Okay, now we understand the problem. There's a swastika on the page, and somebody complained. We sent Burst Media a second e-mail explaining that we believe that the context in which the Nazi symbol was used in this particular situation certainly did not glorify Nazis or their actions. Rather, it was used to help pose a critical question (in a humorous way) about how certain actions of the current American government are becoming Nazi-like. We did a little research and confirmed a few things that the world knows about Nazis:

• Nazis pick out groups to victimize, and victimize them. (We're against that.)
• Nazis bring danger and suffering, spread empires of fear, and wage perpetual war. (We're against those things too.)
• Nazis ask the people to make sacrifices in return for nothing but grim results. (We consider this an unattractive characteristic in a government.)
• Nazis oppress several different kinds of people. (Against this too.)
• Nazis burn books and crush dissent. (We're definitely against this!)
• Nazis pose as benevolent patrons of little children while pursuing national policies that make future generations faint with horror. (We don't like that.)
• Nazis lie to the people under their control and lead them into situations where they will be hated by the rest of the world. (We're definitely not in favor of this.)

Okay, so our audio clip simulates the voice of the president and puts his head on the body of a certain swastika-wearing national leader. When you're a public figure, you have to expect this sort of thing. At least on our page he's not being compared to a chimpanzee.

In America it's still legal to show a picture of a swastika whether you do or don't like Nazis. It's called free speech and it's pretty darned important. So what's the big deal about a corporation like Burst Media telling us that "…if you can remove this content and any related offensive content we would be willing to work with you again."? The answer is quite simple. Whether the corporations are running the government or the government is controlling the corporations, it's getting harder and harder to separate the two. So, for Earthblog.net the choice was as simple as the words of the popular Tom Petty song which says "You can stand me at the gates of hell, but I won't back down".

One thing we're curious about is whether all of the other advertisers who advertise through Burst Media want to be removed from advertising on Earthblog.net? Burst Media seems to have made a possibly erroneous assumption, namely that all the other advertisers would also want to be removed. This seems rather arbitrary, but there are two sides to every story. We have invited Burst Media and the offended advertiser through an open letter to write something to be published absolutely unedited, in its entirety, which explains their concerns about this situation. We await their response.

"A Vision In Which Books Are Burned"