This all happened before I was born and I know very little about it. My question has always been, though: in America, a supposedly free society, doesn't an individual have a right to belong to whatever political party he/she chooses? And then, isn't it unConstitutional (or just plain wrong) to make someone testify under duress?

With what little I know, I have always been of the opinion that the UnAmerican Activities Committee was itself UnAmerican.

On another note, I heard a little blurb on NPR last week (on one of the game shows) about J. Edgar Hoover getting all cheesed off at MAD Magazine, and sending the FBI after them, because they were poking fun at him. I said to Mister, isn't that against the First Amendment? Doesn't MAD Magazine have a constitutional right to poke fun at J. Edgar Hoover withou reproach? Isn't that what freedom of the press is?

Mister said to me, well, that's the difference between a patriot and a zealot.