The news has been rather depressing of late, and that coupled with my severe bandwidth problem at home and the nasty hours I’ve been pulling at work - well, this translates to very few posts the last few days.

After this weekend, I figure that this is a good thing. I still remember being really excited when the IOC announced that Beijing was going to host the Games in 2008. It seemed a long way off, but we all realized what a great advantage this was for development of the city and how the timing would mesh fairly well with the direction the economy was taking.

Fast forward several years and that great opportunity, while still good, has lost some of its luster. I would not want to be a gov’t official right now, particularly one in Beijing. The stakes are high and tensions are getting unbearable - and it’s only March.

What the hell else is going to happen between now and August?