reading this article and it appears you guys are into feminism and brought it up in the comments. To be honest, I really don’t know much about the whole organization in depth(except that it’s for women’s rights), but I would like to learn more. I would probably consider myself a male feminist. From whatever little stuff I read about it in the past, it seems like you guys do good things. What do you guys here personally believe in when it comes to this stuff?

You’re right, Andrew. Feminism isn’t a state of mind, it’s a single organization. With tax-exempt status and an office, and fundraisers. We do bake sales in which some feminists make sugar cookies shaped like penises, and the other feminists eat those phalluses up to the last crumb. And we have blood sacrifices at the new moon, and on the third Monday of every month we all go and get recreational abortions together because it’s so entertaining and we get a group discount.

And we’re all lesbians, every single one, even the ones who are married to men. Because you see, no real man could tolerate being married to a feminist instead of a real woman. After they’ve gotten the satisfactory number of children out of a husband, the married feminist castrates him, lobotomizes him, and keeps him around for the housework. An d to look after the kids while she’s off at the coven plotting the downfall of western civilization. So hard to get babysitters on short notice, you know.

Andrew, sweetie, if your comment was satire, you are brilliant and I adore you. In fact, I may want to have your babies (of course, I also want to have Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s babies, because those’d be some damn funny kids).

If it was serious, may I humbly suggest that you either browse some of the old posts here or do a google search about feminism? Possibly both. If you really want to know, there are lots of easy ways of finding out. An awful lot of people show up on feminist blogs wanting two-paragraph Cole’s Notes explanations of feminism from random regulars, and some of us hairy-legged, baby-killing dykes get a little tired of it after a while, particularly since basic info about feminism is not exactly a closely-guarded secret to anybody with Grade 6-level literacy and above. Which, given that there were no spelling or grammatical mistakes in your post, I’m assuming you have.

The only reason I’m answering you at all is because I’m home sick on a Friday night and playing on the internet is something that can be done fairly easily when high as a kite on anti-histamines and other assorted wonder drugs. Also, I’ve already seen all my DVDs.

I just started reading this article and it appears you guys are into feminism

At Feministe? Whatever tipped you off?

Hey everyone. This is my first post on your blog. I just started reading this article and it appears you guys are into feminism and brought it up in the comments. To be honest, I really don’t know much about the whole organization in depth(except that it’s for women’s rights), but I would like to learn more. I would probably consider myself a male feminist. From whatever little stuff I read about it in the past, it seems like you guys do good things. What do you guys here personally believe in when it comes to this stuff?

1) Wal-Mart hires a noted civil rights leader, Andrew Young, to improve their public image
2) Civil rights leader turns out, unexpectedly, to be an anti-semite and a racist
3) Wal-Mart distances itself from Mr. Young

And this is damning of Wal-Mart, and leads to conclusion that Wal-Mart is bad for urban areas because…

Yeargh.