it sure is better than being kicked in the groin.

here's a shocker: fox news is a skewed media empire that deliberately lies to their viewers. also, i'll bet you didn't know that walmart is a selfish corporate entity with no honest concern for the struggling worker it employs. enlightenment is a poweful thing, huh?

transparent sarcasm aside, if you haven't figured it out by now my netflix subscription has clearly allowed me to get a taste of the dangerously informative underbelly of the documentary world. needless to say, i've felt compelled to at least respond to what i've seen, and then promptly get distracted elsewhere. but that's neither here nor there. so while my mind is racing, i'll continue ...

my response is simple: i don't get my news from television and i don't shop at walmart. besides being the obvious and logical choice, i am also aware of how 'fasionable' it is to be childishly outspoken about such truths.

so am i taking the easiest route available? of course. hell, i can't even watch foxnews in the first place since i don't pay for cable, and i can't even tell you where the nearest walmart is. essentially, i am fully aware my saying this is really just a pathetic expression of self-indulgent nobility.

but the facts speak for themselves in terms of walmart's purposeful and debiliatating presence; hefty doses of subsidization have provided the billions of dollars necessary to build new stores, their employees were forced to extract even more billions of tax dollars in health care from the government, they're consistantly fined by the EPA, and they have even had construction halted in states such as pennsylvania because of environmental violations. this is in addition to the obvious; walmart's destruction of the delicate commercial system of small american towns and the quiet exploitation of migrant workers overseas. their workers, especially in countries like china and bangladesh, supposedly have no rights whatsover.

in another vein, reinventing the wheel in terms of criticism for foxnews is a waste of my time. everyone already knows how pathetic it is that a large portion of americans are getting their daily news from a biased source and don't even know it.

the point is, in the end this all leaves me with a paralyzing feeling of helplessness. obviously, i will continue to go along my daily life providing absolutely no support for either one of these organizations, which in the grand scheme of things has about the same impact as a mosquito colliding with a bowling ball ... but what can i do really? it is well documented that hundreds of american communites have stood up to companies such as these and won, but in those situations most of the people joining forces were either directly affected or bored retirees tired of soduku and re-runs of the golden girls. until i am one of these 'victims,' i find it hard to see myself doing anything more than pissing, moaning, handing out empty gestures and taking the moral high road.

additionally, i think i need a rug for my apartment.

oh, and in two weeks i will have lived in portland a year. an event this monumentous at the very least deeserves a horrifically reflective blog post. hold on to your butts.

that is all.