I agree that is a very bad thing. (I'm a Borders shareholder, and will be sharing my views with BGP Investor Relations.) About the only slightly-redeeming factor I can see is that they openly admitted it was about fear, rather than blathering about sensitivity or some such.

There seem to be a lot of cases of institutions deciding to cave in to political extortion. One of the scariest examples is the campaign that has been waged against biotech companies by certain "animal rights" activists--especially in Britain but also in this country. It appears that the decision of the New York Stock Exchange to deny a listing to Life Sciences Research (previously Huntington Life Sciences) was due to fear of violence.

15-20 years ago the same thing happened with rushdie and "satanic verses". i found an independent that carried it. but it seems that the chains all think that freedom of the press is free.

I've heard rumors that Barnes and Ignoble is touch and go.

I buy mostly computer books and Borders has the best local selection. I browse through their selection, find something I like, copy the ISDN and buy the book from Amazon; usually at 30% off the cover price. I hate to see the "bricks and sticks" bookstores fall to Amazon because I like to flip through a book before I buy it but I don't see how Borders or B&N or Books a Million can compete with Amazon's almost limitless selection and lower prices. I guess they will use a more internet centered business model and pluck off the dead weight stores.
While I'm at it, same with Blockbuster. I've given with them because they never have what I want.