Tuesday, December 09, 2003
"BAH, HUMBUG" IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT:
It was no surprise that the hopelessly liberal press played up the tale of a woman trampled by bargain-crazed Christmas shoppers at a Wal-Mart. Of course lefty "independent media centers" ran reports like Capitalism's Greatest Hits. You expect them to be anti-business. They were already so mad at this chain for providing such great jobs to the poor in the third world that they were calling for boycotts of the stores, as The Fulcrum did in Conflicted Shopping.
The surprise came when supposed conservative George Will also piled on to denounce the comercialization of the holiday in Blame the Puritans referring to "Oliver Cromwell, whose piety caused him to ban the celebration of Christmas." George should realize that, unless you're just automatically pro-business without carping, then The Terrorists Have Already Won (TM). He needs to go back and read his sainted Ludwig Von Mises about how The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality is fostered by lazy ivory tower elitists. (In another essay he also blamed mystery writers, but I think Will's free of that vice so far.)
How embarrassed George must be now that the real truth has come out. According to 'Trampled' Wal-Mart Shopper Has History Of Injury Claims "Vanlester has filed 15 previous claims of injuries at Wal-Mart stores and other places she has shopped or worked, according to Wal-Mart, court files and state records. Her sister, who accompanied her Friday on the visit to Wal-Mart, has also filed a prior injury claim against Wal-Mart, with Vanlester as her witness...." The store said "We will investigate this claim as thoroughly as we have the other 10 claims that this customer and her sister have brought against our stores in the past."
Either this is the most accident prone family in America, or else the corporation, as always, is the innocent victim here, but George Will caved in early and blamed greed. No, George should remember that greed is always good. I'll bet he's one of those secret bleeding hearts who thinks that A Christmas Carol has a happy ending, when Scrooge's tragic conversion in that early Marxist fable is really just more left wing anti-business propaganda.
UPDATE: Neither actual trampling, nor becoming an unwilling witness in a lawsuit scam, is what you really need to worry about at Wal-Mart anyway. In North Carolina a sheriff decided "to send deputies to Wal-Mart to find potential jurors. ... Their search at the discount store on Nov. 26 — the day before Thanksgiving -- resulted in confrontations with people shopping for Christmas gifts. ... Deputies found 50 candidates at Wal-Mart, and at least one of them was seated for the trial, which began Tuesday." Read it at Sheriff Sorry for Misinterpreting Order.
It was no surprise that the hopelessly liberal press played up the tale of a woman trampled by bargain-crazed Christmas shoppers at a Wal-Mart. Of course lefty "independent media centers" ran reports like Capitalism's Greatest Hits. You expect them to be anti-business. They were already so mad at this chain for providing such great jobs to the poor in the third world that they were calling for boycotts of the stores, as The Fulcrum did in Conflicted Shopping.
The surprise came when supposed conservative George Will also piled on to denounce the comercialization of the holiday in Blame the Puritans referring to "Oliver Cromwell, whose piety caused him to ban the celebration of Christmas." George should realize that, unless you're just automatically pro-business without carping, then The Terrorists Have Already Won (TM). He needs to go back and read his sainted Ludwig Von Mises about how The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality is fostered by lazy ivory tower elitists. (In another essay he also blamed mystery writers, but I think Will's free of that vice so far.)
How embarrassed George must be now that the real truth has come out. According to 'Trampled' Wal-Mart Shopper Has History Of Injury Claims "Vanlester has filed 15 previous claims of injuries at Wal-Mart stores and other places she has shopped or worked, according to Wal-Mart, court files and state records. Her sister, who accompanied her Friday on the visit to Wal-Mart, has also filed a prior injury claim against Wal-Mart, with Vanlester as her witness...." The store said "We will investigate this claim as thoroughly as we have the other 10 claims that this customer and her sister have brought against our stores in the past."
Either this is the most accident prone family in America, or else the corporation, as always, is the innocent victim here, but George Will caved in early and blamed greed. No, George should remember that greed is always good. I'll bet he's one of those secret bleeding hearts who thinks that A Christmas Carol has a happy ending, when Scrooge's tragic conversion in that early Marxist fable is really just more left wing anti-business propaganda.
UPDATE: Neither actual trampling, nor becoming an unwilling witness in a lawsuit scam, is what you really need to worry about at Wal-Mart anyway. In North Carolina a sheriff decided "to send deputies to Wal-Mart to find potential jurors. ... Their search at the discount store on Nov. 26 — the day before Thanksgiving -- resulted in confrontations with people shopping for Christmas gifts. ... Deputies found 50 candidates at Wal-Mart, and at least one of them was seated for the trial, which began Tuesday." Read it at Sheriff Sorry for Misinterpreting Order.
