Actually, at some point, some anti-bitcoiner or another was leading a campaign to send as many coins as he could to the eater address.  There's a thread about it here somewhere.  I recall others saying: well, since bitcoins are finite, the more you destroy, the more value is in the ones I don't destroy so "thanks".  I'm sure you can turn that thread up if you search around.  Pretty interesting.

EDIT: haha, I just realized the link in (more info) was the exact thread I was talking about.  Silly me.