Jim-

I believe the signers of the pledge constitute a majority of the active members of this hobby. I may well be wrong on that. Worse yet, I may have phrased the explanation so vaguely as to render it irrelevant. But one thing I know for sure is that it is a financially and politically active plurality trying to punish those who do business with anyone with a differing view. Doesn't sound very free-trade to me. Well, maybe free trade in the days before anti-trust laws. Certainly not healthy any way I look at it.

But to respond to your criticism of my view --My argument is that there is nothing inherently legally or morally wrong with boycotting things in order to achieve one's goals. I happen to think that the free trade in ideas is better served by those who -- given the very moral and legal freedom I just endorsed -- choose to encourage the expression of even the most objectionale ideas.

For example: The KKK was a minority in SKokie. They had once been an oppressive majority in some parts of the U.S. They have always been and will always be a digusting aberation of humanity in my personal eyes. Yet when the ACLU defended their right to march in Skokie they were standing up for a very simple principle. The principle was that if such an abhorant line of thought was allowed to expose itself to intelligent minds it will die. If it festers in the dark places where we can't see, and is allowed to claim martyr status, it will gain more disciples.

Personally, I think Oliver W. HOlmes said it best when he wrote:

"When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by the free trade in ideas -- that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes can safely be carried out."

I also run the risk of misquoting either Justice Holmes or Justice Brandeis when one of them said somethign along the lines of "Sunlight is the best dissinfectant"

Those who try to bully others out of selling a product they don't like run contrary to both of those men. What makes me laugh is that so many have shrugged off my use of the word "boycott" while clearly adhering to a dictionary defintion of the term. Are those people afraid to admit to their actions? If you boycott something, admit that's what you are doing. If you dismiss the term as unpleasant, it might very well beg the question of whether you see your own actions as unpleasant.