Those coming to the tea parties to change Wonderland needs to realize that all the problems in Wonderland are not caused by the Red Queen that controls the White House on the Potomac, nor the Mad Hatter party that control the Hill. They are the results of the abdication of Wonderland by its citizens. If the people of Wonderland really wanted to restore it to what it was before the reds took over, a great many changes need to be made far beyond the Potomac and Mad Hatter Hill.

One of the problems in Wonderland came to me today while shopping at Wal-Mart. First lets go back a few weeks to news releases where Wal-Mart told Wonderland they would be rolling back prices on thousands of products by the time the Rabbit arrives. On Easter day I just happened to be in Wal-Mart because we had a hour to kill on the way to an afternoon Easter get together. I was surprised at all the roll backs on prices in Wal-Mart. Most of the things that I buy regularly were as much as twenty percent cheaper than they were just a week prior. I am quite aware that a upward price creep had been going on for quite some time at Wal-Mart. So to see the rollbacks take place as promised was refreshing but I also wondered why a discount store had been charging so much if they really could make a profit at the current prices. I have been led to believe that discount stores like Wal-Mart only make pennies over their actual costs on each item. Apparently that is nothing but a fable or they could not have reduced certain items by as much as 20 percent.

We did not have time to do any regular shopping on Easter, that would be done Tuesday (today). So today, two days later, I drove the 35 miles to Wal-Mart and immediately noticed that almost all the roll backs were gone. Not only that, prices of many things were higher than ever before. So is that the big rollback you announced all over the news, Wal-Mart? A roll back that lasts one whole week! You think that will get you back market share? I have news, if you do not roll back prices on thousand of products like you announced you are about to lose my business for good.

Week after week Wal-Mart just infuriates me with slowly increasing prices and lower quality. I will give you one example. I have six dogs and most of them are large dogs so I buy a lot of dog biscuits. The only reasonably priced biscuits at Wal-Mart are the ten pound bags of large multi-flavored Ol Roy biscuits. All the bones went up in price at Wal-Mart when gas prices soared. I just figured it had to do with shipping costs but they never came back down when fuel prices declined. For over a year now in every store that I have been in, the large Ol Roy (store brand) multi-flavored biscuits are broken up into pieces. The whole idea of a large dog bone is to give the dogs a bone and not a handful of crumbs but Wal-Mart consistently puts this crap on their shelves. How about a little quality control Wal-Mart?  Get your employees to quit throwing the damn bags around or have Ol Roy make the biscuits stronger! Wal-Mart does have bones that are mostly whole but they cost almost as much as Milk Bones so I just buy the Milk Bones. I might as well get the real thing and a box and quality to boot for nearly the same price. The quality of the Ol Roy bones is not even close to the quality of Milk Bones.

I do not usually make complaints to the staff because they are not responsible but after looking at every bag today and not finding one bag  not all crumbs, I complained to an obviously mentally challenged individual who just mumbled something like that’s the way we get them. I might as well have complained to the video camera. In fact, the video camera is probably the reason why he showed up. Some guy was looking through all the dog bones and talking to himself (me). Yeah, I was looking for whole dog bones and getting quite perturbed with what I saw! I also complained to the cashier about the prices going up almost 20 percent in two days but I got no answer. I did not expect one either.

Which brings up another point that was brought up to me about people that actually attempt to find a job at these “discount” stores”. It seems you have to be on some affirmative action or disability list to stand any real chance of get hired. Socialism has taken over and the lowest common denominator gets hired. No wonder they cannot even stock dog bones without breaking them.

Wal-Mart and other discount stores were shoved down the throat of every small town in Wonderland. Nevermind, that it put most of the mom and pop businesses in small towns out of business. Wonderland has to progress! So now most of Wonderland is dependent on Wal-Mart for almost everything. Have you ever seen the shelves of Wal-Mart after a holiday weekend?  The popular products are just about gone. When…not if…there is an event that causes everyone to stock up at the same time don’t expect Wal-Mart to be able to supply your needs. If their just-in-time supply lines are disrupted your local Wal-Mart will be sold out in 48 hours. I also do not think I save anything going to Wal-Mart anymore. Sure their prices are still lower than the closest supermarket but if you figure the extra 50 miles round trip at the 50 cents a mile the government says it costs to drive a car it comes to $25 a trip. I know I do not save that $25 when I buy $150 worth of stuff at Wal-Mart.

So I think it is time for people in Wonderland to say enough is enough. It is time to support the remaining independent mom and pop food and hardware stores and not become slaves to a few corporations with their just-in-time inventories and their socialist hiring practices and indoctrinations. It is not just Wal-Mart either that has rising prices and lower quality and quantity. Go to Big Lots and tell me their prices are a bargain for the crap they sell these days, or go to Kmart, etc.

Here is another Wonderland tea party issue that is on my mind. I have been reading the local paper since I moved here and I see police state staring me in the face every time I read the police reports. In some small towns busybodies are in everyone’s business and they call the police for just about  anything that they do not like.

Last week the paper reported police reports of the results of three DWI check points that took place in this very rural area in the prior week. One check point report was from the state police, another check point report was from the county police and a third check point report was carried out by small town police. The check points were reportedly set up to find drunk drivers but in the whole time of the three road blocks perhaps two or three people were charged with DWI but there were scores of citations on drugs, insurance, registration, child restraints, seat belts etc. When these task forces were set up they were set up to catch drunk drivers but apparently now they now use DWI road blocks to conduct fishing trips.

I frankly do not know how all these people are getting caught with drugs in their cars unless the cars are being searched and I just do not see people with drugs in their cars freely giving permission to the police to search them. So obviously civil rights are being violated here. I remember my camper being searched twice by drug task forces on just one trip. If I would have said no they would have come up with some probable cause to impound the vehicle and they still would have searched it. I did not have drugs so I allowed them to search the camper which was jammed with stuff because I was moving. They pulled everything out of the camper and placed it on the road shoulder but they did not lift one finger to put anything back in. After that ordeal I got in another state and I was pulled over again for a check for no reason. We really have to put a stop to this. We not only have Federal task forces looking to search anything or anyone that fits their profile we have state county and local police doing the same thing. This is nuts, our new Wonderland has nothing over the Soviet Union.

Around here state and federal conservation officers are known to hide in the bushes waiting for people floating the streams or riding the trails to do someone illegal. That is not hard with all the obscure laws like removing a pebble or a plant from a federal park. Why do we have all this law enforcement in Wonderland? Because police are allowed to confiscate and sell the booty, along with the fines it pays for these task forces and for overtime for poorly paid local officers.

So they have a perpetually motion employment machine as long as the quotas are met. And the sheeple of Wonderland just plead guilty and pay the Cheshire cat judge a fine plus court costs and they get off on unsupervised probation. So it costs the prosecutors nothing and the game goes on and on and on. Sit in any county court room in Wonderland for awhile and tell me this cat and mouse game is not all about obtaining money. If fines and confiscated property were turned over to charity to help the poor, the constitutionally illegal searches and seizures would come to an abrupt halt.

Don’t even get me into the dictatorship of the state child protective services where social workers play God. Parents have to prove they are innocent in Wonderland rather than the state proving they are guilty. Many parents in Wonderland go broke trying to keep their own children.

Need I say more for those living in Wonderland to get the full picture? We need Tea Parties in Wonderland that go far beyond the Potomac. We need tea parties on every block, in every town, and in every state. Do not expect to change the Mad Hatter party on the Hill if you cannot change things in your own backyard. After we clean out our own rabbit holes taking Mad Hatter Hill and the forces of the Red Queen on the Potomac will be easy. Until then taking Wonderland back is nothing but a childish fantasy.