This ploy doesn't work even when the e-mail comes from someone with a name like Candi Goode, who at least offers some photos from her last slumber party in return for my money. It certainly won't work when the only thing Pearson is peddling is the current Big Lie about how freedom of speech is imperiled and dissent is being silenced.

(Sorry. I know that sounds a little cranky, but I'm an old guy. Fortunately, the modern notions of tolerance require you to sit quietly while old guys like me pound on the table and shout vitriol. Otherwise, my sense of self-esteem will be harmed. And then I'd have to sue.)

Pearson is one of four people who ran onto the court of the Smith Center last February, interrupting a televised basketball game between UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia. After reaching the court, and while players were still on the floor, the four unfurled banners saying "No War" and "World Says No War on Iraq." All were later issued citations by police.

The protesters acknowledged that they deliberately chose to interrupt the game, rather than stage their protest outside, because they wanted the TV cameras to capture the event. "We decided that if the media wouldn't come to us, we would come to them," one of them later said in court.

I've got no big problem with this. Passion runs high in the young -- the protesters ranged in age from 19 to 26 -- and even when they tend to overdo things, we shouldn't discourage their zeal. But neither should the excesses of their passion go without consequence.

In other words, what happened to the protesters seemed about right: They got their 30 seconds of dissent on TV, and then they were escorted off the court and charged with disorderly conduct -- a small-caliber misdemeanor that any self-respecting revolutionary would wear as a badge of honor. Two of them eventually got off on a technicality, while the other two, including Pearson, were found guilty.

And that should have been that. Except it wasn't. Pearson appealed, and started soliciting money for his defense via e-mail. To prime the fund-raising pump, he sought to turn the flap into a free speech issue. "I believe strongly that our actions were protected by the First Amendment," he says.

Well, maybe. Courts were invented to figure out knotty little questions like this. But Pearson acknowledges that his right to free speech was not actually impaired. He was, and still is, free to carry his sign outside the Smith Center, pass out leaflets, stand on a soapbox, hire a banner plane and otherwise do anything legal to express his point of view.

Pearson -- who is thoughtful and articulate, as I learned when we talked -- believes that extraordinary times call for a similarly extraordinary leeway for those who wish to dissent. I tend to agree. A healthy debate is a valuable thing. But Pearson wasn't debating anything. He interrupted a basketball game and sought to hijack a TV broadcast.

The right to be a public nuisance isn't the same thing as the right to free speech.

So if I'm going to donate my money to anyone, it'll be Candi Goode. At least she spares me the specious arguments.

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.