[LowOiL]

"It was Bush's fault"? Help me out here. You post a thoughtful analysis on the demise of independent bookstores, and then you follow up with something banal like "it was Bush's fault"?

Actually, your paraphrase of his statement ruin a perfect short comment of his. He sum up the article nicely, but he added a cultural emphasis unique to FRish devotees in the mix with perfect timing.

His quote " First, it was Bush's fault, then it was Wal-Mart's fault. Now it's cultures fault?" is almost magically perfect. The article points out exactly how these dinosaurs blame everyone except their poor judgment of how peoples changes in shopping with capitalism advantages has made their shops almost obsolete. Added irony of how liberals blame everyone except themselves, makes Smith's statement even more delicious.

IMHO of course...

[SmithL]

You're my new best friend.
; )

[CobaltBlue]

What on earth made you decide that the people in the article are liberals?