'Cause our children are watching us, they put their trust in us, they're gonna be like us

In case you haven't read this yet, you need to. Daniel has brilliantly summed up the hypocrisy surrounding the Dixie Chicks controversy. I stood next to a poster for the documentary "Shut Up and Sing" a few weekends ago, waiting in line to see "Casino Royale." I was with a conservative -- and I mean owns Ann Coulter books and CDs of Confederate music conservative -- friend. He essentially likened the Chicks to terrorist-lovers, saying it's people like them who want to quit fighting in Iraq and let terrorists win. I'm assuming he liked the Chicks before their 2003 concert. Talk about not staying the course. He said he'd "vote with his dollar" and refuses to support them and the movie about them.

As someone who knows what it's like to receive hate mail -- the likes of which I also believe were made worse because of my gender -- the only thing I can do to combat that type of hypocrisy is to vote with my dollar as well, refusing to change my support for an artist if I disagree with their politics or lifestyle. I don't care what they say at their concerts; what I care about right now is that their latest album, "Taking the Long Way," is amazing -- one of the top albums of the year. And I'll keep listening to it.