This should probably be posted to 3sadsemesters

[quidditchgrrl]

Immigration? Let us consult the Constitution.

So long as profit prevails over decent wages and lazy-ass Americans refuse to do the "dirty jobs", there has to be a steady stream of SOMEONE to clean toilets and pick strawberries. (Some blowhard on NPR claimed that immigration hurts low-skilled American workers, especially those without high school diplomas. Hello! Lazy, not low-skilled!)

So long as they aren't criminals, and they pay taxes (and if the company they work for isn't breaking the law, they DO pay taxes), I'll take that over paying $10 a quart for strawberries.

I caught a little bit from Mind of Mencia that sums it up pretty nicely: Carlos Mencia said, "yeah, let's kick ALL the immigrants out. Everybody out. Because nothing would be sweeter to my ears in the morning than hearing [knocking] [Texas accent] 'Hey, housekeeping, y'all.'"

Also, Wal-Mart to offer organic produce? Isn't the whole point of organic the small, replenishable, profitable domestic farm? That article is scary. If there was ever a reason for us to buy a home, it's the advantage of growing our own vegetables. Eek.

This is why I should not listen to NPR. I hate fair and balanced asshattery. :|

Last night's The Colbert Report totally rocked. He totally pwned Mike Brown. What a whiny, blame-deflecting asshat (Mike Brown, not Stephen).

So what do you all think?

Comments

[oli-essenziali.livejournal.com]

The concerns that WalMart might drive down the standards of organic foods and that it might force farmers into lower profits are legitimate, but it would great if WalMart did lower prices on organic produce and make them more affordable to a larger percent of the population. Healthy food shouldn't just be for the elite.

The move into organic produce seems to have already happened in the major supermarket retailors in England, where the requirements for organic food are much higher. Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsburys - they all have their own store brands of organic produce, making organics widely available and more competitively priced. Sainsburys is actually looking to buy an island in the Carribean to devote to organic growing. If WalMart didn't go into organics, some other major retailor would.

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

We, as Americans, have been very spoiled by low, low Wal-Mart prices. We expect that fruits and veggies will be low cost, plentiful, and available year-round. (There was a comic in our local paper showing a woman shopping for fruit, which had a sign reading, "Oranges picked by American workers, 3 for $20" LOL)

Wal-Mart has a long and storied history of bullying their suppliers into bottom-barrel prices. There is no such thing as "fair-market price" when you deal with Wal-Mart. Farmers who deal with Wal-Mart will have to scrabble to make ends meet, which could force them into illegal activities (like hiring undocumented workers) or force them to sell their farms to commerical growers. And wouldn't THAT be convenient?!

The article highlights the disturbing new lobbying by larger organic firms (Kraft and General Mills have organic branches) to change some of the requirements for the label "organic" to include foods made with certain "natural" ingredients (like dyes and preservatives, things I am allergic to). That will probably happen in the next year or so. Yech.

I don't think non-organic food is necessarily more healthy, just grown in better conditions. It's the difference between quality and price, you know? Better quality, higher price. Wal-Mart has kind of destroyed that universal truth.