I'd think there's a real potential for causing permanent hearing loss. Sounds like lawsuit material to me. Meantime, I recommend ear plugs. If the management complains that no-one is listening, well, they can turn the thing off.

Wonderful. Someone's invented another new crime, using the net.

"They told me the protest was violent, and two Chinese people were killed by the protesters."

Here in Seattle, we recently had a protest at a WTO meeting. There was indeed violence, most of it initiated by the city police. And, yes, there was a tiny minority of violent protesters, but it was a small minority, condemned by the overwhelming majority of the protesters. Guess who showed up on the television news? Funny thing about that. But, the television news was not the only source of information on the protests, and the record has been, for anyone who wishes to know, set straight.

The pattern of mistreating a group until someone breaks and commits a violent act, and then using it as an excuse to rob, imprison, and even kill, many members of the victim group is a common one. Sometimes agents provocateur (French for police agents who are sent to provoke a violent confrontation) are even used to precipitate the conflict. From my distance, it looks to me that this is what has occurred in Tibet. I am open to correction, but you are going to have to stop sounding like our own violent authoritarians before I will pay much attention.

"Likewise, if you grow up here, it's your second nature to believe what the American media says."

An important difference between US and Chinese media is that US media are allowed to oppose the government and have done so on many occasions. Chinese media may not do so without risking the freedom and lives of their people. That US media have, for the moment, given up some of their independence, is a source of much concern for many of us here in the USA, including our proprietors here, for whom this a major subject. Even so, just about anything that is not outright libel may be published in the USA. Could you imagine anything like boingboing.net being left to itself in China?

As to the broader question, the philosophers of both cultures have throughout history advised reading, listening, and watching critically, and warned that wealth and power are no reliable source of truth for centuries. I can only add my voice to this long chorus.

"I don't think he's some kind of violent mastermind, but if he's all for peace and love, shouldn't he discourage 'his people' from fruitless political agitation"

He has. Every indication is that he believes what he's been saying all these years. As for "concentrating on their spirits," I believe HH might reasonably say that that is all he ever does.

"But why do you have to bring the hammer of oppression down so mercilessly on a tiny minority trying to hang on to the shreds of a decimated culture? What is the point? You have already won by sheer force of numbers. Why do you need to erase every vestige of Tibetan culture and history?"

Because they remember, and what they remember is shameful. And because the oppressors believe that the way they are is the only way to be. If history is any guide, no amount of suppression of Tibetan culture will be enough, because the Tibetans are not the problem; the Chinese are. As for the talk of "hooliganism", I am just old enough to remember what was said when the Freedom Rides began in the US South. It was not so very different. The Chinese say they are victims. Perhaps they are. But they must look in a mirror to see their abuser.