Three Women in MA backed by a pro abortion group are suing Wal-Mart over not stocking "Morning After" pills. These pills can be used for up to five days after conception by basically flushing out the egg before it has a chance of implanting itself on the uterus. Walmart has stated that this is merely a business decision and directs patients on locations such as CVS which carries the pill. The women claim that MA law requires that pharmacies stock all "popular" drug.

I find that this is being turned into a political/law drama which should not be the case. No company should be forced to carry some product out of "public necessity" when there are competitors who will. If you disagree with either of the business/moral decisions of Wal-Mart it is really simple, do not shop there. If enough people believe the way you do, Wal-Mart will respond or disappear like Woolworths. What is unfortunate about this fiasco is that hospitals are required in MA to carry this pill is available for those who are in need of this pill (which there are legitimate cases such as rape victims and others).

This is just a drop in a torrent of anti Walmart news recently. With groups such as Walmart Watch out preaching about the evils of Walmart, it is hard to see that Walmart has any redeeming qualities. In reality, Walmart is merely a reflection of American's values and right now this is an individualistic view which chooses individual happiness over social welfare. This is not inherently good or bad, but Walmart's customers for whatever reason have made a choice that by buying from Walmart they are increasing their purchasing power (due to lower prices) at the expense of others (due to a supposed depression of wages). There are costs involved at both outcomes and there are always "losers." Cases can always be made where Walmart has made the local communities better or worse off.

However, this does not say that Americans are worse off because Walmart spends billions among thousands of suppliers across the United States which also opens these suppliers to markets such as China which Walmart has had tremendous success breaching in recent years (see above picture).

There are many new small busineses that popup everyday and properly structured and managed, they even have a chance to compete with the "big boys", granted we do not see such bullshit as mergers aimed at eliminating competition and artifical barrieres to markets (I always love the taglines such as offering more choices from mergers, but I always wondered how one can have more choices with less...). These are all part of a very dynamic market that is constantly changing, often for the better. Walmart is merely redefining the retail market and change has brought upon much of our dominance over the rest of the world in terms of economic output. I recall the candle industry pressuring for laws against the lightbulb and just think what that could have done to the country had laws against innovation gone into effect (As we can see in the DMCA, there can be too much of a good thing).

Going back to the women, I challenge you to support those who believe in the way you do and if no company does, start a company which encompasses the values you represent. If enough people follow your cause, it will be successful. For if Walmart is really supressing the values of the American public, it will turn out to be like Woolworths which did not change to the changing values of the American public.

-Trevor

Alito was confirmed and voted as Justice on the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Today he has shown that he will not side only with conservative justices by refusing to allow Missouri to execute death-row inmate Michael Taylor. This is probably a good thing for everyone, but conspiracy theorists of course could claim that he is merely doing this as a ploy and then he will show us all the pure evil he has in his dark dark heart. Anyways, it is finally good that the whole thing is done with for now so now the senate can get going on some new issues.

This also marks the new category, Politics. I seem to be on a whole political kick right now (I think it stems from my study group not talking about politics and I need some form of release and force it on all of my readers), and while I'm in this kick, I thought this should fall under a Politics category as it is not really news, it's politics, which is all opinion anyways...not really, as this could lead down a path of moral relativism, a path that that is almost as dark and twisted as sewing drugs in a dog's body to smuggle heroin across the border...

-Trevor

I got back from studying last night just in time to catch the last half of the State of the Union address. While these things are relatively ceremonial (an outline of the speech was posted a day before the actual address), it is a good show of how divided the political spectrum is nowadays. I would like to mention one thing during that speech that made me fairly angry. Bush made a comment that we need to reform social security. While making headlines for a while last year, both parties eventually agreed to pass the bill onto people who will actually be alive when the shit begins to hit the fan. However, the Democrats started to hoot and holler like a bunch of idiot children after Bush said his reforms failed to pass. I guess they enjoy the fact that they have pulled a fast one on the American public and can sit back with their Senate pensions as we all try to scrape along trying to pay high social security taxes (predicted to be around 60% of the government budget by 2030).

The Republicans are definitely not without their faults, one thing I would like to mention is that Bush is pushing for line-item vetoes, something the Republicans opposed Clinton using. This has great potential for getting rid of crap that goes through Congress, such as those small million dollar projects that are often attached to bills of a totally different nature.

I would like to end the comment by saying one thing, opposition can be good to spur debate Democrats, but dammit, don't feed me the bullshit that Republicans are wrong but not give me why or what would youv do to change. That goes for Senator Murtha, who they pulled from the depths of the senate floor for us all to hear his Marlo Brando impression about pulling out of Iraq.

-Trevor