:D

Bruce, its wonderful to read one of your posts again. As always, your thoughts are much appreciated.

I would like to address the Wall Mart issue you raised. Wall Mart has the nasty habit of moving into smaller communities and driving the small business man out of business. I agree that the members of the community should never have supported Wally World in the first place, but they did, and here we are. In my town Wall Mart got rid of Main Street so fast, it made your head spin.

People who live here have the choice of shopping at Wall Mart or the Dollar Store. We do have one independent hardware store remaining and I try to support them, but they don't carry all the items that Wall Mart does. The only other alternative people in this area have is driving 75 miles to the nearest town of any size or shopping via the Internet.

I try my hardest to buy items made in the US. I just purchased via the Internet a pair of clogs made by Merrill which I thought was a true blue American outfit. Wrong! My clogs were made in China. I notice that both catalogs and the Internet have a way of not telling you where something is manufactured. I would love to hear of a laptop computer made in the USA. I'm in the market for one and have been researching them on the Net - none seem to be American made.

Just to set the record straight, I was the one who said that - not the Huffpost. And thank-you. ;)

My bad, sorry.

I tried to use wallmart generically by referring to the blue light special which I think is Kmart. Of course wallmart took the evil to a whole new level, but they would not have been successful without the cooperation of the sheeple that haven't a clue how, or how much, they're getting fucked.

Unfortunately, we've slid the slippery slope so far, even the people that loathe wallmart with every fiber of their being, have lost most of their options.
The bigger problem is the majority still haven't a clue, and now walmart has the money to change legislation to reinforce their choke hold on America.

We as a nation may have lost, and even if not, my actions don't amount to diddly squat. But as a matter of personal pride, I'll never surrender.

What? Have you secretly been a spammer for Token all this time? :lol:

just as monocultures in agriculture are especially vulnerable to catastrophic failure, vastly more exposed to such failures than polycultures that have more diversity, including more options for resistance to a "fatal single bullet", monocultures in economics are just as vulnerable.

They aggregate power and capital to themselves, which is great for the shareholders, I suppose, but they're still vulnerable and when they fail, they fail big. Being maximally efficient in every possible way is not always best. One man's superfluity and excess is another man's crumple zone. One man's duplication of effort is another man's redundancy and backup. Buying local has numerous advantages, not the least of which is helping to keep your neighbor, who may well be your customer as well as your vendor, solvent enough to stay in business, and keep you in business.

This weekend I went shopping with my BD and told her these things. She's very sharp, but still feels she can't "afford" the extra cents to shop locally instead of the big box stores. This is primarily because she's not been informed about the complete costs for the slightly cheaper retail price for the widget she's buying.

Nope, but I can damm sure tell you who I am not going to vote for and there are a whole lot of us out here who are going to do the same....

Meaning, you'll vote in the primaries?

We've long since established your antipathy toward President Obama and your expressed desire to vote him out of office. I get it. My point is that you also make a very big deal about caring nothing for the process to decide who it is that faces President Obama in the general election. Abdicating your responsibility in the primary is tantamount to letting other choose who you'll vote for.

You're letting others pick your vote for you.

Or, if I'm wrong, tell me now who you want to vote for, not just who you'll vote against.

Why should I tell you anything? :lol2:

You shouldn't. You should just shut the fuck up. Really? What are you, twelve?

I'm just going to continue to evaluate you on what you say. If you say nothing, then that's the impact you'll have. Whatever.

Why is that so important to you? What is with all the name calling? Just because I choose not to answer your question you have the right and power to say that my statements will have "no impact"? Really? You are the judge?

And the beat goes on

Yes. If you do not answer, your statements, the lack of a statement has "no impact". But you don't have no statement, you dance and dodge, you say with great emphasis what you're against, but not what you're for. No Obama. Got it. No Democrats and No Republicans. Ok. In a way, you have already answered the original question, who will you vote for. You've made it clear you'll vote for whoever opposes President Obama in the general election next November. I was asking you to be more specific, you demurred.

How in the world do you expect to have an impact, here in the cellar, if you don't make a statement? Yes, I have the right and the power to say that your silence has no impact. I am the judge.

And name calling? You're accusing me of name calling? Do you mean "twelve"? "shut the fuck up"? What's with it? I'm responding to you, in kind. You asked why you should tell me anything after I asked you to do so--fine, I agreed with you (that didn't work either). An exchange like that is the kind of thing I'd expect to have with a petulant twelve year old.

Best question: Why is it so important to me?

I am interested in learning, mercy. I like knowing more stuff. You have a very different perspective than I do, most especially when it comes to politics. Learning about that difference interests me. How else am I supposed to learn and grow if I only pay attention to the stuff I already know about? And another thing, I like you. I know a bit about you after hanging out with you for years, and I think you're a good guy. We don't see eye to eye on everything, but I am interested in you. Now you might not want to reveal your voting preference, fine, whatever. Just another of life's mysteries to me. But I still read your posts because learning is important to me.

Say who? You? I don't care what you think about my thoughts.

So what? I can say what ever I wish, just as you.

Ok, well you have that much right.

I chose not to answer, you resulted for the second time to name calling.

Often no statement is a statement. You don't have to accept that. It is not important to me if you do or do not do so.

In your own narcissistic mind.

Again, not important to me. Just calling you out as you have tried to call me out in the past and then resulted to the same thing. Eh, not really all that important, like your opinions.

Great. I would applaude you and encourage you to continue on your path of self exploration. Well done.

If that is true, you have a really funny way of showing it. I have lost a lot of trust in your approach to me. But that should not be important to you.

Do you? Not until we sit down for a few nights over your choice of poison.

Great. Stay tuned. Right now I am not feeling your love and have not felt it in many months. Peace. Out.

:lol2: