"BTW, what do you say about chocolate, as we need to practice what we preach, and not get upset over whether or not someone who died 200 years ago did."   Guest tda

Okay, I went to the chocolate site you mentioned. Interesting. I suppose the same reasons that lead one to quit chocolate should lead one to quit wearing Nike shoes, stop consuming fossil fuels, boycott nearly everything from Chinese factories, and assume a monastic existence off the grid with a small vegetable garden in the back. This would be crippling to most of us non-saintly types.

I think a more realistic goal is compassionate consumption with an awareness that our spending habits have worldwide implications, that "the personal really is political." This might mean shopping at a co-op run by politically minded folks who research the origins of the stuff they buy so that you don't have to, buying Green when possible, recycling, giving up meat, or at least substantially cutting back on it, not beating people up, and NEVER voting Republican. All of this can be realistically incorporated by each of us into our lives. If we do so, the world becomes a slightly better place, even if we continue occasionally to sin with the odd Hersheys Kiss.

On a separate note, damn!!! Michael, you sent your reply to my QUESTION just as I was writing my complaint about nobody replying to my QUESTION. So it looks like I was ignoring you. Good point about Christians and abolitionism.