I'm really glad I no longer work for that company.

don't forget to mention who started the torch lighting tradition in the 1st place..

I don't understand why the Olympics are being held there. More importantly, I don't know why we're not boycotting them.

"rollerblading cops in jumpsuits"

And the LOLs just don't ever stop.

That SBUX article is great.

I'm not disagreeing with you about China, but I did want to add some insight to the Olympics dirty little secret. The profit angle is a sham that the Olympic bigwigs use to make the host city justify spending a boatload on new venues and sprucing up the city, as well as convincing the local populace that they are going to make a mint selling licensed merchandise to the throngs of people that show up for the events.
The reality is, most people who watch the Olympics will do so on TV. There is no more a huge influx of people on the city than if a major concert were happening at the same time as a major sporting event and a decent sized convention. Here in Atlanta, most of the locals left town for the week due to months of advance warning about the huge crowds of people that were going to descend on the city which never materialized. I have never had such an easy drive into town...there was NO traffic at all. A bunch of folks who DID stay bet the farm on paying the city to set up stalls to sell merchandise or food from, in and around the new Centennial Olympic Park area that the city had spent years and tons of money building. By day two, the vendors were furious after realizing they had been shammed. There were NO huge crowds...in fact it was a ghost town. There were less people downtown than there usually are when the Olympics weren't here. Alot of the folks who came for the games were the family or friends of folks competing in the events, and they were not spending money buying collectible Olympic pins and T Shirts with the stupid mascot on it. They weren't interested in exploring the city or dropping a lot of loot on Atlanta souveneirs either. Three days into it, a lot of the vendors actually closed up their little stalls and headed home with their tails between their legs. It was sad. The Olympic Committee sold the event to the city with false promises, and the city in turn sold it to the public with false promises. The Mayor was hugely embarassed after several years of making the Olympics his administrations big project. It was more than a financial disaster, it was a full on fiasco.
Our city lost a boatload of money hosting the games. I'd bet that most cities do, but in order to save face, none of the host cities are running to tell the next ones not to participate. Heh, theres a reason that they take it to a different city each time and it isn't because they want to make it a fully global event...

Someone in Seattle (in fact, in seattle) tried to organize a protest even though the torch in question isn't even coming anywhere close to here.

It's a fucking ceremonial torch run. It's fire on a fucking stick. The Olympics have been held in Nazi Germany (1936) and in Soviet Russia (1980). People didn't nit over the fucking torch passing through then. Trust fund white kids have too much time on their hands and people don't know how to choose their battles anymore.

"Trust fund white kids have too much time on their hands and people don't know how to choose their battles anymore."

I don't have a trust fund and I think it's bullshit that the Olympics are being held in Beijing. I guess you must be referring to the members of the Falung Gong? The Tibetans? Uighurs? Mongolians? Taiwanese? Just because women aren't gunned down in the streets for jaywalking and wearing make-up doesn't make that country a beacon for democracy and human rights. Your logic astounds me.

I support the protests because China has gained economic prosperity without securing liberty and democratic freedoms, setting a dangerous precident for the world.

Give industrialized tyranny a hug!

Incidentally, you misspelled yours.

Edited at 2008-04-09 02:50 am (UTC)