I strongly and respectfully disagree that this particular topic is inappropriate for the board and that it should be on the OT board. My reasoning is that it goes to the heart of the reason we are in the precious metals realm in the first place. Are we not by buying silver and the shares of the miners attempting to eke out a bit of freedom, in this case, financial freedom, at a time of encroachments by governments of every stripe to curtail same? Is not the reduction of liberty the most important factor affecting ECU and the price of silver inasmuch as the manipulation of which we frequently speak on this board is rooted in same? If liberty were sufficienty plenteous would not this manipulation have by now been ultimately ended?

It is no different with freedom or liberty of speech. It must be preserved and on this board is no exception.

I think this issue can be best summarized in the words of Edmund Burke as found in his Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents (1770):

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

May all who post on and read this board endeavor to preserve liberty in all its facets. If this is not achieved, the price of silver and of ECU will little matter.