"... "Sports is too important. It is too important to use it as a political instrument," said Milan Zver, the sports minister of Slovenia, which holds the EU presidency..." This was in response to China's Darfur policy. Zver is full of shit.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/0 … index.html

So basically the message is: "We like sports. We like cheap Chinese products that make our companies rich. We kiss ass."

Bleh, I used to enjoy the Olympics. Now it makes me sick. This year I won't even watch it! I like how all the politicians say politics should be left out of sports, but everyone knows the Olympic Games is as about as political as things get. Hell, professional sports are full of politics (and full of something else too). I hope people boycott the Olympics. I will.

later,

-avatar!

ps I definitely don't consider myself a bleeding-heart liberal, but I do follow my conscious...

Spielberg gave a big "f--- you" to China a few days ago: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/13/asia/beijing.php

Good article, it also noted the following:

Anti-Games activist charged

Yang Chunlin, a Chinese human rights advocate, will stand trial for subversion after he called for human rights instead of the Beijing Olympic Games, Reuters reported from Beijing.

Yang, an unemployed factory worker from Jiamusi city in China's far northeast, in past years wrote petitions, denounced government corruption and urged democratic reform of the one-party state.

Last year, he helped organize villagers to sign a petition demanding return of disputed land.

Yang boldly declared, "We don't want the Olympics, we want human rights."

-reading stuff like that is scary, and I don't like the direction the US is heading. I'm not an alarmist, but there is compelling evidence for Big Brother like moves... see:

http://www.chelseagreen.com/2007/items/ … essRelease

I read that story earlier and found that quote pretty aggravating as well.  "Our economy is more important than human rights" is what it basically comes out to.

Man, thats really sad.  How messed up the government in the PRC is just dumbfounding sometimes.  And the fact that doesn't outrage our supposedly 'civil democracies', in turn, shows how messed up they are.

WELL, you know, the Chinese government might face retribution for trying to help end the conflict in Darfur, if, say, they stopped providing weapons, whether or not they refused to import oil from them anymore...and good luck with diplomacy.

I'd understand why China's out for it's own neck; they're closer to the terrorists than we are.

Still a scheisty situation, though.

-- sports columnist Sally Jenkins in today's Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co … 02695.html

Great article!