Thanks to the hypocrisy of the West (US , Europe), Chinese human-rights abuses have always been shoved under the carpet.

This current move by the EU is politically motivated but it definitely helps the Tibetan cause as well as Chinese abuses against their own citizens.

Now if only the EU would support a similar move against the US ..... credibility anyone ??

CHEERS!!!!!!!! There is no honor in this pissing contest.

If the Chinese want to play in the First World's playpen (such as hosting the Olympics), then they better get used to the consequences of their actions that they perceive as a "loss of face," as those are the rules of the game. Recent petulance in regards to the Tibet (Xinjiang as well) situation reveals they have much to learn. The first thing would be to dissuade themselves of the "Middle Kingdom" myth.

China is guilty and the games are a sham but this really is the West finding a way to embarrass China as it happens to be its turn for the Olympics.

Will we see the same calls for a boycott of the Vancouver Winter Olympics over Canada's slaughter of seals?

Right.

I'm boycotting Wal-Mart and not purchasing anything made in China and won't watch the olymnpics on TV.

That won't be easy, for almost everything we actually may need is now Chinese made. My glasses frames, almost all tools, hardware, automotive parts with American brand names, canned food and garlic, made or grown in China. It's not just Wal-Mart, it's every store, but the Wal-Mart execs have really pissed me off with their lawsuit against the woman who is brain damaged from an accident and now lives in a rest home.

She was a Wal-Mart employee and was hit by a truck. Her Wal-Mart company medical insurance paid her medical bills, some $470,000. Her son meanwhile was Killed in Iraq. She doesn't know anyone, or remember anything at all. Her family won a lawsuit from the trucking firm's insurance and that money was placed in a trust fund to pay for her medical care. Her husband now works two jobs.

Because she won a lawsuit from the accident, that money CAN be taken by the Wal-Mart medical insurance. Wal-Mart sued the couple, won the lawsuit and now they have to pay Wal-Mart over $400,000 and only have $270,000 left from their lawsuit. They won't lose their home, but will lose their famly vehicle and anything else they have of value and will have to pay the remainder, by docking the husband's wages.

They will not have ANY money for her medical care and she'll have to leave the rest home. Wal-Mart earned some $9 billion dollars profit last year, mostly by selling Chinese goods. They have an employee fund to assist employees and there is also a Sam Walton trust fund to assist employees in dire straits.

Butttt, in spite of the Walton's having billions of dollars, they are going to kick this family into the dirt an shove them into the muck. Wal_Mart screw you, yu will never get another penny of mine, or any of my family members who are also totally diguste with you. What you did may be legal, but it ain't right and you don't need that money.

Mere grandstanding these Europeans !These posturings only reflect on those who politisize the Olympics. Your crazy stunts are futile but merely deminish the stuture of the games.

The Olympics is the only world event that is supposed to be politics free and you people of standing go out of your way to distort the symbolism of the games; more because you just cannot bear the thought that China, a 3rd world nation can organize the effort that will produce the world's best ever Olympics. Your boycott is just like that of the movie fellow Speilber, who went out of his way to AMBUSH China by accepting our invitation to serve on the panel with the intention to cause a stir by quitting. I have not doubt whatsoever that all these egregious mean spiritedness is a concerted plan to embarrass China. THE MOST SHAMELESS SYMBOLISM OF THIS MEAN SPIRITEDNESS IS THE EUROPEAN UNION'S SUPPORT FOR RIOT, CONDONING MURDER AND LOOTING AND BURNING OF LAHSA. The TV coverage of the rioting shows saffron robed tibetans setting fire to shops and banks. It was the monks that held stones as big as your head bashing the head of that motor cycle Han Chinese's head until it killed him. What is so civilized about Angella Nerkel who abets and give confort to criminal monks who burn & kill? Is that the extent of European values of human rights, President of a so called civilized nation who give aid & comfort to murderers ? WHAT ABOUT GERMANY'S SHAMEFUL RECORD OF GASING 6 MILLION JEWS IN PURPOSE BUILT GAS CHANBERS TO DEATH ? Are you Germans now claiming the high moral by pointing your finger at China and you saying, WE GERMANS GASED 6 MILLION JEWS, BUT WE ARE NOT THE BAD ONES BECAUSE WE ARE WHITE EUROPEANS, it is the Chinese who are the bad ones.

Why is it less reprehensible because you are whites and your beastly record of animal behaviour for gasing 6 million jews is less heinous and that for you such animal behaviour is acceptable ! Let me charge your Angela Merkel & the German people, with Animal behaviour for gasing 6 million Jews and that you German people are just as much animals as were the Japs ! You are equally as bad and equally as guilty of animal behaviour as are the Japs. You Germans as a people wear the shame as a people who gassed 6 million Jews and you have no MORAL CAPITAL TO POINT FINGER AT CHINA AND TRY TO DIVERT ATTENTION AWAY FROM YOUR DISMAL RECORD AS A CIVILIZED PEOPLE BECAUSE YOU ARE ANIMALS. Angela Merkel you have the blood of 6 million Jews on your hands and no water in all of history will wash away that stain from your people. Germans, you are the only people on earth who ever committed genocide and your effort to claim the moral high ground is shaneless and the world will see you as the only people who ever committed genocide NOT EVEN STALIN WAS AS SUCCESSFUL IN COMMITTING GENOCIDE AS YOUR GERMAN PEOPLE.

China should seriously be thinking about hiring an American PR firm- they could say something like we are in Tibet to help spread democracy. I don't see China helping in the slaughter of 100's of thousands of Afghans or Iraqis.

"and your effort to claim the moral high ground is shaneless and the world will see you as the only people who ever committed genocide NOT EVEN STALIN WAS AS SUCCESSFUL IN COMMITTING GENOCIDE AS YOUR GERMAN PEOPLE."

what's up with the Troll?

To you dear Sir: The "real powers that be" are at war with your country. The Olympics are where they have begun their stand. Fitting.

You are correct with the hypocrisy about european nations and ours. You are misinformed about Stalin and the German Nazi's.
However, look at China. Poisoned Goods, Poisoned Country, Poisoned People. Kinda hard to feel much sympathy for that.

Perhaps take the high road, and Free Tibet. Allow, don't Control. Lead the world out of this morass of conflict. Change 'Art of War' to Art of Life. Run this by Most High Superiors. Tank you, Sir!

Nan King and Wal-Mart both make me ill.

The USA lied SHAMELESSLY TO THE WORLD THAT GOOD OLE SADDAM HAD WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ! Remember that word WMD. That is the word that defines the USA, a nation of SHAMELESS AGGRESSOR AND BULLY OF THE WORLD.

Yes Gen. Petreous the MILITARY STRATEGIST OF THE CENTURY, the brilliant Gen. Petrious and the success of the "SERGE" and countless drooling accolates of the "picture general"; touted as the super general, and for all the hyperbole this super general is nothing more than the same shit that comes out of the WHITE HOUSE. Yes ! you Americans are just a whole lot of wishful thinkers. WHAT YOU THINK IS WHAT YOU GET.

The USA surpassing the fire power of the next 16 nations combined fire power, JUST CANNOT HANDLE A THIRD WORLD IRAQ WHOSE INSURGENT FREEDOM FIGHTERS HAVE ONLY POTS AND PANS TO THROW AT THE AMERICANS; and the USA still loosing this war. The Iraqis know how to fight and they do not need helicopter gunships and air carriers and F/16 and F/22 bullshit to win. The Iraqis secret weapons is to SPIT AT THE AMERICANS !

AMERICA IS USELESS AND GOING BROKE !

The US and Europeans kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and have a history of doing this kind of thing. China kills hundreds on its own territory and this is cause for a boycott. I agree that China should be told this is wrong and they should find a better solution. i also believe that Bush, Cheney and Blair should be EXECUTED.

As in the Ancients of Romes Amphitheater, so now. the stand that Maximus Decimus Meridius Took against Commodus, as immotralized in "Gladiator 2000" - Only this time it is indeed the real world. Yet the Apphitheater was , so to speak, perhaps literally so, hell bent on athletic composition. Taxing the masses to no end to satisfy the emperor, and it is no different among the Red Chinese of today as among the Emperors of Rome of Old.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BQkzsjs1CSU

http://www.video.r-evolutionz.org/video/xkdDi-kv0wE/gladiator-music-video.html

I remember that man who calls me "troll" and it is good that he is still alive, because I have not heard from him for a very long time. He is so ashamed of his own ignorance that he is ashamed to identify himself. His name is "TOMCAT"; IT MUST BE SOME 5 YEARS AGO THAT WE CROSSED SWORDS !

"America is useless and going broke". When that happens who will buy all that crap that is fueling the Chinese boom? Where will all those rural peasants who work the slave factories go? When the US economy tanks and the Chinese goods rot in Shanghai harbor, the Chinese government will have much more to contend with than rioting Tibetans. Cultural revolution, take two.

What if they gave an Olympic Games and nobody came?

Maybe Beijing wasn't such a good choice after all for the location of the '08 summer games......the air is too dirty to breathe, the Chinese have a long record of human rights abuses and now the crackdown against the freedom fighters in Tibet.....

Hello? IOC? Yeah, it's The World speaking. We're not coming to Beijing this summer, so you can just go ahead and pack it in. See you in four years......

Yes ! You Americans can only see what is great about America, even in the throes of a recession and death. It looks very much like you admitting that the USA is just 3rd rate and the USA is so broke that you can only afford to buy from Wal-Mart; considering that Wal-Mart posted a profit of US$9 billion; and it is also reputed that China's cheap merchandise cause a drop of 3% to 4% of your consummer index. That is admitting that the USA of these days only buy CHEAP !

Not attending an olympic opening ceremony, does not send a tremendously powerful message. No doubt those leaders not going have more useful things to do. Not sending any athletes or representatives at all would send a stronger message. The opening ceremony is usually a colorful entertaining mass spectacle, suitable for television, co-ordinating thousands of peoples efforts. But after you have seen several of them on TV in a lifetime, not viewing another one is not a great sacrifice. Of course its great to be there, but it is just spectacle, circus entertainment for the people. The Olympic contribution to world togetherness seems minimal. Its just a competition for the athletes, with a vast commercial transportation and accommodation undertaking, and a great boon for terrorists and anti-terrorists. No one is going to change their nations policies over it. The richest most populous countries tend to win more medals. A vulgar wealth and prestige contest. The winners media outlets can crow for a while. The losers will just keep on with the struggle for existence.

It is very true that the USA are the worst DRUG ABUSERS ! Only the USA has R & D the sports drugs that is undetectable, how about Merion Jones ? and many others like her ? The USA never competes fairly, there is always some perversion somewhere. The USA ought to have a sports moto "TO WIN BY HOOK OR BY CROOK !"

~YAP~, good name there YAP. __ "Yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yappity yap."

Kem Patrick the great wit from the west !

I believe all of you in the west are correct, THE OLYMPICS BELONGS TO THE WHITE RACE, THE EU & THE USA. The olympics is too much of a political bear pit anf it is too politicized to symbolize UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.

The relevance of the Olympics must be debated by all peoples and be handed to the EU & the USA as the ONLY BEACON OF FREEDOM IN THE WORLD. It is also true that all the athletes should boycott the Beijing games; I think America atheletes should listen to their leaders.

Bush will be there, you don't want to piss off anyone whom you owe nine trillion dollar$.

No big deal. Chinese should never have bid for the Beijing 2008 Olympics - it is just one big ego trip; which runs against old wise Deng Xiao-ping's advice to the current leadership: Keep your heads low...and attend to building the economy..".

I think China should call off the games in August and the Chinese people should start seriously boycotting European luxury goods, Hollywood culture including, Disneyland and stop touring Europe and U.S. and Canada.

The Olympics money should be used for re-training the unemployed in the current industrial transformation in China.

China should attend to the class divide more intensely, and remember the old Chinese saying: "Poverty does not breed trouble, but disparity does" 不患穷只患不均. Abandon vanity, up hold equality. Really go socialist: People not profits.

KEM -- I'll second the nomination !Kem Patrick is the great wit from the west

Don't rely on the GREAT part.

"The disclosure that Germany is to stay away from the games' opening ceremonies in August could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to join in a gesture of defiance and complicate Gordon Brown's determination to attend the Olympics."

Kudos to Chancellor Merkel. Gordon Brown, unfortunately, is a Tony Blair clone........what a disappointment he has turned out to be - in many ways!

KEM for PREZ!

KKKlinton Kem 2008

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/28/AR2008032802866.html

Why cant the women stay at home where they are needed?

And Why must the Democrats trowl out Racial hatred Like I think his names are Hussein Osama, I think his first Name Is Barrac..

Bush, Blair & Brown: The 3 B's - none of which have composed their own music but regurgitate the same dissonant tune of their "overlords", over and over again.

How f-king boring!

yap.chongyee seriously distorts the argument by equating Germany's past behaviour with China's present behaviour. Granted, that Nazi Germany, or more properly the power structure ruling Nazi Germany, committed atrocities. Does yap.chongyee insist that every country in the world *other* than Germany has the "right" to commit similar atrocities, presumably so that they can "catch up?" Who gets to pick the victims?

In the meantime, those leaders of Nazi Germany who bore greatest responsibility for the Nazi crimes were put on trial and punished for them, some paying the ultimate price, and the Nazi Party itself was banned. The present German government has apologised to the world, and to the innocents killed, harmed, and/or dispossessed by its predecessor, and has made monetary reparations as well.

Does yap.chongyee plan for this result in China's case? While most of the leaders are no longer with us, the State Party that organised the invasion of Tibet, and other lands, is still in power and I heartily support yap.chongyee in any future call for its utter dissolution and banning, in the interest of fairness and justice.

Quite a bit of hysteria and shouting here.

But: " I think China should call off the games in August and the Chinese people should start seriously boycotting European luxury goods, Hollywood culture including, Disneyland and stop touring Europe and U.S. and Canada. "

This is a very thoughtful statement. The Chinese "growth" is a surreal and compulsive imitation of western industrial materialism. My acupuncture doctor visits China every few years and each time he returns to the USA he is saddened that China is becoming more and more America every day. Like the historic period when the Chinese were addicted to opium traded by the British, they are now addicted to Disney culture and other superficial material illusions.

Tibet had preserved into the 20th century a unique Buddhist culture that has much to offer the so-called civilized world. It would be in the best interest of China to adopt a kinder and more tolerant attitude towards Tibet and allow Tibetan culture to flourish once again.

In the meantime, encourage Chinese capitalists to change and BOYCOTT EVERYTHING CHINESE !

China staged the Tibet violence as well as the hijack attempt from a 19 yo Uighur girl from Xinjiang region.

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-3-28/67906.html

Both are considered terrorist incidents in China, and the timing is so close to one another only a Coincidence Theorist could believe they were spontaneous events.

Why would they do such a thing? Same reason we do it. They learn quickly, glad we export our knowledge in how to control peoples opinions, just attack your own people and call those who did it terrorists. The Olympics have been a good excuse to increase security against "terrorism" and the local papers have been harping on the homegrown terrorist threat during the Olympics for over a year now.

But some might think there are too many risks for China to do such a thing.
They want the Olympics to go off well, right?

First of all, they understand that none of their major trading partners are going to boycott them. Maybe some foreigners won't go to see the games, freeing up some tickets for the locals. Maybe some foreigners will not be able to go to Tibet as a side trip, when demonstrations would have been most likely. Those are positives.

Now, one thing you have to understand about the Chinese, is they rely on the spirit of nationalism to keep their people under control. Talk of independence from Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan infuriuate the people and unite them. Thats good for China's government.

What about boycotts by European leaders. Perfect for China. The Chinese still get hot and bothered over the Europeans exploitation of them over 100 years ago. Such disrespect being shown by foreigners simply because the government tried to suppress the terrorism of those advocating independence smacks of a double standard, and will get them all hot and bothered, and will unite them further.

Imagine they say, a hispanic group in California deciding they want independence and start rioting. If that happened in Bushs term we would be dropping bombs on LA like we are doing in Basra.

Lest we forget the 1936 Olympics. Hitler and his jewish policies were being widely reported. Even so, The 1936 summer Olympics had the largest representation of nations participating than in any other previous Olympics, including the US.

We did boycott the 1980 Olympics over the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan. This was an invasion we desired, and induced by financing and arming insurgents to destabilize the government before the Soviets invaded (not after). None of the European nations boycotted in 1980. They won't boycott China either.

puddintane can't even understand very simple English ! I said that Angele Merkel is self righteous in taking the moral high ground because the German people are rabid racist of the worst kind; and what can be better proof of the pre-disposed racist blood lust of the German people than the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis. Only a bloody fool like this puddintane can read what I said as equating Nazism with our beloved Communist Party of China.

Too bad that you just can't understand simple English, and it is such a waste of time to clarify what I said.

Yappy, "our beloved Communist Party of China". Yeah Right. You're just a hack spouting off stupidity, I seriously doubt that you are even Chinese.

There is a group of Neo-Cons based in New York City, there could be others, but these people share an office and they sit at computers using any of several code names and blog on progressive sites such as Common Dreams and do all they can to disrupt and annoy, start arguments and attempt to divide the regular bloggers, and take over a thread which they have screwed up.

~Yap~ MAY be one of those, ~Riverman~ I suspect is, and now a new one named ~ZEPHYMDIINBURG~ who first blogged at CD yesterday on another article,has Riverman's identical M O. They often select and attack a blogger who comments frequently here, one who is retired and has the time to do so.

Their obvious goal is to cause friction and disgust and turn people away from this site. Keep an eye out for them, they may be few but they use several different code names and switch from computer to computer. It may have been set up and financed by Karl Rove types.

KEM PATRICK

whereas i agree with your observations on 'infiltrators' i do believe yap chongyee is a genuine poster. i also believe he is malaysian. that's neither here nor there. but this yap.chongyee has shown up on several occasions now and judging his knowledge of international events, i doubt if he is a neo-con. neo-cons aren't that clued up or clever..................

Your're probably correct ~CoCo~, but he seems to stir it up a great deal and is an obvious American hater. Of course that's not uncommon since Bush, come to think of it.
BTW. I have proof of that New York office.

Hey 45 minutes and we go sit out on the deck and count stars in the Milky Way. I'm up to 500,000, got about three inches counted so far. Several trillion to go. Did you know Earth is in the Milky Way?

As of only a few days ago, CFR run news groups changed from reporting out of "Lhasa, Tibet" to "Lhasa, China".

As of this posting, any mainstream articles that mention this boycott have yet evaded my searches, there seem to be none.

The general, former use of speaking about, "protests in Tibet," or, "Tibetan independence," and so on, have been changed into things as, "China's Tibet problem". Read this as, "Don't be rude and stare, it's China's little problem, and their military is there to 'help' them deal with this evil band of terrorist monks."

Powers in this nation have already written off Tibet to cultural extiction and military rule.

ok but whatever happened to Darfur? remember them? a protest was-is afoot to label these the Genocide Olympics because the Chinese will not let anyone stand in the way of the goons in Khartoum. they say hey we're not killing anybody, but in truth they are. they got the oil (always oil ain't it?) in southern Sudan where the indigenous population have been pushed out of their homes Mia Farrow i think is sort of leading this. If they want to boycott in honor of Tibet, ok, but they could at least mention Darfur. meanwhile,the genocide continues

http://www.miafarrow.org/genocide_olympics.html

These empty gestures only amplifies the hypocrisy of the leaders of these so called free societies.

How many of these leaders would have decided to boycott the ceremonies if the games were held in the US given the illegal and unprovoked invasion and ongoing atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Correction for the last paragraph of my above post: Wherein it starts, "If his books worth not worthless, then he would not pretend that he can deal ...", it should be "If his books were not ...".

There are probably some other typo. errors in the post, but I'll just clarify this above one.

yap.chongyee, please, oh man please, shut your YAP! My goodness you'd think the Department could afford better script writers, they could use those preferable to their typing cadence. Whether they prefer an English accent from a person that speaks Cantonese or Mandarin, Cantonese being so much smoother in sound to the ear.
To attend or not to attend an Opening Ceremony, means nothing. Although true, the Olympics is founded on the spirit of the Athelete not Politics, times have changed, INDEED.
The Dalai Lama was to become the Dalai Lama without his knowledge or consent, he remained as a humane peaceful man throughout all trials, turmoil, murders, such a young boy he was.
With the yap guy, sorry, I've never seen an Asian, whether Chinese, Tawainese or Vietnamese use a period between the normal one symbol name and the latter 2 symbols? I don't know. I will never purchase a product from China or Wal-Mart, Gazillionaires and theives of women with TBI that has to kept being told her 18 year old boy is DEAD over and over. I understand many policies contain this legalese, as Olbermann put it , "You just couldn't let this ONE get by, could you?". She was awarded $417,000 and has to pay back $470,000 for the medical bills, HUH???

The China bashing is misplaced. The Chinese people are being exploited for their cheap labor and American capitalists are benefiting.

Yap is right and Americans and Europeans are hypocritical to worry about China's repression of Tibet, when the US, in particular, is busy slaughtering far more people than China is. Someone yesterday pointed out that Tibet was a feudal theocracy, so China could plausibly claim with more authority than the US can in Iraq, that it was modernizing Tibet.

I'm not defending repression by China. I'm simply pointing out that before you criticize the mite in someone else's eye, remove the log in yours. Or however that goes.

This Olympic thing has been done before, in 1980, when Carter hypocritically refused to let American athletes participate in the Moscow Olympics, to protest the invasion of Afghanistan by Russia when it was provoked by US support of the muhjadeen, as admitted by Zbigniew Burzynski, now advisor to Saint Obama. Now that the US and NATO have invaded Afghanistan, is it not particularly odious to sanctimoniously criticize China?

People train for years to be in the Olympics, (which is supposed to be a place where athletes from all over the world compete without politics involved), and their government can lay waste to their dreams to further some devious agenda? That aint right.

And In return, The USSR Hypocritically Refused to allow their Athletes to the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984
___________________________

http://www.screenit.com/movies/2004/miracle.html

"Get The Puck out Of Afghanistan"

(Lake Placid New York, 1980 Winter Olympics)

(Miracle 2004)

______________

As thoutgh Reagan did not support Iraq during the 1980s

Only Natural. IRAQ Did not kindap Americna Sutdents, Nor Did Afghanistan, IRAN DID, Iran and Iraq have been enemies since the ancients.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

______________

We better watch this front, its how a Chinese Civil War coudl get started, Tibetian uprising agaisnt China

And Over in China's Far West, They Claim Kashmir, Along with India and Pakistan, All three of these Claims are illegal and immoral

To rephrase Christ, "Let the nation that is without sin cast the first stone.". I don't like China's government and I try not to buy goods made there, but the US is guilty of meddling in the affairs of other nations all over the world.

Hello playmates,

I'm not being flippant, when I say that the post I most enjoyed here, was Kem's comments regarding stars and the Milky Way...

Thankyou, o stargazing 'Old Timer' for introducing an important concept: that of the Vastness of this universe, wherein ::: the little blue orb we call Urthona (Earth) is but one tiny speck, hid deep within the unfathomably larger Creation...

We might argue till the cows come home about 'black being white', or about 'how many angels might fit on to the head of a pin', but in the longer run of things, what really matters the MOST??

Is it that one of us is right, -or wrong, ~~ or somewhere in between?

Or is what matters most, is that we tiny little midgets in this huge cosmos learn to get along with each other, and stop biting the ears off fellow creatures who, -(in our ignorance) we have adjudged to be somehow less worthy than ourselves?

In our immaturity, our spiteful arguments so often lead to harm and death. Such barbarism is unbecoming to creatures who are the 'children of a loving god' (-call it what you will).

_________________________

As to one countryman calling another any name, and the dishing of dirt: well, - let us now hear from *any one person* at Common Dreams who lives in a country which has never committed any wrongs.......

Will that person please stand up, - he or she who lives in such an innocent, un-besmirched continent?

~~ [ I don't hear much in the way of chairs scraping, as throngs leap to their feet!! ] ~~

The truth is, that we are *ALL* as 'guilty' as each other.

None of us has clean enough hands to adopt any moral high ground and lord it over others.
We *ALL* have to purify and clean up our inner, metaphorical 'Augean stables', which have accumulated levels of dung rising high up into the rafters!

-- and that applies as much to us as *individuals*, as it does to us as nations.
(And I very much include myself among the crew of tardy stable hands!)

The bottom line is, that we could very usefully stop slagging each other off, and begin (-as someone else here noted) attending to the 'beam in our own eyes' before focussing on the mote in our fellow's eyes.

Were we to do that, we'd find a more peaceful planet would come about that much sooner.

... Then we'd have more time to do as Kem does: sit out on the porch in peaceful contemplation of the big beautiful universe, - sure in the knowledge that our own little planet was now less racked with war and intrapersonal, internecine perturbation!

With love and kindness,

U-C-D

That's rich! Merkel and Sarkozy boycotting China would be like Hitler boycotting Mussolini. Wow, these two right-wingers must secretly be admiring China's crackdown on the religious nuts out West.

Hey "second and first":

When America gives its stolen land back to Mexico; when it leaves the colonized, occupied countries of Iraq and Afghanistan; when it finally honors all the broken promises to the Indigenous peoples of Northern America and returns its stolen lands; when its Company operatives all over the world stops dealing in arms, drugs and supporting rightwingers to destabilize societies; when it closes up its global gulags and military bases all over the world - then, perhaps, it can take the moral high ground.

Someone else suggested that the US, given its track record, is probably secretly funding the religious fundamentalists and secessionists - and I have no doubt about it.

The American economy is in the tank; the dollar is dropping. In short, the US is in a freefall. All it has is its military apparatus - and are getting their *sses kicked in Iraq and Afghanistan. The only solutions of the American ruling class is to destabilize its capitalist competitors - particularly China, since it's not too difficult to stir up the masses with subtle racist and xenophobic language.

I have no love for China, to be honest. I'm living here, and could go on and on about it. "Socialism with Chinese characteristics." Hahahaha. That's quite rich; especially since they are True Believers in capitalism. But so many "leftists" and "liberals" are being used by the Western governments.

Ask yourself: "What's the matter with this picture, when I'm on the same side as Merkel and Sarkozy et al?"

kelmer -

"Will we see the same calls for a boycott of the Vancouver Winter Olympics over Canada's slaughter of seals?"

I hope that I'm misreading you. You're not comparing the killing of 1,200,000 Tibetans to the killing of seals in Canada, are you? Don't get me wrong, I love the seals, hate the seal hunt, but IMHO this is an unfortunate choice of example for making your point.

Angela Merkel, we want to "thank" for your thoroughly full of it BS about going to the Olympics in Peking. It ain't about a damn thing and won't accomplish a damn thing, but you could, if you were worth a damn push for sanctions at the EU against Israel for its many atrocities against the Palestinians. Hey, you just showed how phony you and your "Christian Democrats" are. Hey, you're right in there with that far right/loony right Nick Sarkozy.