Watch Out for Falling Prices....Oh, and the Klansmen

So this interesting little tidbit of information came across my desk today....

[Editor's Note: The author owns no desk, this is merely a figure of speech or his pathetic attempt at impressing you.]

Yeah, thanks...anyway, as I was saying....this item came to my attention today.

Seems Wal-Mart is finding itself needing to apologize to, well, all decent-minded people in the world concerning a "problem" with some new services they're providing.

See Wal-Mart, feeling it necessary to have its fingers in every commercial pie on Earth, has begun it's own internet movie rental business, hoping to mine some of the success enjoyed by Netflix and Blockbuster.

I'm sure we all have some idea as to how these sites work, so I'll not be their salesman, but you may not be familiar with one particular service offered. See Netflix and Blockbuster, based on an individual's rental history, will make recommendations of other films one might enjoy.

Basic example: "Hey there Customer X, you rented Armageddon. Therefore, you might enjoy the rest of Michael Bay's mindless pap."

Now the merits of this service can be debated by other bloggers on other blogs, but I'm sure someone finds it useful as all these internet rental companies provide it. So Wal-Mart, in the spirit of keeping up with the Jones' and then destroying them, created its own automated recommendation service. Can you just feel where this is going?

Seems on Wal-Mart's site, unlike its competitors, the customer profiling has gone to an entirely new level. On Wal-Mart's site if you, for reasons I cannot imagine, rent Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, you will be provided with a roster of recommendations. Among them, I'm sure, would be the rest of the Tim Burton catalog, perhaps Gorillas in the Mist and without a doubt the noted Matt LeBlanc classic Ed. Unfortunately you will also have recommended for you biopics and documentaries about folk like Martin Luther King, Dorothy Dandridge and Tina Turner.

OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!

Wal-Mart claims no knowledge of how their software made such connections. Here's my theory:

Some racist motherfucker at the corporate giant thought it would be funny.

JESUS H. CHRIST!!!

You know, I thought I had enough reasons already to never shop at Wal-Mart. Now they're providing a list of why their stores should be fire-bombed. (Wal-Mart.com movie connection=Backdraft)

I really wanted to start this post with the happy thought of the day. Seems Tom DeLay (Justice as much as he can.) will not be seeking to re-assume his post as Senate Majority Leader. Yeah, turns out he might be in prison.

That just doesn't bring as big a smile as it should to my lips today. I really fucking hate Wal-Mart.

Til next time friends.

JeffRey