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Always do your research. Andrew Sullivan brings us this little gem.

Comments

[John Chuckman, Toronto, Canada]

Three points.

The ridiculous, resource-wasting torch relay custom was started by the Nazis.

It is a natural target in a globalized world for protest.

It should be dropped.

The 1936 Olympics raises the great reason why it is stupid to talk of boycotts.

The great hero of that Olympics was Jesse Owens, whose performance and character put the lie to Nazi physical theories.

A dumb boycott would only have deprived him of his stage while not changing the Nazi's approach to government one bit.

Last, any comparison of China today, a place of expanding liberties and prosperity clearly headed towards democracy, with Hitler's Germany is prima facie proof of colossal ignorance.