I don't know. It seems to me that the torch relay might be the single aspect of the Olympics that is most expressive of the Olympic ethos. One might oppose it because it's an overtly pagan practice, but the torch is the one symbol of the Olympic Games that most transcends any individual host country -- and therefore least subject to propagandizing for the specific host country in any given year.

Also, it would not be a "boycott" if President Bush did not attend the opening ceremony. No U.S. president has ever before attended Olympic opening ceremonies outside the United States. It's not a "boycott" if you refrain from doing something you already were not doing. Which is why President Bush should not attend the opening ceremony in China -- he owes it to his successors to preserve the diplomatic freedom to not attend Olympic ceremonies without snubbing the host country.

There seems to be a healthy dose of racist imagery in a lot of these reports. We have the robotic uncaring brutal machines who care nothing about human values and as Coe said, 'can't speak English'. If I were a torch attendant stuck in that mess, I'd probably be more freaked out more rude than Konnie Huq could comprehend.

The Tibetan situation is terrible. Human rights in China does need to improve. But the coverage and the anti-China sentiment is also getting sickening. The Beijing Olympics is not just for the CCP, It's also a declaration to the world by the ordinary Chinese that they having finally recovered from a century of colonialism and imperialism. It really doesn't help that people from nations that comprised the original Eight-Nation Alliance are telling them that they are bad people. I know the protesters mean well and are trying to push for necessary political change. However, there's a fine line in this situation between showing disapproval for human rights violations and getting caught up in hysteria against the Chinese in general.

I don't get the torch, either.

For one thing, it needs corporate sponsorship. Shouldn't the torch-bearers be forced to wear, say, Energizer Bunny costumes?

Better yet, have the torch bearers sport permanent tattoos of corporate logos on their backs. Or maybe scarification of the Nike swoosh or the like, adoring their foreheads.

At present, watching the torch go by violates what Americans, at least, have come to expect from such displays, which is that we get something for nothing. Thus the torch should be carried in a golf cart-like device with the costumed mascots tossing T-shirts or snacks or beads at the crowd, like at a baseball game or Mardi Gras.

Children could fight over the trinkets. Smaller children would have the spoils ripped from their hands by their older siblings, and burst into tears (having learned a valuable lesson). Soon the merchandise would find its way to eBay.

Perhaps the torch-bearing mascot would become so popular that a giant balloon of same would join Macy's Thanksgiving's Day Parade, to bob amidst Stewie and Charlie Brown.

After the Games have concluded, a photographer can shoot the empty torch-bearer's costume slumped in a corner of a storage shed, its eyes black and dull, its smile frozen as if by a cerebral hemorrhage.

A black and white photograph would be more artistic, I suppose.

Also, tomorrow is going to be really interesting. San Francisco is 20% Chinese American. While a good amount are originally from Taiwan, I still see plenty of pro-China supporters showing up at the thing.

Jewish world watch is charging 10 bucks to bus people up there all the way from LA.  Unfortunately I can't go, but a lot of activists are going to be hitting the streets and hitting them hard.  Seriously we can't let the French look harder than we are.  Xurichd, the only recovery i see is that the exploited have become the exploiters.  Save Darfur!  Crush the torch procession!

xurichd: The regime that controls China is responsible for crimes against human rights activists, lawyers, the environment, the rule of law, religious minorities, and the people of Tibet and Taiwan (not to mention its behavior in Africa). I don't see why we ought to play down our outrage about these things simply because China was once occupied by the Western powers and Japan. There is nothing "sickening" about protesting the PRC regime, which hardly represents the interests of the Chinese citizens. I fail to see how one can take a moderate position on this. And as far as I can tell, the racism accusation (which is also trotted out to attack critics of Islamism) is completely unfounded.

It's nice to imagine the apparatchiks in Beijing freak out as they're forced to watch protests they can't stop and activists they can't imprison. That the people guarding the torch are acting like thugs is unsurprising. They represent a regime that isn't used to dealing with free people. Hopefully that will change in our lifetime.

Hopefully San Fran does itself justice and protests every inch.

Why did we give visas to the torch guards? We should control every aspect of it since it is on US soil. As such it can be seen as an expression of US pride in our own Olympic team. And, of course, we could have said no at the beginning, but as it is I just don't want to see anything bad happen to any torch runner by some zealot.

But xurichd is right about one thing, pissing on the Chinese over the Olympics will be counterproductive, and rally the Chinese around the hard right. The US stood by when Zhao Ziyang (a man of more decency then history gives him credit for) went down, when Bush could easily have made an effort to prop him up. We can finesse the Chinese, we can't run roughshod over them.

Blackton are you aware that if you are a Tibetan and work for the government or are a student, that you can't attend public religious ceremonies?!

I mean come on -  geo-political strategic economical future proof horsesh*t aside, the games should never have been awarded to China.

Protest every inch San Frans. William - I want to see you out front and centre with Cookie wearing shades acting as your muscle.

BTW - Australia won't give visa's to the Chinese secret police in Blue.

Iggy, not exactly true about the student part. Of course students can, but you are right that party officials can't. You can't very well be an official atheist and still be seen going to temple. Jiang Zemin tried to change the policy with his iirc 4 represents or 3 or whatever, in which he eased off on restrictions to religious expression but the Falun Gong saw it as a big opportunity and had that big protest in 99 which slowed it down, and of course now Hu Jintao is a total shit.

In 20 years China is in for the worst horseshit imaginable, this whole Olympic game thing is meaningless in the end. 50 million men can't marry because there aren't enough women. Scares the shit out of me to be honest. Now is about the only time they can have games.

The protests are a good thing and the games in China are a good thing. Sunlight, disinfectant.

Maybe that little anti-US, pro-Chinese swoon we saw among many in Europe and elsewhere a few years back will get a bracing, ice-cold splash or two of reality. Yeah, it really does get worse than Bush-led AmeriKKKan hegemony.

You know what, if this is going to happen every time some country run by tyrants host the Olympics, then the solution is simple.  No more tyrant countries get to play.

The Olympics is a Western institution anyway.  Started in Greece, revived in the early 19th Century by Western countries.

So, from now on, only good guys get to host the damn thing.  Captialist Democracies.  When China becomes a fully civilized country, she can have an Olympics.  Her athletes can enter if they want.  The Chinese air pollution is going to kill all the athletes this summer anyway.

Then we won't have to go through all this b.s. every four years.  O.K.?

There are plenty of nice Western countries.  Plus Japan and Thailand and such.  We like them kind best anyway.