Yes, thats right, retarded.
Seems Green Day is upset that Walmart will not sell their CD. Why? Because Walmart has a long standing policy to not sell ANY CD with a Parental Advisory warning on it. What Walmart WILL do is sell an album that was sufficiently edited so as to remove that PA label. And you know what? Radio stations do the same thing. They required edited version of songs so that words are removed in some form or another if it violates certain standards. So this isn't anything new. But Green Day doesn't want to "feel like [they are] in 1953 or something"
Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt said: "As the biggest record store in the America, they should probably have an obligation to sell people the correct art." But do they have an obligation to sell it? GD wants to stay "true" to their art, but don't want that same freedom for others. I guess in Dirnt's mind, the artist has a right to be heard, but the responsibility falls on others to make sure that he is heard. Dirnt doesn't understand that a right does not work that way. A right encumbers no one except in that they not infringe upon that right. The proverbial my right to swing my arm ends where your nose begins. If Walmart has a responsibility to sell GD's music as GD sees fit, then what they have is not a right but a form of mastery over Walmart, placing them in a form of servitude, or slavery if you will. And requiring someone to take an action, in this case selling an item, is arguably worse than a prohibition against an action but I suppose that is a topic for another blog post.
The article ends by quoting Dirnt saying "It's like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it." And in that he is somewhat right. It IS a game. There are no real rules, but the goal is to attract customer dollars and there are a great many teams in the game, all playing by their own rules. Walmart established theirs many years ago and has come out on top year after year. If you want your music sold to their customers you have to play by their well known, long established rules. If you don't like it, don't play with them. In the end, both parties lose a little, but Walmart's loss is minuscule in comparison to the loss GD will take in sales.