It's was fucking retarded for the Olympic committee to think just because they gave China the 'gift' of the Olympics they would clean their act up.

Didn't Pelosi call on Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies like 2 weeks ago?

honestly, i like deadspin's take on it: "It's like Capture the Flag! and the most entertaining torch ceremony in ages..."

I'll be doing my own mini protest by boycotting any Olympic realted merch - so I reckon no cereals, chocolate products and basically processed foods. It'll be the GI diet essentially.

"Almost" being the operative word.

Um, as far as I know, the olympic torch always goes on some global trek from the Olympic's original site in Greece to whereever the Olympics are being held. Happens every year that olympic games are held (summer ones only I think). so it's not the chinese government's "neat idea". I think it's the IOC (international olympic committee) that coordinates that sort of thing as well...

God damn, what a shitshow. I feel bad for the athletes who would/will lose their moment in the spotlight that they've been training for since birth, but hell, anyone who can ignore China's track record with human rights/the environment/safety/etc with a straight face is fooling themselves.

ALSO, I heard China is going to "make it rain" for a week before the Olympics to take care of the insane pollution. Okay, the fact that they're MAKING IT RAIN (blowing something up into the clouds to force them to rain) is SO disturbing to me

I have empathy for the Chinese people for many reasons. Some of my close friends grew up in China and the political state of their country makes them sad. I have zero pity for the Chinese government. Ban those Olympics, I say.

The NYT front-page photo of an attempted torch grab is a thing of beauty: the guy has this sedate-yet-smug "I'M GRABBIN' YR TORCHES" expression I just can't get over.

@esmemurphy: I mean boycott, I guess. Not ban. Or maybe ban?

This Olympics is going to be a joke, as China plans to win every medal possible. While world athletes are chocking on the air, and have to have their own food brought in. Smackes of Berlin, 1936.

Clinton cannot have an opinion about our role in the Olympics? We are trying to protest a genocide and oppression of a people here! If only the righteous got opinions, we'd all be mute.

ALMOST

then you remember that story about that lady that was FORCED TO ABORT HER CHILD that was like a couple of weeks from being due and how they made her and her husband PAY FOR THE ABORTION and how shes infertile on account of the DRUGS THEY INJECTED to kill they baby INSIDE OF HER and then you say fuck the chinese a million times over.

I can't deal with the cognitive dissonance that people hate another country like they hate the US. That's un-American!

yay look what I found!!!!: "The [olympic torch] fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since. The modern torch relay was introduced by Joseph Goebbels, as part of an effort to turn the games into a glorification of the Third Reich.[1]" Woohoo Nazis, etc.

@briardahl: the best theoretical headline? "ANTI-CHINESE WATER-TORCHING" in response to a protestor trying to douse the torch with water.

@hortense: Exactly. The day I feel sorry for the Chinese is the day....well let's just that day is far off. Or something.

I do feel bad for the torch carriers though. Kind of mortifying/disappointing for them.

My rowing coach was a former Olympic gold medalist. He ran the torch part of the way through Georgia on the way to Atlanta. He pulled people off the side of the road to let them carry it, etc. He also told us a heartwarming tale about shitting on a bandana right before the start of his race b/c he was stuck on the water and had to go.

A story for the ages.

don't worry Arnaud di Pasquale, you can still carry MY torch, if you know what I mean.
eh?
eh?
anyone?

@mepo:Crap, I forgot about the Olympics branded stuff. I too want nothing to do with these Olympics.

I'm really impressed that these protests have managed to get so much attention. Having been to a number of protests before that got, essentially, ignored (with hundreds of thousands of people!), I have to hand it to these guys. I don't think it will stop the Olympics, but the China games will be forever associated with these protests. They're raising an amazing amount of awareness by simply trying to grab a torch.

@RyanB: I don't know if that's more disturbing or the fact that the Chinese government has to force western manners on the citizens of Beijing... did you know that spitting on people is like a normal thing that they do to express their displeasure? And also - the whole waiting in lines thing? They don't do it, like, at all. So the government has this whole movement to 'civilize the populace'. Crazy.

@Jezebabe...is a stern and angry midget!!!!: yes that was from wikipedia, sue me.

It's kinda sad that the mainstream coverage of the torch robbing attempts has primarily involved anchors and pundits laughing at the video.

Oh, and also, Erin Burnett aka "The Street" Analyist and regular commentator on Morning Joe, spent 5 minutes talking about "Why Americans Should Love China." Her basic argument, that the US economy is reliant on China, is factually accurate but she neglected the fact that maybe we should have though the whole us-dollar-dependent-on-china idea twenty years ago.

China? Are you still in Tibet? GET OUT!

it's difficult for me to think about chinese human rights abuses when i am presented with photos of hot french olympians.

@hortense: Seconded. Did China think that causing a ruckus in Tibet in the same year they host the Olympics was going to go unnoticed by the rest of the world?

@peliroja: For real. Such a buzzkill for the torchbearers

@Jezebabe...is a stern and angry midget!!!!: Whoa. Really? Where did you find that? Here I was thinking it was some sacred tradition handed down by the Ancient Greeks.

I haven't felt my Innocent Naivety Bubble get popped this bad since I discovered Wycleff John was NOT talking about going south to be a street musician in "Gone Till November".

I applaud the protests, even if it does "ruin" something traditional like the torch relay. Hopefully, this will open the world's eyes to chinese human rights abuses and the issues in Tibet.

As for Arnaud di Pasquale, he may be dismayed, but he will be playing tennis in Beijing this summer. I think he will get over it.

@J.D.Regent: I recognize that fellow in the back as Guy LaRoche, a member of the French pocket pool team. He's a master of the stick!

Like someone else said up above, I'd love to see the people of China have the Olympics there if they want them. I don't care so much for the government. I don't care so much for our government right now either though.
Also I was supposed to be a groom for a friend if she qualified which is still yet to be decided, for these Olympics.

@ineffable.me: For the love of God, get out of my head. I was on the fence until that post hit. I won't watch a single second, unless something awesomely bad starts to go down and my friends tell me to turn it on.

@Triphena: I thought that song was about him going to war or something?

@lewbers: Hopefully this will open the world's eyes to the fact that the Olympics have become a farce. China should never have received the Olympics to begin with (Germany 1936 ring any bells?), and the IOC could be a little more forceful given what's going on in Tibet. Add to this the rampant doping in sports and the controversies of Olympic judging, and the fact that most of the Olympics isn't even shown live, and it's just becoming a pointless exercise.

@brookidy: that post shook me in ways that i never even imagined. that they are doing that shit in this day and age and we reward them with the fucking olympics is beyond me. if thats not a crime against fucking humanity then i dont know what is.

@distractedbyshinyobjects:
I live in Toronto, where there is a huge number of Chinese immigrants. (It's actually the most multicultural city in the world. yay)
Anyways, all the older Chinese men and women spit in the street all the time - it's just a normal thing for them.
Seriously, walking to work through Chinatown is a minefield of mucus.

When we were in China this summer, the people were wonderful and friendly. They wanted us to touch their babies for luck, they were eager to practice English with us, and they were very polite. But my partner started coughing up chunks of pollution, and we were there to adopt a child someone had abandoned at his birth, because he was not "perfect" to them. I spent two weeks being thankful to whatever deity placed me in America, and not China. I will always love the Chinese people, but I have nothing but anger and contempt for a government that has systematically destroyed all bonds of family in an attempt to force greater loyalty to the country.

I'm definitely not supporting the olympics this year. I was at torino, and it was a great experience to engage in that, but I have too many problems with China's governement, and yes, your politcal position is inextricably linked to your engagements.

@J.D.Regent: I know, right? Sexy French Olympian, I can haz?

@RyanB: Maybe they just want to make it rain on these hos? JK. That's crazy. You can't just eff with the weather like that!

Why don't the French sort out Seria Leone, the mess they lest that is Haiti and a few of there other former colonies before they decide to play holier then thou...

I am so proud of those protesters. I really, really am.

@ilikenoise is Queen of Su Dokus: I've been told that it's about drug running. In any event, it's not a happy song about him going and following his dreams of being a singer or whatever the hell I thought he was going to do.

@Triphena: It was from wikipedia. It's specifically about teh torch relay around the world, not the olympic torch itself or the olympic games. The ancient greek games were always held in the same place, so no need for a torch relay.

Sooooo glad my mom will be in Hong Kong for the Games, not Beijing. For once the discrimination against the equestrian events works in our favor. I just have this awful feeling that something horrible will happen at the Games.

Interesting Olympic fact: if the current host city is found to be un-prepared for the Games in the final inspection, the Games revert back to the previous host city. This threat was used in Athens when they Greeks were taking their own sweet time in building stadiums, they were told that the Games could go back to Sydney. Not that Athens would be prepared to host the Games again at short notice, but if something were to happen. . .

@vivresavie17: or channeling Young B? Let it rain, clear it out.

I truly love watching the olympics, but I will not watch, nor buy [merchandise], nor in any way support the genocide Olympics or its sponsors this year. Too, too many egregious crimes against humanity.

@lewbers: Fuck the "tradition" of the torch. That "tradition" was soiled enough by all of the blood in China's human rights record. I hope the Chinese government reaps exactly what they have sewn with all of this.
On a related note, so proud of Hillary.

@katastic: Me as well, I loved the guy in London yesterday with the fire extinguisher.

@BlindKarma: France doesn't act as one monlithic being- French people have the right to protest, even if their government isn't perfect. Also it was the UK that colonised Sierra Leone.

I'm looking forward to the torch's relay through San Francisco. Will it end up on a trolley there, instead of a bus like in Paris and London? I expect mayhem, and am fully in support of it. The IOC was wrong on every level to give China the games and so deserve the protests.

As for feeling sorry for China, if we starless commenters have to suck it up, I think they can. They can console themselves with all our money, while trampling more human rights, safe in the knowledge that Hortense has no authority to ban them for deliberate provocation.