Drive past many small towns in the south and you see the same thing-- an empty big-box store in the heart of town surrounded by the remenants of the smaller businesses that couldn't compete. The original stores are gone, the jobs are gone, even the Wal-Mart is gone to be super-sized near the closest highway exit ramp. So if Wal-Mart feels threatened by some silly satire, I say let's make the threat real. Make Wal-Mart pay. It is truly an evil empire. (ignore the fact that I got my kid a PowerWheels from Wal-Mart for Christmas-- hey, it was only $74.00, so how was I to resist? Confound those pricesavers!)

Looking at that walmartwatch link and the phony Buy American subsection reminds me of an idea I have been meaning to propse to Wal-Mart. They should buy and rename some small Taiwanese or Malaysian village and rename it America, Taiwan (or America, Malaysia) and make the town flag identical to the American flag except have, say, 53 stars or something. They could have all prospective vendors establish manufacturing plants there. That way, when they say "Buy American" they wouldn't be lying.

Here's an interesting link on music piracy from today's Slashdot.