I laughed. Loud.

Hehe.  I left that one well alone.

^ what it is. It survived so much. Civil war, slavery, ww1,the depression, ww2, vietnam, cold war and the bush era just recently. And an election soon where they will have the weatern worlds 1st black president.

 What a ridiculous statement. Most of the world went through the depression, ww2, and the cold war (which Viet Nam was part of, and the Americans lost). The Bush era (well, the second half) was a result of this so called "great democracy".

A lot of countries have gone through civil war, and survived.

And, really, what difference does the colour of the skin make to the effectiveness of a person's ability to be president. Not to mention the fact that he hasn't even won it yet, so that's not even certain.

And look how much that did. Oh that's right, NOTHING.

I wouldn't be so sure that the USA is a great democratic country. It does have democratic values, that's for sure. USA for me and many other Europeans has not been as equally democratic with its exterior politics. I like the Americans as I like all people no matter what colour they have. It's just I think people tend always to say something like "we're better than you". It's probaby in our genes and can't live without it!

Parokki said: I think this sums up the situation pretty well.

 We did allow Nazi Germany to host the olympics. Or was that what you're getting at?

The United States isn't a democracy. Anyone who has taken a political science class knows that. It isn't even supposed to be.

Yup. The Olympics are about money and realpolitik. All the idealistic stuff is just propaganda sprouted out to make the IOC feel better about itself.

That being said, I'm not sure if these games should be boycotted or not. China has been turning into a nicer place during the last decade, and the whole country is in a very fragile state of moving from one kind of a society to another. Open hostility towards their government is only going to cause a negative reaction against Western values, and make life harder for the very activists in China we want to support. 

 lol, this is where I was trying to mould my argument to, thanks for cutting it short ;)