Allah points out that before today, the total number of times the Olympic torch has been extinguished was two. Today, the French managed to beat that record.(CNN) — The last part of the Olympic torch relay in Paris was canceled……

And that whole free Tibet business is a bad thing?
mjk on April 7, 2008 at 11:53 AM

No no … don’t misunderstand. I’m truly for Tibet all the way. They’re a very peaceful country, populated by very kind and peaceful people who deserve their autonomy and liberty returned, and they’re in the iron fisted grip of a gigantic nation feuled by communism and a cult-of-personality that places little value on human rights and life, as was pointed out in the original blog post.

My point was that there is so much more than an international celebrity monk and a small country to demonstrate for. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, and the rest of the iceberg seems to be ignored by those kicking up the ruckus. However, I understand that Tibet is in the forefront as they have been subjugated by China for a very long time and with the recent Tibet riots and media appearances of the Dalai Lama coinciding with the beginning of the Olympics torch tour, it’s the prevelant cause.

I wish people could get as upset over persecuted Christians as well.

To give the Olympics to China, is as grotesque as having given it to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

How come I’m always wanting to vomit?

Protest. Fine. But how is this different from Code Pink, etc. Resistance. Chaos. Anarchy.

I might support a boycott, but this is just stupidity. It’s not like the “torch bearer” was some ChiCom party member. If it was understood that the torch bearer was the spirit of the Olympics, they’d snuff (their life) out too.

I’ve had no interest in the summer Olympics for years. Would rather watch good ol’ American baseball.

Exactly what did the International Olympic Committee think when they chose Beijing as the destination for the 2008 Summer Games? There has been plenty of strange activity in China the past couple of months as the dictator-at-large tries to “clean…

schiehallion on April 7, 2008 at 12:28 PM

So…you hate hippies so screw Tibet?

schiehallion on April 7, 2008 at 12:28 PM

Yep, that’s perfect. Thanks.

schiehallion on April 7, 2008 at 12:28 PM

Perfect. I have nothing to add after that.

Firstly, I would draw a distinction between the Tibetans themselves and the Western “protesters” who simply look for a bandwagon to jump on. There are a number of things about the “Free Tibet” protests that grate with me.

Firstly, it is such a ’cause celebre’ amongst the tree-hugging, eco-friendly lefty-liberals because it is trendily Buddhist (frankly Buddhism has for some time been the religion of ‘right-on’). If the entire nation of Tibet converted en masse to Christianity or Judaism the same people protesting for a “Free Tibet” would instantaneously cease to give a shit.

Second, it is conveniently far away that your Western hippy can protest to his hearts content without actually taking on any physical risk to himself from the Chinese authorities (compare and contrast with militant Islam where the global ‘reach’ of the fundamentalist has been well demonstrated).

Third, your beardy-weirdy knows full well that no Western government would even countenance military intervention, far less be able to carry it through, and hence he will never be faced with the dilemma of supporting military action in conflict with his abiding anti-war (but pro-violent protest) tendencies (compare and contrast Iraq, or anywhere that the West actually intervenes in).

Fourth, all your muesli-muncher has to offer revolves around economic sanctions and yet he knows full well that no Western government is going to risk economic suicide and so simultaneous with spouting all his worthless faux-outraged verbiage he can rest assured that his supply of organic sandals will not dry up.

And so our hair-braided imbecile can have a bit of a lark, try and put out a torch with a fire extinguisher or bravely try and wrestle it off a five-foot tall female children’s television presenter with no personal risk to himself physically, economically or any other which way, safe in the knowledge that his idiotic protest will achieve the square-root of nothing except that he gets to feel better about himself at no cost.

Athletically, it’s a disaster already. The pollution will probably prevent many new records from being set and is severe enough to be a threat to the participants. Maybe Al Gore can throw in with the protesters as well, since China now produces more CO2 than we do. they could then do us the first favor they’ve done us in decades by locking the Goracle up and discarding the key.

When I first saw what was happening to the torch, I was disappointed. But, after discovering the route was chosen specifically to showcase China’s economic dominance around the world changed my attitude toward the protestors. I’m cheering them on, hoping they seize the torch and douse the flame. No as much as a protest for Tibet but a protest against China. And not so much about China’s government policies, but what our business community and government has allowed them to become. As 350 of my coworkers are out of a job because my company closed a US assembly plant/warehouse and moved the operations to China. These workers are just the tip, as the locale suppliers will have to layoff workers and/or shutdown. And so on, and so on….
Now that’s the flame needed to be extinguished next.

The chicoms thought they had bought and paid for Paris. And they were right, until today.

Inline skates huh? I’d like to see that.

There is a HUGE weekly event in Paris that begins in different points every Friday evening. It is a city wide skating event that shuts down roads and goes for miles. It is policed by riot police on inline skates and motorcycles.
If you want to see pics of the event go to http://pariroller.com/

The goal of giving Beijing the Olympics was to get them to open up. Hasn’t worked yet.

Actually I think its more to give communism anti-Americanism a chance.

Thats why its so cool when we show up and win.
Let’m boo.

It’s about Tibet being released from China’s grip. It’s about Tibet being ‘freed’, and the international superstar, the Dalai Lama, returning to Tibet from exile… and nothing more. And that’s a shame because it could be about China’s communism and their blatant human rights abuses. But alas, it’s simply about the continuing occupation of a tiny country and its celebrity spiritual leader.

And that whole free Tibet business is a bad thing? It’s a tiny little place with people who are being persecuted and killed by Communists for their beliefs. What’s so bad about protesting the Tibet thing? Did you see how the Chinese beat the crap out of those Tibetan monks earlier this year?

In my opinion, the Tibet stuff is symptomatic of the bigger issues that China faces with further scrutiny. The human rights stuff, the persecution of religious folks, etc. Sometimes it’s a little cogs on which history turns.