Update: In November 2006, just days before the start of the holiday shopping season (Coincidence? I think not.) Wal-Mart issued a statement saying that they have chosen to “remain neutral” in social matters and will not give money to organizations with political motives. The AFA has lifted its boycott, but I’m still not spending my money there. It is possible to not shop there. Trust me.

Since dear old Sam Walton died, Wal-Mart has gone from a “Made in the U.S.A”, grass roots, apple pie company to the most (deservedly) vilified corporation in America. 1) Wal-Mart pumps billions of dollars into the sweat-shop industries of the worlds largest human rights violator (China). 2) Wal-Mart unashamedly destroys small town economies. And now, as if conservative Christian Americans needed any more reason to hate the company, 3) Wal-Mart jumped on the homosexual band wagon.

“In an unprecedented push, Wal-Mart Stores has hired a gay-marketing shop, joined the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and begun discussions with activist groups about extending domestic-partnership benefits to its employees.”

According to an article in Advertising Age, Wal-Mart has jumped in with both feet wanting to cash in on the lucrative gay market.

“The steps being taken by Wal-Mart are the strongest signal yet that the company may be taking a permanent stand on the side of gay rights, despite the inevitable lambasting from right-wing conservative groups, such as the Family Research Council and the American Family Association.”

In other words, Wal-Mart is shouting from the roof tops, “Hey middle America! We don’t care what you think. We’re going to make our money any way we can. And we are confident that you will continue to buy our cheap Chinese crap because you’ve already proven to be a bunch of ignorant cattle. So screw you, America! Have a nice day and come again!”

So, have you had enough yet? I have. Until now, I’ve “avoided” Wal-Mart, which is to say, I only shop there when I’m not sure where else to go to find what I need. (Where else do you go when you want to buy a Frisbee or a 50 gallon trash can?) Well, no more. I’m done. (My wife’s going to hate me for this.)

You might be thinking, “How can you not shop at Wal-Mart?” Well, if that’s true, then Wal-Mart is right and we really are a bunch of ignorant cattle. The reason Wal-Mart is what it is today is because we’ve all been to lazy and cheap to face up to their crappy business practices. “Moo!” I say! “Moo!” I will moo no more!

Join me! Let Wal-Mart know that you will moo no more! Contact your local Wal-Mart and the Wal-Mart corporate office:

Rob Walton, Chairman
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 Southwest 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72716
Primary Phone: 1-800-925-6278
Fax: 479-277-2473
E-Mail: Rob Walton, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

It’s official. I am behind. (No, I did not say, “I am A behind.”) It’s crunch time at work. I am taking the lead on Alt-N’s new web site design. Not only are we re-designing the look of the site, we are re-writing it ASP.NET, implementing a new content management system, and re-designing the commerce portion of the site to use a new, custom designed web service model for Microsoft Commerce Server. Dave is truly on the bleeding edge with his modifications to MSCS and I’m just hoping to keep up with him.

Anyway, all this is to say my blogging will continue to suffer at the bottom of my priority list for at least another two weeks. Maybe more.

I have lots of personal news to share and even more topics I’d like to blog about, but I just don’t have the time. I will do my best to squeeze out a couple of posts in the next few weeks, but I can’t make any promises at this point.

Keep the internet warm for me. I’ll be back soon.

I love math. In college, I graduated with somewhere around 24 hours of math credit. (Don’t get me wrong. Differential Equations is strictly the realm of masochists, but I did manage a B.) So it always intrigues me when I talk to people who genuinely hate math. How could you hate numbers. Of all the things in the universe, numbers are the most honest. 2 + 2 always equals 4. Well… unless your dealing with a number system with a base less than 5. Or… if you’re doing integer addition with non-integer values. Or… Oh, never mind. Here is WBQotW #74 (base ten).

If all good things must come to an end, then numbers are not our friend!

When discussing Liv Tyler’s acting prowess…

She has the screen presence of an attractive lamp.

Ouch.

No matter how hot a girl looks, somewhere someone is tired of putting up with her.