Sam Walton had a vision… The store that saved America. American goods sold at low prices to help the average Joe make ends meet and keep Joe’s company running strong. Poor old Sam died in 1992 and his dream died with him.

I vividly remember the big push back in the late 80’s. Wal-Mart was the big new thing and all their commercials talked about buying American. Made in the USA! Whoo Hoo! Apple pie and baseball. Let’s head on down to the Wal-Mart! Of course, I also remember that a few months after the Wal-Mart opened, the K-Mart down the street closed. Then the Anthony’s (cheap clothing store) closed. Then the… well, you know the drill.

The last time I went to Wal-Mart, I did an improptue survey as I strolled through the women’s clothing with my wife. I couldn’t find a single piece of merchandise that was made in the USA. Granted this was not an exhaustive search, but it was enough to turn my stomach.

Wally-World has had a ton of bad press lately. I watched in horror as their CEO was interviewed recently. The guy was as cold and heartless as you can get. The words coming out of his mouth were all about low prices at any cost. Every question about fair wages, health care, and sweatshop merchandise was answered with the same cold, heartless smirk. “We give American’s good products at low prices.” Excuse me while I uneat my American made lunch.

Wal-Mart stocks are hurting and their media image is suffering, but they are fighting back tooth and nail. At least that part of Wal-Mart is still All-American. You poke me in the eye, I’ll gouge yours out! Case in point: http://walmartwatch.com has started running ads in big name news papers explosing Wal-Mart’s dirty laundry. Today, as I was reading the news, I caught a banner ad for Wal-Mart’s newest PR web site, http://www.walmartfacts.com which comes out swinging: “WalMartWatch.com - Do they just make this stuff up?!” Youch!

This month Chistianity Today published an article, “Deliver Us from Wal-Mart”, which discusses the morality of shopping at the big blue. Wal-Mart has been a boon to Christian marketing. They require music labels to produce toned down versions of hip-hop music or they won’t sell it. They push a heck of a lot of Christian media, from VeggieTales to The Purpose Driven Life. But, once again, at what cost? I’m curious to see how Wal-Mart will retaliate for the Christianity Today article.

I’ll let you read all the nitty gritty details. Personally, Wal-Mart is my new least favorite place to shop. I’m not advocatting a boycott or anything, but this consumer will be spending a lot less money on Chinese goods at America’s Superstore.

I have to be honest. I have no idea where this came from, but it’s been sitting in my quip queue for a while.

“I blame the soup. Stupid soup.”

I got this in an email from my nephew, Sgt. Dustin Ladd, who returned from Iraq several months ago. (It looks like Dustin got it from my Uncle Robert, who did two tours in Viet Nam. Either way, it’s priceless.)

If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in theater (That means “in Iraq”, for the rest of us civilians.) during the last 22 months, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000.

The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that you are more likely to be shot and killed in our nation’s capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington D.C.

I’ll get the permit, you guys paint some signs. We gonna have us a peace rally!

“Make Love, Not Laws!”

“No More Violence in the Senate!”

“Hell No, We Won’t Go… to the polls”

I have found that the best way to judge a sequel is to watch it right after it’s predecessor. I really enjoy well thought out spy movies and have been looking forward to seeing the “Bourne”series for a while.

I’m not a huge fan of James Bond or that genre. Yeah, he’s got cool toys and gets all the chicks, but it’s just too predictable and silly. Why drop the guy into a pool of sharks or tie him to a table under an elaborate super laser, when you could just finish him off with a .32 slug to the forehead? Maybe I’m just too smart for Hollywood. But, then there are movies like “The Bourne Identity” and its sequel “The Bourne Supremacy”. The best of this genre are always based on spy novels, probably because people who read are also too smart for Hollywood.

This series concerns a poor fellow who’s lost his memory, Jason Bourne. He doesn’t know who he is or why he was found floating in the Mediterranean with bullets in his back, but he does know how to kung-fu the crap out anyone who tries to push him around, even though he’s not sure how he knows or why so many folks are trying to push him around.

As the story unfolds you find out that he is a government funded assassin. (That’s about the only predictable thing in the whole series.) And, since the government has lost track of him, they assume he’s become a rogue agent. Their solution? Kill him, of course. (Okay, I guess that was a little predictable too.)

The cinematography, the script, the special effects, and even the acting are all superb. The fight scenes were probably some of the best I’ve ever seen, not only in the choreography, but in the way they were shot. Everything happens quickly and is shot up close which quick movement as if you were standing between the guys while they punched, kicked and stabbed. Very exciting.

In the DVDs extra features, I learned why. These movies were directed by a couple of guys outside the Hollywood scene. They were indy directors who wanted their movies to look like indy films. They went out of their way to avoid Hollywood camera work, Hollywood scene blocking, and Hollywood predictability. Even the dialog was minimally directed. Let the actors act. And boy does it work!

Lumping these two flicks together for one rating is a bit unfair. Each of them is really good in its own right. Each of them is good enough to sit on the same shelf will all the great Clancy movies. (And Matt Damon is seriously threatening Harrison Ford, in my mind, for the perfect spy movie actor. Not overtaking, but threatening.) However, I do recommend watching the two in sequence to make them easier to follow, the same as I would recommend for the Lord of the Rings trilogy (even though it is a 15 hour marathon). I gave LotR five grins, and I’m hesitant to put Borne on such a high pedestal. But they really are excellent films, so I must relent and award only the second ever five grin rating.

Tammy’s out of town this weekend and I decided to treat myself to a big movie weekend. I logged on to the internet movie database and picked several off of my wish list. Then I headed to the video store. When I walked in, the clerk smiled and said, “Hi, Trint.” Is it just me or is it weird that he knows my name. He doesn’t even ask for my phone number when I check out anymore. It’s not like I watch movies every weekend. Gosh!

One of the DVDs I picked was Napoleon Dynamite. I’ve been hearing so much about it and it seems so divisive (either you hate it or think it’s “friggin’ awesome”), I’ve been dying to see what all the hype is about.

I’m not sure I can fit this film into my normal “grins” rating system. It’s just too unconventional. Certainly it is a comedy, but it’s not a ha-ha laugh out loud comedy (although I did a few times). It doesn’t follow any Hollywood norms (which I usually praise movies for) and even the nerdy clichés have some inventiveness to them.

I’d have to say I enjoyed the show, but it did leave me… contemplative. While I occasionally laughed and often snickered at the plight of the socially handicapped cast, deep down inside me a 14-year-old kid with uncontrollable, spiky hair, poorly fitting clothes, and braces cried.

After watching the movie, I sat down at my computer. I wanted to see if any of my multitude of on-line friends were on. Neither of them were. I checked to see what was going on on my on-line role playing game, but all was quiet. I looked up at my mint condition theatrical release Lord of the Rings movie poster, then to might right, at my complete collection of LotR figurines from Burger King (that actually talk… awesome). I began to think, “Jeez… Maybe I am a nerd. Maybe I am Napoleon Dynamite.”

When I returned the DVD to the video store, the weekend clerk was there. He doesn’t know my name or my phone number. As he was retrieving my next set of movies, all comic book inspired, he asked me if I liked Napoleon. “Eh, it was pretty good.” Then he asked me if I had ever seen “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”… as he was handing me the DVD for “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”. “Umm. No. That’s why I’m renting it.”

“It’s really cool… if you’re into comic books and stuff. It’s kinda weird, but if you ever read the comic book then it’s really cool. Have you seen…”

Then he went into a long list of similarly nerdy flicks which I had not seen, some not even heard of. Suddenly, all was right with the world again. God had reminded me just in time that the difference between geek and nerd is like the difference between pi and 22/7. Not even close… after the first few digits.

Don’t forget, boys and girls, “Geek is sheik.” Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a +30% damage crossbow that’s crying out for orc blood. Friggin’ awesome!