Sam Spade's San Francisco

The pre-parade opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics was a Cirque du Soliel show on steroids. Actually, I'm pretty sure those Cirque du Soliel folks would do an even better job if they could work with the same budget.

The theme at Beijing was Harmony. It was harmony Big Communist Brother style. In one performance after another 2008 performers would move slowly in unison to create giant patterns across the stadium floor.

There were no identities. Each of the 2008 participating humans performed without individuality. They were submissive to the whole, to the one. It was a theme that was unbroken.

The message was clear - harmony - as in clone.

And another thing ...

Some of our American athletes arriving at the Beijing airport wore medical masks to protect themselves against the toxic chemicals and heavy metals in the thick Beijing smog. They offended the Communist Party bosses and - to keep things polite - our athletes were asked to apologize.

That's absurd. It is the Chinese leadership - the Chinese Communist Party - that should apologize. They have enslaved their people, destroyed entire cultures, invaded sovereign lands and they are slowly killing their own people through pollution - and it is all because of their blind greed for power.

Our athletes should not have apologized to anybody. China's geriatric criminal leadership should apologize - to the world!

And, by the way, about their One World, One Dream theme: I have a question. Just what dream and whose one world are they talking about? I suspect the dream of which they speak is the Communist Party's dream to have the whole world be one world - their world!

I prefer themes like individual liberty, freedom, democracy and air I can breathe.
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A few of the first Chinese spin-doctored reports to hit the Internet after the show:
China Daily: Zhang rises to greatest directorial challenge
ChinaView: Israelis Cheer for Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony
and this is the silliest:
Xinhuanet: Beijing Olympics Opening Cermony Hailed All Over World
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