Patterico's Pontifications

4/9/2008

Olympic Torch Tours San Francisco

Filed under: Current Events — DRJ @ 5:53 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

San Francisco is the only American stop for the Olympic torch as it makes its way to China. Unfortunately for the supporters and protesters, the route was rescheduled to places where no one expected it. As SFGate reported, it was “a much more low-key event than anticipated:”

“San Francisco leaders surprised thousands of supporters and protesters today by rerouting the Beijing Olympic torch run from its advertised route to a picturesque course that avoided the throngs of demonstrators along the Embarcadero.

The result was a much more low-key event than anticipated.

Some protesters caught up to the run along its surprise route, but most stayed at Justin Herman Plaza, where a closing ceremony was planned. That ceremony was canceled in lieu of a quieter affair at San Francisco International Airport. The torch is expected to leave for Buenos Aires on a China Airways flight.”

Like a weary tourist who just wants to get home, the torch tour was cut short (presumably at the request of city officials) and they may even have skipped the “quieter affair” at the airport:

“Officials say the Olympic flame was taken directly to a plane at San Francisco International Airport, skipping an appearance at the closing ceremony.”

I’m glad no one was hurt but the visit turned out to be a pointless gesture and a waste of time and resources. Sadly, I’m not surprised that it happened in our PC City by the Bay.

— DRJ

19 Responses to “Olympic Torch Tours San Francisco”

  1. I hear there was not a “Free China” banner to be seen.

    Rovin (e21c93)

  2. Why didn’t they just surprise everyone and run it through Paintsville, Kentucky?

    Apogee (366e8b)

  3. The MSM report I saw said there were a lot of Chinese from the local Chinatown who had come out to support the Torch. Also, that the ceremony had been changed to an “undisclosed location”. Does that mean the Vice President was going to attend?

    kishnevi (2b3e28)

  4. I knew Cheney was behind this!

    Apogee (366e8b)

  5. hmmmm
    Maybe Sf is becoming The Mecca of the West…you know…the city of perpetual outrage…
    Does that make SF’ers Dhim bulbs? LOL

    paul from Fl (47918a)

  6. A little outrage against the fascist regime that is propping up the mass murder government in North Korea is a good thing.

    Daryl Herbert (4ecd4c)

  7. i agree with #6. i don’t like the olympics. i hope this corrupt, drug-ridden merchandising spectacle never takes place in my country again, and i’d be happy to see the last of the torch too. if i still lived in san francisco, i would have tried to extinguish it.

    i hear that in london, chinese police officers were imported to provide security, and they manhandled several u.k. citizens. hope they don’t try that here, a chinese cop touching an american on american soil would be an incitement to violence.

    i’m predicting a bad olympics. red china will show its face to the world, but it won’t be the face that they so carefully planned. this could be worse than the munich olympics. on the plus side, one really bad olympics might be enough to shut the whole thing down for good.

    assistant devil's advocate (aff0d6)

  8. I think it was Wizbang who wrote that the only good thing about the 0lympics being in Peking is that the fascist regimes of Germany, USSR and Yugoslovia did not last 10 years after hosting 0lympics.

    seaPea (eae930)

  9. ada #7,

    You keep surprising me. You object to young people offering their health, strength and talent to the gods of Olympus? Are you sure that you are a pagan after all?

    nk (6b7d4f)

  10. nk, thank you for your interest. by the time of the ancient greeks, religion had already been corrupted and co-opted as an instrument of state control. paganism is largely self-discovered and self-informed, no two of us are exactly alike, but my version has more in common with aboriginal australian/native american spirituality than it does with any of the later “civilized” outlooks. no statues of zeus or apollo around here.

    assistant devil's advocate (e1ffa4)

  11. “Sadly, I’m not surprised that it happened in our PC City by the Bay.”

    Whats sad about these events?

    stef (7ae49a)

  12. ada #10,

    In defense of the ancient peoples, gods are supposed to help people and one of the things they help them with is to govern themselves. In the context of the modern Olympics, getting young people from 154 nations together without any of them shooting at any others is a net good thing.

    nk (6b7d4f)

  13. Yeah, protesting widespread human rights abuses and oppression is just soooo PC.

    Vergil (444e9b)

  14. I love all this Protest crap.
    Yeah China has a really crappy Human rights record.
    Yeah, they are raging Communists and overall bad actors.
    So I’m going to take to the streets and act like an ass in my own country to show them how tough we are. yeeesh.
    Folks, you have to follow the money. Do we really want to make an impact? Lets stop running to China to sell our stuff.
    Lets tighten out belts and be a little self rightously hungry, or poorer or uncomfortable.
    But this Berkley/Columbia style tantrum is all BS theater with no impact, just a little Political masturbation.
    Boycott the Olympics if you really want to be a tough guy.
    Don’t buy the cheaper Chinese product. Take your balls to work and and say no to chinese money, business and markets.
    Turnover the box on that bargain you found and if it is made in china, be a hero and spend a bit more for the American product.
    Then talk to me about taking China to task.

    Paul from Fl (47918a)

  15. ” Lets tighten out belts and be a little self rightously hungry, or poorer or uncomfortable.”

    – Paul from Fl

    Here, here. It’s easy to paint the flag of Tibet on your face and run around like an idiot. It’s hard(er) to actually make a palpable change in your daily routines, of a sort that would force real change upon the object of your attention (if mimicked by a significant portion of the population).

    Leviticus (b987b0)

  16. Re #14 – for at least the past 15 years I have checked the packaging to see if the item has been ‘Made in China’. When it is, I keep looking to find a version that was not and if I find it , I buy that one – even if it costs more but still fits my budget.

    When I can’t find a version not ‘Made in China’ or the one I find is out of my budget, the vast majority of the time I simply do not buy the item unless it is of high need – which is very rare.

    So I am still looking for a clothes drying platform that one can put on a porch 🙂

    seaPea (ca621f)

  17. “Sadly, I’m not surprised that it happened in our PC City by the Bay.”

    Whats sad about these events?

    Stef,

    It’s sad that the leaders of San Francisco were spineless when it came to organizing and carrying through on the torch run. They had more backbone when they stood up to the Marine Corp when they wanted to film near the Golden Gate Bridge.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  18. I agree with #14 regarding boycotting “Made in China” and the olympics, but the protesters who are out there making “asses” of themselves are bringing a lot more public attention, which is a huge embarrassment to the Chinese, as it is embedded in their culture to “save face” from their neighbors. I think both tactics used together would be extremely effective.

    Lulu (02a217)

  19. “It’s sad that the leaders of San Francisco were spineless when it came to organizing and carrying through on the torch run. ”

    Its not clear to me what you would prefer. Would have preferred they had the spine to not have the run, or that they had the spine to ensure that it was successful?

    stef (48e229)


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