According to this account, "authorities were forced to deliberately extinguish the flame for the first time ever as it passed through Paris."
(emphasis added)
My understanding is that the torch has gone out by accident many times. And if you ask me the whole ceremony is vastly overrated anyway, though you already knew how I felt about not only Olympiads in general but also (especially) Beijing 2008.
I'm heartened to see an entire world of people who feel about the same way I do about that regime and its behavior, though it's a little frightening how fervent the protest has become. (It's not as if mobs in Paris will somehow transform mainland China into a republic, any more than a local motorist could free Tibet.)
Posted by Matt Bruce at April 8, 2008 04:55 PM