Olympics -- symbol of ???

Maybe so, but this is what has got my hackles up.

A lot of people want to see the Olympic torch. You can argue the Olympics as being either a purely sporting event, or as a mix of sport and politics -- this has been done since the 1936 Berlin Olympics under Hitler's watch. However, only American city that the torch is visiting is San Fancisco, home of the largest number of Asian-Americans of any city in the country. A lot of their Chinese Americans wanted to see the torch, and are justifiably proud that the Olympics will be held in their home country.

Where does it fall to the protestors of whatever they are protesting in San Francisco to be the ones who can influence who sees the torch? Who gave them the right to be so disruptive to the event that because they are upset with China's trade or human rights policy, they feel they have the right to attack the person running with the torch? It is al least in part a sporting event. That point of view was not respected.

In my older age I see examples of this on both sides of the political arena. Isn't attacking the symbols of the views that are in opposition to the ones that you hold to the point where you can stop them from being presented in a peaceful fashion a central tenet of fascism?

In this instance, I wonder about San Francisco. For such a peaceful, progressive city, if you do not agree with what the majority says, those peaceful, tolerant liberals there will move heaven and earth and park it right on your chest to keep you from challenging their status quo. It goes back to the debacle of the Marine Corps recruiters opening up a depot in Berkeley. (Good luck to those Marines in meeting your recruiting goals! That is a road I would not want to travel.) Any college freshman political science student could tell you that fascism is an extreme right wing philosophy. I see it more on the left of America in the past few years than I do on the right. I sure won't be spending any vacation dollars in their fine city anytime soon.

 

Steve, the torch and the person carrying it were attacked in Paris not SF. As far as I know the only arrests were due to the people climbing on the Golden Gate Bridge to hang Tibeten flags and signs (maybe our NoCals can elaborate). The only thing that really happened was the route was cut short, so spectators pro and con were not allowed to see and/or protest the symbol coming by. In a perfect world sports and politics wouldn't mix, but sadly that isnt the case.

 

fair enough

 

Arhhgggggghhhhh!
What Don said.

aint we 'Kum-bay-ahhh!' on here, lately.

Note that PF has been a china apologist .. because of 'direction' that country is headed, NOT what they are at the moment.

consider this point in time to signify another nail in the coffin of the 'Old Guard'. The people of China are not going to stand this bull-hockey much longer.

 

Politics is inherent in the congregation of multiple nations, whether it be a sporting event, gala or arms negotiation. I leave the decision for the extent to which these games should be politicized to others.

It was an interesting scene here in SF when the torch came to town and I watched it firsthand. During lunch, I walked down to the waterfront to watch the torch run along the Embarcadero and it was a surreal event even by SF standards (there was a band playing covers of Prince, KC & The Sunshine Band, etc. in the plaza were the torch was supposed to end up??, pungent odors of pachoulli, amongst other things...). I waited about an hour with thousands of others who were either peacefully protesting or waiting to catch a glimpse of the torch, when finally the word spread that the route had been changed and the torch was already headed to the Golden Gate. People were seriously pissed and disappointed that the switcheroo had been pulled, basically so that the Chinese Government could have their propaganda film of the torch moving through SF unabated. The protestors were still afforded their 1st Amendment rights, and the torch wasn't disrupted, but the net result seemed empty to me and the local government's manner of changing the torch route was subversive and clandestine. I'm still debating whether the route change was good politics by SF or a neutering of the 1st Amendment...and since the local commie rags are praising mayor Newsom's changing of the route as a "brilliant move," I think I'm leaning toward the emasculation...and I feel bad for the families that waited and waited and waited for nothing. I believe the local government catered to Chinese/Olympic influence a tad too much in this instance.

I didn't see any physical confrontations between the groups, however the number of aggressive, pro-Chinese communists was astounding to me. Word is that China had bussed in 1000s of pro-Chinese supporters to drown out the anti-Chinese contingent. With all the red flags waving about, I had to double-check to make sure I wasn't in Shanghai.

 

Come ON! they didnt have to ship all that many in... havent you ever read 'Zombietime' on various SF anti-war marches and demonstrations?


He's got em on PIX

 

I haven't read zombietime, and maybe it was not thousands, maybe it was thousands, there were definitely foreign-commie protesters adding significantly to the numbers. If there had not been as many pro-commies present, I believe there's no way in hell the route would've been changed and we may have witnessed similar incidents as in Paris and London - but the people would have gotten the chance to view the torch, which is the purpose of this whole fiasco.

The antagonizing quotient increased exponentially with the pro-commie numbers, enough so that the city thought they were avoiding a powder-keg situation by secretly changing the route - to hell with the people who wanted to see the torch.

Which leads to...the fact that there were so many pro-commies, which caused the city to change the route for purported safety reasons, which in turn allowed China to avoid further negative publicity, which then allowed China to celebrate and spin the "peaceful" journey of the torch through SF any way they want (and they did, look up Chinese news agencies descriptions of the torch visit to SF).

In the end, I believe my local government caved to Chinese pressure and it makes me rather disappointed.

 

I might'a overestimated the Maoist contingent in Bay Area... but seems to me they ought to be able to dredge up that many...

But Zombietime's a hoot... especially if you want to see some old nekkid hippies, or some un-nekkid young wannabe hippies. or some nekkid young wannabe hippies hanging in trees.

Like we used to read Nat Geo for...

http://www.zombietime.com/hall_of_shame/

Good a page to start on as any

 

I'll check it out, thanks 'fog...and yes, I still think you can't throw a rock in SF without hitting a Maoist...

 

Uh-Oh! Torch attack backfires



Tibetan thug attacks wheelchair torchbearer.

Despicable, right? Chinese bloggers were livid.... then they did some digging into OTHER photos.

You probably guessed it already....

But it's MUCH WORSE

See above, where Don and I actually agree?

 

As a matter of fact, they do... from debunking scores of Pro-palestinian news photos, and staged incidents.

From the 'death' of the little lad by Israeli soldiers {false}. To Rachel Corry.

You COULD have just not replied.

Hate/Derision alla same!

 

UPDATE:

..or nothing to it?

A commenter on the blog: