You know what? We already know that giving the 2008 Olympics to China was a mistake by the International Olympic Committee. But it's possibly not working out so well for China either; the backlash has produced its own backlash of Chinese nationalism that could conceivably leave that country feeling and acting more isolated right at the moment its trying to take a pre-eminent position on the world stage.

A boycott of the Beijing Olympics makes moral sense. The Chinese government is monstrous -- a nasty, repressive regime with a shiny new capitalist veneer. And the point of the games this summer is not to promote universal brotherhood or prod Beijing's communist masters toward freedom so much as showcase emerging Chinese superiority as an authoritarian world power.