Boycott The Olympics?

dana · Post by **dana** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:33 pm

Dougly, you're a burned out old fart.

but have I mentioned how fine you're looking these days (all hairy like that)?

Well take whatever your favorite example is - maybe ending apartheid in South Africa. A lot of violence and oppression which came to an end.
I don't think Nelson Mandela and a lot of other people were just blowing farts. Somehow those ideas took root.

I've spent a lot of time looking at pessimism. We want to think that it is some kind of solid footing or reasonable. Based on what? Looking to see that the past fuck-ups will continue to repeat themselves. Or should you look forward with hope, even if it may not be realized any time soon?

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:14 pm

change will move at its glacial pace but can be encouraged to quicken with a global solidarity movement that must find expressions in how people think about their labor, because without labor we have nothing. Without labor the rich power brokers have.....nothing.

dana · Post by **dana** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:48 pm

True, but also part of why Tibet is such a fucked up situation. So many Han Chinese given financial incentives to immigrate to Tibet and often marginalize the Tibetans.

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:22 pm

Yes. The Chinese government is delusional regarding their underestimation of the worldwide contempt that people from many countries have for these policies. We are so beholden to this regime because of their lock on our manufactured needs and their holding so much American debt. If we somehow find a way to curtail our import 'need' from this country, that may give us the leverage under a more enlightened presidency to start applying pressures over humanitarian issues, but ain't likely to happen. US Financial collapse will set off a global panic that in the short term will be an extreme hardship, but in the long term may be the medicine to correct many evils.

Apollonaris Zeus · Post by **Apollonaris Zeus** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:49 pm

The problem is that Hans didn't bring along Gretel

Tibet is just one of the many problems the chinese have encountered as a emperical communist country. The Islamist regions under their control have the same problems.
These don't go away and as more financial freedom raises so does the elements for the desire for more democratic freedom.

I have a problem with how unscrupulous these so called communists behave as capitalists. They preach that capitalism undermines the workers rights, but they pay no attention to the rights of consumer. Here we have, or at least used to have before GW Bush came along, inspectors of products paid for from fees charged to producers. There they have almost none except when it becomes PR problem.

The only way that issues such as Tibet and quality control can come from a boycott. If no one buys your goods because of social and product issues then you change. But china's military is growing faster then the threats around them. When you have that large a military either it will be used in a form of aggression or it a hell of a works program.

Maybe we should look at Iraq as a form of job security for GIâ€™s

AIIZ

Kinetik V · Post by **Kinetik V** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:36 am

A proposed U.S. boycott of Chinese goods and services will never happen. Our dependence on China is just too great now...there are no fallbacks and America's tastes for quality products at reasonable prices means that unless someone invents a time machine we're not going back to the old days of where America made all the stuff it needed.

The bottom line is quite simply it has no chance of happening. None.

So...if you want to get the attention of the Forbidden City dwellers you'll need to do something more than threaten to halt trade...that stick has too many cracks now and will shatter on impact. It's time to look for better carrots to dangle.

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:55 am

Kinetic V wrote:A proposed U.S. boycott of Chinese goods and services will never happen. Our dependence on China is just too great now...there are no fallbacks and America's tastes for quality products at reasonable prices means that unless someone invents a time machine we're not going back to the old days of where America made all the stuff it needed.

The bottom line is quite simply it has no chance of happening. None.

So...if you want to get the attention of the Forbidden City dwellers you'll need to do something more than threaten to halt trade...that stick has too many cracks now and will shatter on impact. It's time to look for better carrots to dangle.

I agree, I don't think we can really do anything, the economy will do it for us.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:40 am

How dare speak the word divestiture? Ironically think that's the only thing that would ge the attention of "Communist" China...

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 1:48 pm

Have you seen the mascot list? Does anyone else envision the torch, the panda, the fish and the sparrow beating up the tibetan antelope?

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:07 pm

what art thou smoking sistah Crypto?

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:08 pm

Save the yak!

Apollonaris Zeus · Post by **Apollonaris Zeus** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:54 pm

Ugly Dougly wrote:Save the yak!

Yakkity Yak don't talk back!

When was the last time someone said, boycott china?

When Clinton was president, KV?

And yes, CowboyA, economics play a big role and will play a major role, but china is now doing what Ugly D, has said, Divestituring their cash into other countries that we don't deal with like Darfur. They are playing the low cost labor game. With the falling dollar, chinese goods are going up. I know I see the change even at WalMart were I buy goods from other countries than china.

We should be putting more of those factories in the western hemisphere were our neighbors are so they don't have to come here to find a good wage. They buy our goods anyway. Does china? NO! What is the trade deficit 1000 to one? I'm just guessing.

Anyway, back to the Running of the Torch. I don't think the cops as a whole has burnt up more donut calories ever as much as they did today! Ha, Ha, Ha! Who was the idiot that planned the run to go through SF anyway. Had to be a Chinese Diplo. I know it was because of the high chinese pop there. But they would have been more successful and with less banter if it was held in the Midwest or maybe bumfuck Kansas.

It sure was a show! Man those SF people are fuck'n nuts- guess that's why I do BM anyway where would all that creativeness come from anyway!

Still was almost as good as citical tits with all the tits

excerpt from NYTIMES: "As is often the way with protests in San Francisco, the relay also brought out a variety of activists with only a tenuous connection to the issue at hand.

â€œWe thought this was a great opportunity for exposure,â€

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:20 pm

"Mr. Hai said he disagreed with Tibetan protesters who have flooded San Francisco this week. â€œI think they are crazy,â€

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 10:43 am

They should have run a decoy. "Ha! They'll never know where the REAL torch is running!"

Actually, they had to re-light it in Paris, so the magickal power from Olympos is gone. It's not the real torch; why bother going on with the charade?

On a brighter note, China has made so many enemies around the world, once Busch is out, the tune will change greatly.

dana · Post by **dana** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 12:22 pm

Ugly Dougly wrote:Actually, they had to re-light it in Paris, so the magickal power from Olympos is gone. It's not the real torch; why bother going on with the charade?

(maybe this was already in one of the posted links)
I just heard this on NPR yesterday. Do you guys know where the Olympic torch originated?

The Nazis, during the Berlin Olympics.
Lovely irony.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:43 pm

Did they think of lighting it from the sun's rays? Just like the BM kindle?

dana · Post by **dana** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:16 pm

off of a giant parabolic swastika?

Could be kind of a nice touch.....

Kinetik V · Post by **Kinetik V** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:36 pm

Olympic Flame history.....2 links of interest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Flame
http://www.newsweek.com/id/131392

From Wikipedia...
The Olympic Flame from the ancient games was reintroduced during the 1928 Olympic Games. An employee of the Electric Utility of Amsterdam, lit the first Olympic flame in the Marathon Tower of the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam.

The modern convention of moving the Olympic Flame via a relay system from Olympia to the Olympic venue began with the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

The relay, captured in Leni Riefenstahl's film, "Olympia", was part of the Nazi propaganda machineâ€™s attempt to add myth and mystique to Adolf Hitlerâ€™s regime. Hitler saw the link with the ancient Games as the perfect way to illustrate his belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich.[2]

Although most of the time the torch with the Olympic Flame is still carried by runners, it has been transported in many different ways. The fire travelled by boat in 1948 to cross the English Channel, and it was first transported by airplane in 1952, when the fire travelled to Helsinki. All carriers in the torch relay to Stockholm, where these events were held instead, travelled on horseback.

Remarkable means of transportation were used in 1976, when the flame was transformed to a radio signal. From Athens, this signal was transmitted by satellite to Canada[3], where it was received and used to trigger a laser beam to re-light the flame. In 2000, the torch was carried under water by divers near the Great Barrier Reef. Other unique means of transportation include a Native American canoe, a camel, and Concorde.[4] In 2004, the first global torch relay was undertaken, a journey that lasted 78 days. The Olympic flame covered a distance of more than 78,000 km in the hands of some 11,300 torchbearers, travelling to Africa and South America for the first time, visiting all previous Olympic cities and finally returning to Athens for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

>>As far as the torch is concerned snuffing it out is really insignificant....now if the lantern goes out that's a whole other problem.

robbidobbs · Post by **robbidobbs** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:15 pm

[youtube][/youtube]

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:05 pm

Robbi, where didja dig that up? I like him better than Drinking With Bob.....

robbidobbs · Post by **robbidobbs** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 10:15 pm

http://www.youtube.com/user/theotherbedlam

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:23 am

If Sean Bedlam couldn't say the fuck word, I think his head would blow up and we'd have dead limey guts all over the place.....

robbidobbs · Post by **robbidobbs** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:40 pm

Well then, to prevent this horrible fate from happening to me, I'll just say FUCK! (can't be too careful).
It's such a delightfully versatile word, Muthafukka.

He also liberally uses the word cunt. "Sports-cunts" is especially delightful.
I just love his facial expressions. He's a fucking genius.

I just watched x2 Drinking with Bob clips. I'm not fond of that kind of ranting. Just my opinion.

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:35 pm

Well, I'm a sort of a crass intellectual and a so called "sports-cunt" too.
I have drunk the kool-aid of Red Sox Baseball for too long and I am lost. Robbi why don't you start your own blog...I'd watch it.....
I like baseball like winos like wine.

robbidobbs · Post by **robbidobbs** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 6:58 pm

I'll take this offline.

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 7:38 pm

ok, you are much better than you think. People will start to wonder about us.

or not. Crypto needs this stuff to bubble up the neurons in her multi-leveled mind...

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:04 am

So has anyone asked the Dalai Lama what he thinks of the boycott?

ragabashpup · Post by **ragabashpup** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:06 am

I am not sure I havent watched the broadcasts from his Seattle speach yesterday but I am sure you can find them somewhere.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:28 pm

Mr. Lama has been consistently opposed to boycotts, riots, etc. and only wants talks with the government wrt autonomy. Likewise, I doubt he'd support intimidation of teenagers & cripples chosen for the various torch runs, or athletes chosen for the games.

However, as a Tibetan activist myself, you can mail me all the checks you want in support of my Deep Thoughts about Richard Gere.

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:43 pm

now theres a gerbil joke just waiting to happen.