Yeah, the free market really bites, doesn't it?

Look, I know left wingnuts have their collective panties in a twist over the tastes of the common-people-they're-working-for-but-secretly-hate, but lines like this:

But with the chains' power has come criticism from authors, musicians and civil liberties groups who argue that the stores are in effect censoring and homogenizing popular culture. The discounters and price clubs typically carry an assortment of fewer than 2,000 books, videos and albums, and they are far more ruthless than specialized stores about returning goods if they fail to meet a minimum threshold of weekly sales.

What is more, the chains' buyers — especially at Wal-Mart — carefully screen content to avoid selling material likely to offend their conservative customers. Wal-Mart has banned everything from the rapper Eminem's albums to the best-selling diaries of the rock star Kurt Cobain. This month, in its latest bow to its customers' morals, Wal-Mart stopped selling the racy men's magazines Maxim and Stuff.

... only show that the power-brokers in Blue State Land are off their damned rockers.

Gasp! You mean they're effective capitalists with a strong market-response mechanism?

Hint: If folks want something different, they'll go elsewhere. If they like what Wal-Mart, Target, and so on, offer, then those companies will do well.

Of course, Scrappleface has the best take on this.

That's the hat tip.

UPDATE: What he said.