h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What a lot of people object to is that Walmart had corporate attitude that local concerns be d@mned when plunking a store into a community.

Sure, their prices are low and people say that they are a good company to work for. However, they have been known to use legal clout to put their stores up on Civil War battlegrounds and Native American burial grounds. They are most definitely anti-union.

"WalMart was the number 24 top contributor in the year 2000 to the Repulican Party ($630,000) of businesses with global consumer brands." http://www.everyvotematters.com/boycott/www.html

http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/magazine/issue9/cw9f1.html
http://www.dickshovel.com/wal2.html
http://www.nuro.com/stopthewal/
http://www.lightlink.com/hours/ithacahours/archive/9406.html
http://www.walmartsurvivor.com/
http://hawaii.sierraclub.org/press/releases02/walmart1028.pdf

I find it hard to square with the image of the company in the UK. But perhaps the British arm just has a more enlightened attitude. I also suppose that many of the criticisms could be directed with equal justification at any of the large retail chains, Tesco or Sainsbury for instance. A friend of mine was a senior manager at Sainsbury and was treated abominably by his boss. This was pretty typical.

I know that if I buy my produce at ASDA it is (a) going to be cheap and easy to locate (b) good quality and (c) I get a good level of service because the staff actually enjoy working there. I go to Sainsbury's, and I have to navigate my way around huge shelves bulging with overpriced, pretentiously conceived and marketed goods. Food retail has almost become a kind of pornography. I'm f***ed off with *not* being able to buy basic produce at a reasonable price, NOT whether the balsamic vinegar has been aged in oak vats.

I just heard it said on NPR that Halliburton has announced a 63% increase in turnover (I didn't catch whether that was for the quarter, the year, or whatever), and that they have so far secured $9,000,000,000 worth of taxpayer's money in government contracts since the Iraq war began.

One thing which did surprise me though is that they didn't make a profit because of asbestos claims payouts.

Good thing for them we had a war eh, otherwise they might have had a bad financial year.

So, Dubya has announced that he'll be setting up an inquiry into the pre-war intelligence which said that Iraq had whoosh bang ooh nasties. He'll be appointing the members, he'll be setting the terms of the investigation, and it won't report until after the election.

Looks like 'Doing a Hutton' has entered the American consciousness. No surprise there then.

What a wonderful language the English language is. So much scope for nuance and barbs.

To 'do a Hutton' will proudly sit alongside being 'economical with the actualite' and 'coming over all Ernest Saunders'.

It fair makes my heart sing with pride...

You forgot:

'The fragrant ' and 'Small but perfectly formed'