I have been well aware of Global Warming and eco problems since high school. I was lucky enough to go to a school where the science teachers spent time talking about real issues, not just theory and hypotheses out of textbooks. I have been concerned about weather and environmental changes for some time, so it’s great to see so many people share my concern and start making changes in their lives to curtail additional damage to the planet.

I have been personally making some changes in the ways I think, shop, recycle, and live to help reduce my personal carbon footprint. In my reading I was recently introduced to the concept of Carbon Offsets, where you give money to companies or funds that is used to plant trees, clean up the environment, provide cleaner water, and perform various other eco-friendly tasks. When I first read about it, it sounded great on paper. If you have to fly somewhere, you donate some money to plant some trees. How nice.

If you were not convinced that the American news media has its priorities wrong, this one incident should be evidence enough. Larry King rescheduled Michael Moore’s hour long interview about his new movie SiCKO to interview Paris Hilton the day after her release from prison. Rather than showing some journalistic integrity and allowing Michael Moore to discuss his movie and the state of health care in America, King pandered to the unwashed masses and interviewed the vapid heiress for an entire hour.

I expect this kind of behavior from a talk show host, or from a major network that’s trying to win ratings. I did not, however, expect this to happen on CNN, which much of the country trusts for its news. The fact that Moore was going to be discussing his movie, which highlights the shortcomings of the health care and insurance industry in this country, makes it that much worse. Americans need to hear the truth about how some of the major health care insurance providers have denied payments for life saving treatments to their customers. Moore’s movie is a vital instrument in the campaign to create a national health care system which could save hundreds of lives each year. Instead viewers got to see Paris Hilton’s drawings from when she was in prison, and hear her read the poems she wrote while locked up. Somehow that doesn’t seem like a fair trade.

If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was alive today, what would he say about the state of our country? It’s 2007, yet two baptist churches in Eastern North Carolina burned this week and arson is suspected. Our President wants to send more toops to Iraq like lambs to slaughter in a conflict that has no end in sight. The middle class is being slowly squeezed into a thing of fond memory in American culture. And perhaps the saddest thing of all is how the Katrina victims were treated. Since our current political administration took over it seems as though a lot of what Dr. King fought for has been eroded by our government. What would he have to say?

I am yet another victim of the giant financial pox on our society that goes by the name of Bank of America. Even though I read thousands of horror stories about what consumers of all backgrounds and levels of wealth had experienced at Bank of America, I still signed up for a Checking and a Savings account. My parents do their banking at BoA and it was most convenient if I had my accounts at the same bank so money transfers would be free and painless. I was a Washington Mutual customer for almost 5 years and never had a problem. In fact I can count all of the times I called their customer service number or the local branch on my fingers in that time. I am used to basic checking and savings accounts with no fees, preferably no maintenance fees, and a reasonable fee schedule. I love my family but I will never choose a bank to make someone else happy again.

I am still astounded that a bank would charge someone a fee if they did not have a recurring direct deposit. It’s a free checking account that is non-interest bearing with no minimum balance and I pay for checks. Give me a break! I never had to pay a fee like that at any other bank and I’ve had accounts at almost 10 banks in my short life thus far. When I look through all of the available accounts, BoA is screwing their customers on each one of them one way or another.

Bank of America has also changed their fee schedule as of the beginning of the new year. My parents found this out the hard way and are also planning on moving all of their accounts away from BoA. The amount of transactions on almost every account type have been reduce and fees for a lot of things have gone up. Not to mention that the ATMs my parents and I use (mind you we’re in different states) are chronically out of order and the bank staff doesn’t even blink at angry customers waiting to use the ATM. I hope that people wise up and start a nice mass exodus from BoA and go back to local banks who care about them. I for one am tired of feeling expendable when I pay money to use a service so I’ve taken my business elsewhere.

I started reading Wil Wheaton’s blog a few years ago when he was one of the few celebrities who had a blog or any type of interactive web site. Hell his blog existed before MySpace (you mean there was life before MySpace.. *GASP*), so he’s got some street cred in the blogging community.

Anyway I always used to enjoy when Wil went off on a political tirade usually full of venom for some member of the vast right-wing conspiracy he had in his crosshairs at the moment. Yes i am exaggerating about the venom and the crosshairs but not about the fact that Wil always felt free to voice his thoughts about politics and especially about our current President. Recently, however, he’s been posting a lot of family-friendly bonding with the kids kinda stuff. He also blogged through a poker tournament which I just found odd. Poker + beer + smoking = normal. Poker + blogging = ??

Anyway Wil went off about Bush allowing himself access to everyone’s snail mail, and defended himself with valid stats when the public backlash started in his following post. This is the kind of stuff that always drew me into his blog and its unfortunate that he doesn’t get riled up more often. I guess he’s busy protecting his wife and kids from having their email and snail mail read and having their phones tapped.

Today I returned some Christmas gifts to Wal-Mart. I am hopeful that that was my last trip to Wal-Mart ever as I resolved to boycott the store in the New Year. If I am successful at surviving without Wal-Mart in 2007 I may never return to the store if I can help it.

My reasons for boycotting Wal-Mart are numerous, but the vast majority of them have been identified by bloggers and news outlets world wide already. We all know that Wal-Mart is destroying the American economy and eroding society.

1. When Wal-Mart enters a community, small businesses close because they are unable to compete with Wal-Mart’s pricing schemes even if they are providing higher quality goods that are not imported from China. Displaced employees of the businesses that close are forced to take lower paying jobs at Wal-Mart and many of them are unable to afford Wal-Mart’s benefits package even if they are offered benefits.
2. Certain Wal-Marts seem to pay male and female employees on different pay scales. There are a few current law suits going on about this matter and even though it’s still up in the air, I’ve heard it with my own ears from enough Wal-Mart employees to believe it.
3. Wal-Mart hires employees (either directly or through outside agencies) that have questionable immigration status.
4. When I enter a Wal-Mart, 90% of the time I am unable to find an associate that can assist me with my questions or who can direct me to the goods I am looking for. When I lived in Orlando, FL for almost 5 years, the Wal-Mart closest to my home employed an almost entirely spanish speaking staff. Unfortunately, less than 10% of them spoke English, therefore getting assistance was virtually impossible.
5. The goods are of inferior quality and will need replacing several times compared to similar items purchased at other stores.
6. The vast majority of the goods are imported from China.
7. The prices on the self are regularly inaccurate.
8. Wal-Mart does not check the integrity of goods that are returned before they re-shelf them for sale again.
9. Wal-Mart embraces censorship.
10. The smock and smiley face are just degrading and insulting. When is the last time you saw a Wal-Mart employee smile?

Americans used to fight for quality products. People used to read Consumer Reports before they made a purchase or they listened to product news to make informed decisions about what they were planning to buy. When I was growing up, my parents used to spend a lot of money on one or two pairs of sneakers or shoes for me to wear to school. Now mothers would rather take their kids to Wal-Mart and buy several pairs of shoes of an inferior quality (replacing the cheap ones when they wear out) than buy one pair of quality shoes with a good guarantee that could last several months to a year.

I understand that people would oppose my stance because Wal-Mart allows people who have very little money to afford to live a more comfortable life. Some of the poorest people in the poorest areas of America (dirt roads, no electricity, no sewer systems, no running water) are the people who would benefit the most from companies like Wal-Mart. Do you ever see a Wal-Mart planned in or near to these areas? No because they would not make enough money in these communities to warrant the cost of opening a facility.

I am not boycotting Wal-Mart with the intention of starting some big local movement to block Wal-Mart from the Raleigh area. I am not doing this in league with any of the big existing organizations that are taking steps to fight Wal-Mart. I am doing this on my own of my own volition. I am doing this simply because I feel that there are no positive effects of the growth of Wal-Mart. I don’t feel that the few cents that I could possibly save there makes up for having to purchase replacement items constantly and
helping to sustain the trade imbalance the U.S. has with China. I hope that other people who read my blog would be compelled to do the same.

Anyone else find it peculiar that “intelligence” is saying that there are Al Qaeda in the U.S. planning an attack between the political conventions and the election? The first reports just didn’t say that there were Al Qaeda here planning an attack. They went so far as to announce that the attack was being planned to occur between the conventions and the election, conveniently. I, personally, have come to accept the fact that no matter what we do, Al Qaeda and their supporters live, work, and thrive within the boundaries of this country. I am not, however, as receptive of the thought that our “intelligence” has determined that the attack will happen within a specific period of time. American intelligence is an oxymoron when it comes to terrorism. These are the people who tried to pursue a video game character. At any rate, my parents and I agreed months ago that the Bush camp would have found “intelligence” indicating a stragetically timed attack on this country. After all the bad press Bush is dealing with now, you would think that this “intelligence” ploy would’ve been scratched off the list. Jason finds this one fishy and he’s been known to occasionally say good things about Bush. Oh well.