The Tour de Torch Reduced to Motorcade

Have the global rifts resulting from China's hosting the Olympics and its suppression of Tibet erased the interweaving purposes of the torch-bearing ritual? The protestors don't look like a splinter or fringe element of anarchists.

And the most hypocritical moment in the Tour de Torch:

Pro-Chinese activists carrying national flags held counter-demonstrations.

“The Olympic Games are about sports. It’s not fair to turn them into politics,” said Gao Yi, a Chinese doctoral student in computer science.