This entire boycott business trend is a slippery slope when you have to add in the international nature of most large corporations doing business in the US. Many of them engage in actions which are violative of either US law or policy (i.e. setting up side companies to do business with say, Cuba or Iran or North Korea) or partnering or being supportive of governments like China or Pakistan whose law's are often the subject of international outrage - forced abortions, limits on the number of children, support of terrorism etc..etc..etc... Mr. Cathy is surely entitled to his beliefs as are we all (for the most part unless you are a Hitler or Mao or mass murderer acting on 'voices' from within - just to name a few....). Egregious examples of corporate policy being the basis of a proper and effective business boycott are probably few - the Woolworth lunch counter and southern bus examples of the 1950's and 1960's come to mind or Ghandi and salt - and the tactic should be sparingly recommended - hence it loses its ability to make an example out of something or someone. If I need to parse the personal opinions and beliefs of corporate CEO's before buying, watching, eating etc...I would never get anything done.
A great example is the connection between NewsCorporation, the Murdochs and political conservatives here and in the UK. The entertainment division of the company panders to the lowest common demoninators in order to prosper (just check out the drivel this summer masquerading as entertainment on the Fox Network as an example) while at the same time the news division constantly extolls the conservative cause and promotes values based commentators. Hypocrisy knows no bounds when it comes to making money.
I am not saying that making money is inherently evil or 'bad', just that you have to take stuff like this with a big grain of salt.
