Silenced Majority Portal

"Black Friday" is a Scam - "Buy Nothing" Day Makes More Sense

Dirty secrets of Black Friday 'doorbusters' - Nov. 20, 2009

Many of the "doorbusters" have fine print at the bottom such as "while suppies last" "minimum 2 per store" "all items available in limited quantities.  Suppose they're selling HDTVs or washer-dryer pairs - there may be only 5 per store!  

Here are some dirty secrets uncovered by CNN Money.

Limited quantities.  So they put out circulars to thousands and have plenty of retail space.

Sell products that are  "derivatives."  Means they have less features than a standard model - bait and switch.

They don't tell which specials are online only.  So you go to the store and they're not there and so NO product at the advertised price yet you are there in your PJs at 4 AM.

Online deals that never get shipped for weeks because there are not enough.  So they are not there in time for Christmas.

Rainchecks that aren't honored.  You may get something but not what you wanted.

https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd

World Drowning in Cheap Wine Because of US Recession?

Food & wine | US demand for cheap wine buoys global market | Seattle Times Newspaper

PARIS —

Is the world drowning its sorrows in cheap wine?  An industry group said Thursday that more wine could be consumed globally this year thanks to crisis-fueled demand for cheaper or discounted tipples.

While that might benefit some low-end producers, the organization's director cautioned wine growers to resist what he called the "massive pressure on prices," which erodes profits.

"If you cut too much, it's difficult to go back to your original price," Federico Castellucci told The Associated Press.

The International Organization of Vine and Wine predicts that world wine consumption should rise by 4 percent to 246.3 million hectoliters (6.5 billion gallons) in 2009 from an estimated 244.9 hectoliters last year.

"People who want to keep drinking are buying cheaper wines," said Castellucci, noting that holiday season purchasing has not been tallied, and consumption could yet fall.

He said that the United States, second only to France in terms of wine consumption, has "continued to import but with a strong attention to prices."

The market for wine sold in bulk is growing, he also noted.

Global wine production is expected to remain flat this year at 268 hectoliters, the same level as 2008.

WIngnut Outrage that Best Buy Added Muslim Greeting in Flyer

About That Doing Unto Others Thing... | CommonDreams.org

Now right-wingers are up in vociferously-defended arms because Best Buy's vast and stuff-packed Thanksgiving flyer included a little-bitty ad wishing Muslims "Happy Eid al-Adha," a holiday that 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide mark by giving to charity. Dear hate-and-fear-filled, so-called Christian folks: It's the season of understanding, even among those of us who are not you. Try, please.

"It makes perfect business sense to acknowledge and celebrate a holiday that one out of four people celebrate." - Ahmed Rehab, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Bacon-Crusted Turkey

A-list Search: "Can you fry that for me?" - Fatty foods

Still feeling carnivorous?

Thanksgiving: The Truth Regarding Free-Range Turkeys  -- Even free-range turkeys have often been debeaked and had their toenails clipped

Creepy Food That's Real: Synthetic Estrogen in Progresso Soup etc.

Op-Ed Columnist - Chemicals in Our Food, and Bodies - NYTimes.com

Six pounds per American per year .. in the urine of at least 92% of Americans .. and now in our food.

The chemical industry says it's fine - read about that in the article.  But wouldn't they say that?  Other studies link it to breast cancer, ADHD, babies with mal-formed genitals, etc.

Consumer Reports magazine tested an array of brand-name canned foods for a report in its December issue and found BPA in almost all of them. The magazine says that relatively high levels turned up, for example, in Progresso vegetable soup, Campbell’s condensed chicken noodle soup, and Del Monte Blue Lake cut green beans.

The magazine also says it found BPA in the canned liquid version of Similac Advance infant formula (but not in the powdered version) and in canned Nestlé Juicy Juice (but not in the juice boxes). The BPA in the food probably came from an interior coating used in many cans.

Why Is A CT Scan So Expensive in the US

 The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

There is a simple explanation for why American health care costs so much more than health care in any other country: because we pay so much more for each unit of care. As Halvorson explained, and academics and consultancies have repeatedly confirmed, if you leaveeverything else the same -- the volume of procedures, the days we spend in the hospital, the number of surgeries we need -- but plug in the prices Canadians pay, our health-care spending falls by about 50 percent.

In other countries, governments set the rates that will be paid for different treatments and drugs, even when private insurers are doing the actual purchasing. In our country, the government doesn't set those rates for private insurers, which is why the prices paid by Medicare, as you'll see on some of these graphs, are much lower than those paid by private insurers.

Wall Street Pumpkin Carving

Bush on Tour: "The Market is Fair"

Bush’s motivational speech: Market is ‘fair,’ ‘equitable’ and ‘democratic | Raw Story

“The marketplace works," Bush told a crowd of 11,000 in Texas. "It is fair. It is equitable. It is a fair form of democracy.”

Spooky Abandoned Pod Resort, Taiwan

Taiwan’s Spooky Pod Resort

This is wierd. No one really knows what they were for or what happened, but these resort pods for the wealthy were abandoned after workers had a statistically large number of accidents.

Simulated Collapse of Alaskan Way Viaduct