I don't care about hurting some athletics feelings...

[WCGreen]

Or ruining the dream of someone who has trained for the Olympics...

I ain't buying anything from anybody who advertises on or sponsors the Beijing Olympics...

Period...

There is no reason that the so-called freedom loving United States should have anything whatsoever to do with the Olympics in Beijing...

It's time that we see who really gets hurt if we don't travel to Beijing and participate in the Potemkin Olympics...

The advertisers...

It's all about money, it has been for at least the last 40 years...

It has nothing to do with glory or competition...

So much cheating goes on on so many levels that it's hard to think anyone is on the up and up...

So I could care less about what is happening in the Fascist state of China...

The Chinese oligarchy is just playing games with the US...

It's all propaganda...

And it's all about the world getting a peek at the city formally known as Peking...

I ain't buying it...

And I certainly ain't buying anything that has anything to do with sponsoring the Olympics...

Well, that's my $4.02 worth...

My opinions have skyrocketed in value as the dollar continues to drop...

[davidinalameda]

1. all I can say is AMEN!

my thoughts exactly!

[better tomorrow]

2. does this mean that I can't eat sweet and sour chicken anymore....

or egg fu young? Darn those McDonald's hamburgers anyway.....

BTW, is a hamburger at 4.02 yet?

[WCGreen]

3. Depends on where you shop for your burgers...

If the brand advertises on NBC or any of their myriad of cable networks, I will not buy it...

[mac2]

4. They are aggressors into Tibet

and they are rebelling. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031408P.shtml

When you think about it the priest have much to lose user the Chinese rule. Their power and religion will be banned in the future.

So I wouldn't support the games either. Fact is as an American you could be in danger for some political agenda (may not even be China but some other country or secret service). Nothing about China is safe for Americans. People travel there everyday but at any time something could happen to you. The world hates us.

They don't have a democracy even though our government said trade and wealth would do it (heck we don't have democracy anymore). The elite rule. They don't have Communism or Democracy....they have a police state with corrupt elite leadership. Emm where else do we see such a government?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. You said it perfectly!

The Olympics are such a jingoistic enterprise now...

It's a shame...

K&R

[HCE SuiGeneris]

11. Jingoistic

I think you nailed it perfectly as well.

:pals:

[Recursion]

6. Because the Olympics are supposed to look beyond politics

Then again, they're supposed to look beyond commercialism, too, so boycotting their sponsors is probably a good idea in any case.

[Hippo_Tron]

7. Boycotting the Olympics will not get China to change a damn thing

I don't get why that is so hard for people to understand. Our symbolic outrage will fall on deaf ears and at the end of the day they will still do whatever the hell they want.

[WCGreen]

8. Well, My vote doesn't count...

The Congress doesn't listen...

Damn, what's the use...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Even symbolic votes have meaning...

Or maybe it's just because I'm all fired up over "John Adams"...

[Hippo_Tron]

10. It's an unfortunate situation but symbolic outrage isn't the answer

Symbolic outrage is the reason that we still have an embargo against Cuba that hasn't done jack shit other than cause innocent civilians to starve.

I also think it distracts and makes us believe that we're actually doing something when we are not. Real solutions aren't easy to find but we need to find them instead of pretending that boycotting the Olympics will do the trick.

[WCGreen]

12. It's not symbolic if we get people discussing and then

demanding some action from the elected officials who talk one way on the campaign trail and then act completely different once the hand drops after the oath is spoaken...

[Hippo_Tron]

13. What would you have our politicians do?

Even if what you say would actually work (and I don't think it will) the only thing they could get our politicians to do is impose economic sanctions. The fact is that economic sanctions DON'T WORK. We've tried them on country after country and they have failed time and time again to do anything other than hurt civilians.

The only swift and effective way to coerce states into changing their behavior is military force and obviously we don't want to go down that road.

The fact is that given our present circumstances we don't have very good means of forcing these kinds of changes. The only option is to work on developing new means but that takes time just like developing new technology or new drugs takes time.