I only actively boycott Exxon. Their environmental record if awful. I try to buy gas from either BP or Hess that have much better records.
Jim
Yeah, because of their intelligence. Now I know pigs are pretty smart too, and that the beef industry is contributing to air pollution and the deforestation of rainforest. But bacon tastes good! Pork chops taste good!
I do like how octopus tastes. I dunno, it’s something about their having the largest brain of any invertebrate. I guess my boycotts aren’t too strong, anyway. If someone else has ordered veal I might have a piece, and if there’s octopus left on the table afterwards I might have some. I just need to feel like were it only my actions those foods would never be sold in the first place.
I never do go to Walmart, though. Even in desperate circumstances.
Ford, GM, IBM, Bayer Aspirin, VW Beetle and probably a few others I’m missing here. Profiteers off of Jewish slave labour in concentration camps during WWII. Worked them to death.
The Bug was designed by Ferdinand Porsche Sr. upon the request of the utterly insane Adolf Hitler. The world’s first econo car was a scam against the German people who were forced to pay 34 marcs (a substantial amount) of their income towards purchasing the car in order to help Germany’s economy during the war. In reality the money was going toward armament factories. 200 bugs came off the assembly lines and not one family ever received one. Heil.
Wal-Mart builds a huge store in an area and puts locally owned small businesses out of business. They can’t compete with the prices that Wal-Mart can offer. So instead of local flavor your local shopping consists of the same basic Wal-Mart design that everyone else has across the country. Also many of the goods that Wal-Mart sells are Chinese, therefore further taking away from any USA manufacturing that still exists.
Horizon Organic. From what I hear, their cows definitely aren’t as happy as they look on the front of their cartons.
Susan
If you want to give up pork chops, maybe I could get my mom to invite you over for hers. Press some sawdust into the shape of a pork chop and serve nasty canned sauerkraut with lots of unpronounceable ingredients on the side for a rough approximation. I love my mom, but she is definitely not much of a cook, and let’s just say her tastes in food and mine are quite different. She much prefers to eat out, anyway.
Unfortunately, the big guns, in the form of my grandmother’s cherry-glazed ham, is no longer available- she’s dead, and I’m not sure the ingredients for the cherry-glazed ham are still available (I’m pretty sure the cherry glaze came from a mix of some sort). It was utterly disgusting- it was ham with globs of very sweet jelly that tasted like cough syrup on it. That ham and my mom’s pork chops probably made it easier for me to start keeping kosher. If Chabad were really serious about getting Jews to keep kosher, or if PETA really wanted to encourage people to go vegetarian, they would get the recipe for that cherry-glazed ham and use it.
Hee, growing up I thought pork chops were ok, but never anything really special. They were just kind of bland and dry, and pretty much needed to be eaten with apple sauce. That was until the keg-a-q.
Some friends at uni won the keg-a-q as a door prize in a dining hall giveaway. Not much to it, a bbq grill in the shape of a keg (probably with some sporting logo on it) and a place to screw in a small propane tank. One night we get some pork chops and fire up the ol’ keg. Well, either it wasn’t a great design, or we were doin summin wrong, because those chops took for-evah to cook. After the first 45 minutes we’d check 'em every 5 mins or so, but they never really seemed any less pink. Finally we could stand it no more, and with color charts in hand decided the inside of the chop was white enough to warrant eating. We fell to with ravenous snorts and gruzzles.
My satanic christ, those were by far, without a doubt, hands-down, top, a-1, and other expressions meaning the same pork chops I’ve ever had the ravenosity to slip in the cake hole. The juices alone staggered me, and the texture made me wonder why no one had ever seen me eating a pork chop at home and asked me wtf it was. I couldn’t believe that I had gone so long in life without truly experiencing pork chops qua pork chops. All of the essence had previously been broiled out.
Asked my dad about it later. He said mom likes 'em that way. Strange woman.
I was boycotting Sandals resorts for their policy of excluding same-sex couples, but they stopped doing that a few years ago. (Of course, beach resorts aren’t really my thing, but if I did go to one, now I would consider Sandals) I’m not gay, but I find any discrimination against gays or lesbians to be totally unacceptable.
What do you want those companies to do now to make up for that? Is there anything they could say or do (other than get hold of a time machine and go back and change what they did in WWII) that would make you stop boycotting them? The people who did those things aren’t in charge of those companies any more, and I’m pretty sure they aren’t using slave labor now.
I used to boycott the Roy Rogers (a pretty good hamburger joint) near my house because of their poor service. They closed and a McDonalds moved in. Now I know to use my powers more carefully.
What about those of us who can provide a good home for a pet, but refuse to deal with shelters and adoption groups that seem determined to drive away anyone who values their privacy and doesn’t buy into the animal rights agenda?
I am now boycotting Delta airlines. They screwed me big time during my move to Toronto. I was travelling with my dog, Goliath and both my travel agent and I made several inquiries to Delta to make sure everything was in order for traveling with a dog. I was told that I needed proof of vacinations. We booked a flight from Austin to Toronto via Cincinnati, one stop without changing planes.
I get to the airport in Austin and find out that the equipment was changed and the plane can not accomodate a dog. No one bothered to notify me. They offer to put me on another flight, that involves a change of planes and gets me into Toronto almost 3 hours later. I figure, fine, it is a minor inconvience and say ok. Then the guy at the check in counter asks me for a vet document that says my dog is okay to travel to a cold climate. WTF? This was the first time that anyone from Delta had ever mentioned this. They were absolutly going to refuse my dog without this document. I call my travel agent and she calls Delta. I call my vet and they call Delta. I have to re-book for the same later, shitter flight the next day and go to the vet.
I get to the vets office and the office manager said she had talked to Delta and had the document that the vet needed to sign after he looked at Goliath. Back to a hotel for the night.
The next day I go to check in, 3.5 hours early, because I am wary of more potential troubles. I am told that the vet document is not good enough. By this point I am on the verge of physical violence. I still had to get the vet to fax something, this time hand writen, saying my dog could travel.
In Atlanta, after I get off the first flight, I asked the first Delta employee I saw if she could find out the status of my dog, and she said if Atlanta was’t my final destination then she can’t help - ask the gate attendant at the connecting flight. I did and he said he couldn’t help. The flight attendant said that she’d let me know ‘if’ my dog made it on the flight. At this point there is steam coming out of my ears. I said, through clenched teeth, there is no if. Either both my dog and I are on the flight or both of us, and my luggage are not.
Thankfully, both Goliath and I made it to Toronto is good, but stressed condition. I waited a few days to submit a complaint to Delta. I detailed pretty much everything that is here, and let them know that the incompotence of their staff cost me one day full of aggrevation and about $350 in unforseen expenses. Their response? A travel voucher for $50 good within one year.
Needless to say, that voucher will not get used. If the choice is between Delta and Greyhound, I’d take a bus.
I boycott the England football team (by not watching the match) if I see Frank Lampard is selected in the starting line up.
I do think that shelters and breeders should be ensuring that their animals are not going to someone who is going to, say, train them to attack people, use them for fighting, or breed them and sell the puppies or kittens to someone who might do those sorts of things. Just like I don’t think guns should be sold on a no-questions-asked basis to anyone who can afford them. I think that shelters and breeders should be held legally responsible if they don’t ask questions and someone buys a dog from them that then attacks someone or turns up in a dog-fighting ring. That does mean that someone who adopts a pet has to give up some privacy, just like someone who wants to own a gun. It’s unfortunate, but we have to balance the right to privacy of someone who wants a dog against your neighbors’ right not to be mauled by a vicious dog.
I boycott products whose commercials feature popular songs that I do not want to associate with their crummy, overhyped products. Or at least I hit the mute button as fast as I can.
Much as Sam Adams sells a decent beer, there are many others that don’t feel the need to peddle their stuff via George Thorogood.
Not to be snarky, but maybe George Thorogood is the one you should be boycotting! 
I boycott One-Two-Go Airlines, because there’s a good chance you’re gonna die if you fly them.
I’m not the boycotting sort. I have to be pissed off to take it out that way.
So right now, it’s limited to Jane Fonda (this is longstanding, and simple to maintain since she’s never in anything I want to watch anyway) and until they fix their unfortunate attitude toward the military, I’m not visiting San Francisco.
The only boycott I’ve been able to stick with is my refusal to eat veal. I learned about veal calves when I was about 11. Not that we used to eat a lot of veal but I used to like the veal parmigiana tv dinners (which probably weren’t really veal) and I refused to eat veal after that and that was about mumblety-six years ago!
Any product that uses “I’m a loser” as the theme or joke in its advertising. Similarly, anything that portrays either men or women as an entire category as stupid. Products with cruelty- or violence-based campaigns. Goodbye, Cheetos.
Ben and Jerrys.
Crazy expensive.
Stupid “clever” names.
Insane holier-than-thou attitude.
And don’t get me started on their ice cream.