Maybe they had been wearing them a while...

Protest? Not because of China's atrocious human rights record, but because China dumped tainted human and pet foods, toiletries and pharmaceuticals in the U.S., killing both human and pet Americans. If it were up to me, the U.S. would ban importation of any Chinese goods, or at least require all products to be labeled for the country or countries of origins of every one of its component parts, so I could avoid ever buying anything from China again.

I do not support a boycott of the Olympics. It is counter productive.
(As for punishing the athletes, it's probably more of a punishment for them..in Beijing and have to exert themselves in the extremely polluted air there. )

They may not have even been protesting the smog, just keeping themselves safe from its effects, but it does seem like a political statement rather than a health one to me. Does it to you?

I know Beijing is a very polluted city and the air is loaded with particulate matter and noxious chemicals, (which makes me wonder why the city was chosen for athletic competition in the first place) but all the athletes are breathing the same air, so I suggest there was more to the masks than just keeping the cyclists' lungs clean.

You can't ban importation of Chinese goods because then we'd be running around naked, living in houses made out of pine tree branches.

American sky clad?

The athletes should take off the masks and give their bodies time toadjust to the air they have to compete in. They will be at a disadvantage otherwise.

Who remembers when I said this:

Gordon Brown did not go to the opening ceremony for the Olympics,but made it to the closing events,I was surprised that the Chinese let him in the country.It is now clear that they allowed him in so they could make him feel like a "complete knob",showing England in a bad light to the whole world whose eyes were on China.

Taken from the BBC:

Poor taste is probably what China thought about the torch demonstrations,and the Americans who arrived in China wearing masks.I wonder what China has planned for France and America?

Wasn't Myra Hindley one of the Moors Murderers?

Why would anyone show a picture of her to promote tourism?

To the topic of China, a friend of mine who went to the Olympics and stayed with family there said that it's already beginning to smog up again, and all the banners are down, and the musicians and the homeless people and the beggars are back on the streets.

Apparently Brits don't find that portrait of Myra Hindley too disturbing since it has been hanging in the Royal Academy for over 10 years. I would imagine if someone made noises about throwing the painting in the trash bin the Honorable P.M. Gordon Brown and the Honorable Lord Mayor of London Boris Johnson would be the FIRST to jump up and down screaming about artistic freedom and state censorship and blah, blah, blah.

But then you Brits are even wackier than American liberals when it comes to political correctness. At least we're not trying to change the old childrens story into "The Three Little Prigs" so as not to offend Muslims, who couldn't care less about the story OR the subject matter.

I don't mind that there's a portrait of her, I just think it's really stupid to use it as an enticement to visit England.