Hi Margarita,

thanks for the apology, as one who objected, can I also apologise if my post was curt. As I said I'd already had the message and been annoyed by it so you caught the backlash.

Perhaps I can elaborate as to why I objected to this but not to other "non folk" related threads.

1. I find the implicit assumption by the author that everyone on the 'net resides in the US contrary to everything that the n'net in general and the 'Cat in particular represents.

2. The request was for an action to reduce prices per se, with no justification other than the authors desire to save money. If it had been directed at oil company profits I may have been more sympathetic.

3. The US is the most profligate user of natural resources in the world both actually and per capita. I could not condone any action that is likely to perpetuate or encourage this.

4. Bulk forwarded emails are the bane of most peoples lives including mine.

I suppose the main difference, to me, is that most if not all other "chatty" threads are concerned with what can be done for other people, whereas I saw this request as ultimately selfish in intent.

Please don't misread that last bit, I do realise that you did not write the message, only forwarded it. I hope this helps to explain my reaction and perhaps that of other objectors. Please don't take our objection personally and continue to contribute.

Pete M