I'd like to meet the morons who voted to give the 2008 Summer Olympic Games to the dictatorial nation of China. Yes, I know they've got the world by the short and curlies because of their bottomless surplus and churning economic engine, which comes with yawning needs for oil, concrete, etc., etc., and that they essentially ARE Wal-Mart, but damn. Couldn't someone have anticipated this:
The Olympic flame relay descended into near-chaos for a second successive day as officials in Paris were forced to extinguish the torch three times so it could be taken aboard a bus to avoid protesters today. Security officials extinguished the torch moving it, under police escort, aboard the bus to keep activists protesting against China's recent violent crackdown in Tibet away from it.
Despite a huge security presence in the French capital, where at least 3,000 officers were deployed, at least two activists got within little more than an arm's length of the flame before being stopped by police.
One protester threw water at the torch, but failed to extinguish it and was carried away. Five people were arrested.
Police tackled many other demonstrators to the ground and used tear gas to disperse those blocking the relay's route.
Demonstrations in Paris began only hours after the relay's procession through London had degenerated into a series of skirmishes between protesters and police.
Activists began targeting the flame before it had even left the Eiffel Tower for the planned 17-mile journey to the Charlety stadium on the edge of the city.
The scale of protests further along the route forced officials to put out the Olympic torch and take it aboard the vehicle.
Live TV footage showed the extinguished torch being put into the bus alongside tracksuit-wearing Chinese security staff.
The torch is lit from permanent flames enclosed within special lanterns carried with it. Designed to be carried on buses and planes, they are used to keep the flame intact overnight.
It was extinguished for the first time amid protests on a road alongside the River Seine, according to the Associated Press news agency. ...
There are some 150 democracies in the world (the U.S. ranks 15th on the "democracy scale, as of December 2007 according to the group Worldaudit.org if you're interested...) Couldn't the Olympic Committee have chosen one of them? I mean it's not like China wouldn't have been invited...
<%
dim done
done = request.form("done")
if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
