OLYMPICS

Putting this under TV shows, since that is how we will all be experiencing it.

The politics of this, with China such a mystery in many ways, and so different culturally from us, and so well known for human rights abuses for decades....I really am excited about what will be the cultural and political fallout for years to come.

I also love it that one of the media stars of this one is the woman in her 40s who is a star swimmer.

I always love gymnastics, so for sure I will be tuning in for that. Diving, too..all the artistic sports.

But it is also fun to watch the more directly competitive races.

The only thing that I have an ADAMANT objection to is people like fucking koby Bryant on an Olympic team. Whose idea was that sort of thing, Reagan's?

I am all for paying the athletes to do the Olympics and to train for them, but if you can make an outrageously good living at a sport like basketball, there is no justification as far as I am concerned for them being in the Olympics.

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YOWZA!!!! 3 minutes in to the opening ceremony! Fireworks, Drummers imitating an american computerized scoreboard! Precision movement of thousands!!

How cool would it be if whoever put on this show decided to do something like come up with alternative energy systems and vehicles! TO me it would require the same sort of commitment and talent.

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My first cultural shock: A bunch of adorable kids in ethnic costumes representing 56 different cultures in China carry a flag. They stop and some Chinese soldiers pick up the flag and start marching, proudly...IN NAZI GOOSESTEP!!!!!


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They just said: Fifteen Thousand Performers!!!

I mean it, whoever is running this thing need to be grabbed up and made to run something like alternative energy.

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I am loving the show. Love that it is people creating the effects with their dancing bodies.

What a sap I am! We are watching the opening ceremonies right now. As we watched, George made some snarky comment about how they might light the torch, and I hissed, "Maybe they'll set a dissident on fire and throw him in."

But when I actually saw them light that torch I stopped with the cynical comments and found myself getting a little teary. This is the ONLY thing that the entire world does together. That torch does not represent the world as it is - but it represents our hope that we might be able get a little closer.

Oh, and I love the story of the nine year old boy who was in a freaking EARTHQUAKE. He crawls out of the rubble, and then rescues two of his friends because he's the hall monitor and that was his job.

Wow.

Yeah..that is basically my take, too. The Olympics are the only time warring factors come together and realy try to make it work. OK so China is still being horrible to its citizens who are not Olympic participants, but I still think it is a great thing.

One of the reasons I can never get behind Jimmy Carter is that he pushed for and got a boycott of the Olympics.

I think any time masses of people come together for something positive it helps, even if just a little bit to move the world toward some short of peace. Especially people who do not agree about other things.


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Quadruple YOWZA!!! They have people (must have magnetic shoes or something) dancing around a huge globe upright, sideways, upside down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhh, now they reveal the globe dancers on harnesses. The effect is still miraculously cool.

Sarah Brightman is now singing with the globe dancers, as i am watching it.

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Turns out it was George Bush Senior, not Reagan who was Pres when they OK'd getting zillionaire pro players in the Olympics.

I can't, so far find a Clinton stance on that. If he did not object, fuck him, too!

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They just has Scottish bagpipes marching in the Chinese athletes.

I love these incomprehensible but kinda cool juxtapositions!

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Just seeing the faces of the athletes from all the different nations...so ethnically different, so the same, so mixed in some countries, so genetically linked in others (Danish versus Brazilian versus American versus Jamaican versus Chinese... pretty much every thing that can exist is so many mixtures and non-mixtures...but ALL the athletes look so alive and spirited. It really does inspire me.

This opening ceremony is awesome! I love the LCD or is LED? floor and the panels at the top of the stadium where they are projecting images....just awesome. This is one instance where HI-DEF TV is really noticable. The precision of all the dancers/performers is remarkable.

YEAH! Breathtaking!

Even on an old non-HDTV it is awesome. I will probably watch the beginning again on my HDTV computer!

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HAH! They just had the first Olympics John McCain ad (no he is not showing the ones he is doing in America which would get him scorned in the global universe) extolling the virtues of alternative energy.

If it had been an Obama (or pretty much any Democrat) ad, it would have made sense. But come on, McCain and ALTERNATIVE energy? That is just bullshit. He has come out against everything except offshore drilling. Once upon a time before he ran for president he was for (mildly, but for) alternative energy, ast least theoretically, but since he got nominated he has been against anything BUT offshore drilling, more coal, and more nuclear plants.

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I really love the parade of athletes.

Iraq is now marching, and the audience is roaring and cheering.

The Iranians come next, and the crowd is subdued.

I would love to know who orchestrates things like that, and what is the meaning.

The Hungarians are next. The women, and there are lots of them on this team, are gigantically tall. The men are short.

Again, what does this mean?

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Saudi Arabia, no women. Women mot allowed. Women have to have a male guardian to even do something like go to work (according to the announcer).

United Arab Emirates.. has two women, the daughters of the prime minister.

All interesting, and teeny tiny progress.

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And what is it with the fabulous teeth on the athletes?

Is it that people who are born athletes have fabulous big white teeth? And that is part of why they are different from mere mortals?

Hmmm. is there an Irish team? I wonder if they have fabulous teeth (I doubt it).

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Kiribati, an island country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati

It used to have its timeszones split by 23 hours.

How izarre would that have been!

They changed it.

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ARGHGHGH! Kobe Bry-fucking_ant again is featured!!! Get him OUT of there! Zillionaires who can make a living doing the sport infuriate me as part of the Olympics!

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The North Koreans just came on and the Scottish bagpipes playing that famous Scottish tune came on again...I would love to know how these musical choices were made.

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I really does and continues to amaze and delight me that people come in so many visual varieties.

I think maybe race relations, globally, would improve if all schools in all nations made kindergarteners watch the athletes' parade over and over.

And all their parents. And everybody. Compulsory viewing.

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Yao Ming just came in. The place is going bonkers, and UNLIKE Kobe Bryant and the rest of the other zillionaire players, Yao being here at this particular games is so great, even if he is now a zillionaire..and now the kid Abrahammy mentioned from the earthquake, is next to Yao.

Very moving.

Starting another, continuous, post, simply because the last one got too long.

Love to hear everybody's thoughts, stream-of-consciousness or conclusions, on anything in this Olympics.

I guarantee I will be doing my blogees on the parts of it I watch, and would love some other takes on any aspects of it..

Maybe I need to put my Woodstock avatar back up... for me the major experience of it is similar. Mind Blowing Unity..even if it is for just a few days.

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Ohhh, the Nazi Goosestep is starting again as the Chines soldies carry the olympic flag.

SYmbols appear all over the palce and clearly mean completely different things to different cultures. In this case I am POSITIVE the CHinese do not think they are conjuring images of Nazis.

But they are.

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And Yao Ming has the kid from the earthquake in his lap. I am moved, profoundly. I hope Yao takes care of this kid past the olympics one way or another.

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Now the final torch passing begins.

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Wow, again.

Olympic Gold Medalist from the 1984 games flies, running, around te top of the arena holding the torh. ANd yao Ming hold ht elittle kid.

Perfect.

I hope it resonates for a long time.

And I really, really, hope Yao helps the kid, for real.

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This is how I want the world to be.

Good night, and good for all of us for the marathons and Olympian struggles we deal with on an ongoing basis, even if there are no cheering thousands as we do it.

Sorry but I do think we should have boycotted the Olympics. China is a complete police state and he is complicit in the terrible things happening in Darfur. Not to mention the terrible humantarian crimes committed against their own citizens. Not to mention Tibet. It would have made a difference if we would have stayed home. But I guess since we owe them billions of dollars to help pay for own war that will never happen.

I think boycotting the Olympics is a bad idea every time it happens. Yes, there are some evil governments hosting the Olympics, but sometimes great good can come of that.

Remember, Jesse Owens made Adolph Hitler look like a fool.

I see no good from it. US could have made a statement but instead chooses 5 minutes of glory. Granted China should not have been awarded the games in the first place. China is without a doubt one of the most unhumantarian plaxes on earth. The atheletes that dared to protest Darfur and Tibet are noit even allowed to compete.

Aerwin, even though I am pro-Olymics, and anti-boycott of the Olympics, I am so delighted to have somebody (you, here) speaking up for the pro-boycott point of view.

Murder at the Olympics:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1831074,00.html

Quote :

A knife-wielding Chinese man, identified as Tang Yongming, 47, stabbed Todd Bachman, of Lakeville, Minn., his wife Barbara and their female Chinese tour guide on Saturday at a popular tourist spot, the Drum Tower, a Dynasty-era building once used to tell time. The Bachmans are in-laws of U.S. volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon. Todd Bachman died, while his wife's injuries were described as "serious and life-threatening" by the United States Olympic Committee. Their daughter Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon, a former Olympic volleyball player, had been with her parents at the time of the attack, but escaped unharmed.

See I think things like this will happen and will contribute to China cleaning up its act a bit, when it is combined with the inspirational aspect of the Olympics, far more than a boycott would.

Plus...is America a whole lot less brutal?

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Thumbs UP! pic of Americans:



I do not know how to make everybody stop being brutal, since it appears to be such a ubiquitous thing, but I am just not at all convinced that boycotts have much effect.

The Eastern Bloc boycotted the American Olympics in 1984.

Did it have an affect on American brutality?

Not that I know of.

I think I will wind up with a full-lengh book by the time these Olympic end.

Beach Volleyball..good gracious they have those women wear tiny bikinis!

Apparently once they started insisting on the bikinis the sport became insanely popular.

This boy dogs again.

Ah well, I guess they are easy to please.
Aside from that, the women playing sure are good at it. Interesting how alike most of the bodies are, even from countries where very tall, long-legged, but un-muscley body types are rare.

I think i9t is kinda sad that pasty-skinned women could not possible compete since so much skin is bared. Fried alive, they would be.

Swimmers are increasingly wearing body suits, which is a great equalizer.

The body types common to each sport are pretty interesting to me. Some of them make complete sense (i.e. tall basketball players, tiny gymnasts) but some of the more obscure sports also seems to have people of the same body types, such as fencing. Who would have that that a big bottom would be helpful there? But it seems to be.

I am still marveling at the fabulous teeth of pretty much all the athletes. Love to know the secret there.

The female swimmers...yet another set of amazing body types.

I must say I am just plain happy to be watching the Olympics.

For me it does not dim the abuses in this world, but it actually gives me hope that there can be fewer abuses as times goes on as long as the Olympics keep happening.

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Do men shave their armpits nowadays?

I keep noticing men, not just in swimming where i know it is part of the sport to be hairless, but in other sports as well, raising their arms in victory, and not an armpit hair to be seen.

When did that start? Do guys in real life shave their pits?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I don't think guys in real life shave their armpits, but swimmers shave EVERYTHING. It cuts down on friction in the water and makes them go faster.

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Plus...is America a whole lot less brutal?

Really, or legally? Less crap is officially allowed, and I do think there is probably less of it happening. Does the brutality happen? Oh, lordy yes.

McCain's current Olympis ad says Obama Promises to Raise Taxes.

Yeah, for the super-rich, and to CUT them for the regular people.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Economic/Barack_Obama_Tax_Reform.htm

McCain has lost his soul in this campaign, and is now spouting fundamental lies.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/151621

Best way to see parts of the Olympics that interest you most:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/

Anybody know a place where there is active posting about the Olympics (especialy things like gymnastics?) I keep looking, but haven't found.

So...if the ideal age for doing the moves that are really spectacular in Women's gymnastics is somewhere between 12 and 14..why not just let 12 ro 14 year olds do it without having to fake documentation? The tricks are spectacular when the kids are pre-pubescent. The artistry is not there, but the tricks are.

I vote to let the girl kids do that, and to create some other category that has to do more with grace combined with some of the tricks, best done by girl/women over 18.

Coolest. Story. So. Far. There's a woman on the German team who just posted a really respectable vault. She's 33 YEARS OLD. Amazing.

Oh, and the men's swim relay win was breathtaking. I am so glad I got to watch that live. The announcers all but laid down money that France was going to win.

Fraz - I think google groups may have a Usenet Olympics group.

I am watching whatever NBC primetime is showing now...I think the men's relay is coming up. I will find the video for the 33 year old woman vaulter if it isn't on this broadcast. YAY!!!

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Dunno if if it is going to show up on TV, so I googled, and found only ONE reference,: from, of all places, a site called 7DAYS, United Arab Emirates

I think I mentioned that the United Abrab Emerites for the first time has some female athletes...they are the daughters of the president or prime minster... in any case, nepotism can produce some very good things, occasionally.

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!

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GERMAN gymnastics veteran Oksana Chusovitina proved that age is no barrier as she stormed into the final of the women’s vault at 33 years of age.
Chusovitina, appearing at her fifth Olympics for her third team, qualified fourth to give herself a real shot at a podium finish next Sunday.Chusovitina is the oldest competitor in the gymnastics by some margin. But she said: “It’s valuable for any sportsperson to have motivation, regardless of age. I don’t feel 33-years-old and I look young don’t I?”The gymnast first turned out for unified Russia and won team gold at Barcelona in 1992. She represented her native Uzbekistan from 1993, before switching to Germany in 2006 in a bid to get better treatment for her son, who has leukaemia.

On Youtube...starting here, are a whole bunch of videos of her:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0xk403dqqM

Just great. Love her.

Ahhhh, here it is. They are showing her, Oksana Chusovitina , now.

Wow. The story is incredible. Her face is incredible. Watching her is incredible.

I think she is my favorite Olympian so far, by far.

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I think I mentioned that the United Abrab Emerites for the first time has some female athletes...they are the daughters of the president or prime minster... in any case, nepotism can produce some very good things, occasionally.

It has to start somewhere. And every time the entire world gathers in a civilized way, there is the chance that something like this might happen.

Good Gracious! The USA guys are flying breathtakingly on the high bar Some day I will find the videos. Absolutely worth seeing the top 2 USA guys fly.

And now [[[drumroll] ]the Women's gymnastics begin for real (L.A. time).

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Un oh, I wandered off the way I do from things that do not really excite me. And I LOVE gymnastics.

I will check out some other places on the web to see if anybody beside the Americans is featured. I wanna see some cool gymnastics!

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They took a break, not stopped. The Chinese are on.

** Briefly.

They have switched back to Michael Phelps swimming.

I must say, when somebody is just way faster in a race type sport than anybody else, it ceases to be interesting watching them win.

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AGHGHGH!!!! The top Chinese woman falls off the balance beam, but the mother fuckers did not show the whole routine!

Maybe this belongs in the sexism thread. They have shown and made available online much of the men's gymnastics, but seem to be showing only women's highlights (the pretty parts and the parts not overly embarrassing to either the USA or China). They showed the guys fucking up big time, as well as the middling ones and the spectacular ones.

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And they they showed the USA women fucking up.

All out of order, and all interrupted with repeat clips of Michael Phelps.

Not sexism..just insane wanting to show triumph of the USA.

Or something.

I have no cle.

ANd then they ended the night with adorable 12 yerar old (supposedly she is 16) Chines sprite bouncing and flipping and sticking all the landings. But like a 12 year old.

I don't know what to make of any of it, except thar money is at the root.

Some sort of USA/China deal, where whoever else might be in there and really spectacular, they do not count.

I am so glad Abrahammy found the 33 year old. I never whould have known about her.

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All out of order, and all interrupted with repeat clips of Michael Phelps.

Not sexism..just insane wanting to show triumph of the USA.

Well, here's the thing. Michael Phelps is in the process of becoming the greatest swimmer of all time; not only is he a legitimately big story that should probably have been covered no matter what his nationality, but he IS an American. So yes, I get your point about jingoism, but Phelps is, objectively, a big deal. Now, if Phelps were Chinese, and it was the American gymnasts who were kicking such butt, I would want the coverage to be the same as it is now, and here's where you are right; it would not be. Chinese Phelps would get shortchanged for the American gymnasts.