The World Is How We Say It Is

I drove home listening to BBC News tonight, and I heard a couple of things that were just complete non sequitors. Does anything make sense these days?

The first report was about the Olympic torch, which seems to be all over the place these days. It's running into problems as more and more people are protesting Chinese treatment of Tibet. (Is anybody else sensing echoes of the 1936 Olympics, or is it just me?) Those Chinese are right on top of everything--they're not going to be undermined by any stupid protesters. In fact, in the story linked, Beijing Olympic organizing committee spokesman Sun Weide defiantly insisted, "No force can stop the torch relay of the Beijing Games." The story then went on to report:

The Paris relay started to go wrong almost from the start, despite the presence of 3,000 police along the route.

It was cut short with the torch finally carried by bus to the relay's end point.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe cancelled a ceremony to welcome the torch relay after Green party activists hung a Tibetan flag and a black banner depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs from the city hall.

Nope, no force can stop the relay at all.

Another report concerned the British inquest that determined Princess Diana was killed unlawfully. I can't find any reports about how the papers have been responding, but according to the radio, they pretty much line up with Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner who led the inquiry.

I just hope that this can bring closure to what has been a traumatic event for many people. . . .

I do hope everybody will take this verdict as being closure to this particular tragic incident and the people who've died will be allowed to rest in peace.

That's what I'd expect to happen from a finding of unlawful killing--closure and putting it all behind us. There's nothing like declaring a death not an accident but the responsibility of others acting illegally to bring about a response of "There's nothing more we need to know."