DISQUS

jr · 1 year ago

"you gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelette"-Wal Mart CEO Lee Scott

Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 1 year ago

Beijing...Washington...Beijing...New York...I don't see any difference any more except our internet is still open and free...this summer. If Obama does take this, watch the internet get reined in during his first term so this does not ever happen again to the corporate country club. But our mainstream media is just as controlled as theirs. Only here they kiss us while they fuck us telling us we have a free press. At least the Chinese KNOW it's not.

mauro7inf · 1 year ago

I have to say, there's nothing wrong with having games constantly. Once every four years is probably good enough for a gigantic worldwide event, but having smaller ones all the time, I think, is a very good thing for athletes. I think you underestimate the power of having major competitions, which is, I think, the reason an athlete would keep going. When I was in high school, I did math competitions, and I would have been rather unhappy if there had only been a National Convention once during those four years -- there was one every year, and a State Convention every year, and six smaller competitions during the season, etc. Each of those, every single one, is an excuse to work hard and practice for the weeks prior. Perhaps the Olympics, as a media event, should not happen every month and a half, but large worldwide competitions, in my opinion, should be as frequent as is practical.

On a note that's actually related to the post, though, I'm afraid that soon, internet access in the US will be restricted as well. That's already happening. Local governments are signing contracts with ISPs to blacklist and block sites with child pornography, for instance, and soon enough, all our web surfings might end up logged for the government to ruffle through when it's bored. Soon, it won't be so free...

Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas · 1 year ago

And that is why we need to start figuring out emailing lists, spam filtered, so that we have a chance to communicate once Ablog is gone. And Think Progress, and HuffPo and all the others. Go back to dial up BBS's if we have to. They have GOT to get this thing under their control and very soon. It is obvious that the status quo this year is fucked. Hillary was sposed to be crowned Dem queen and she was not. Thank a geek. It was the net that stopped the Billary machinery.

Watch for Congress to saddle up with telecons to pass some new laws to slow this down.

Read some history....just ask Herr Guttenberg what happened after he got his movable type going.

lynchie · 1 year ago

There are State championships in every sport, there are for the professionals, The Stanley Cup, Super Bowl, World Series, World Figure Skating, along with NCAA in every sport. Every 4 years was good, they just couldn't generate the money the IOC wanted for bribes and kickbacks.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

In the old Soviet Union, most people knew Pravda was lying to them. In the US, most people don't realize the corporate media is lying to them.

DoctorJ · 1 year ago

I'm thoroughly down on the Olympics. I don't mind the two year cycle, but rather the hopelessly corrupt IOC awarding the games to a Communist oligarchy who pollute their own host city so much that it's a health hazard to the athletes competing. How ridiculous is that?? Add to that the widespread doping among many Olympic sports, the always smarmy and fluff-ridden coverage by NBC, and now the not surprising censorship by Chinese authorities, and I doubt I'll watch any of it.

Õ¿Õ · 1 year ago

It will be a disaster.

Zorba · 1 year ago

"Wasn't this a key issue when the decision was made to give Beijing the Olympics?"

Yeah, well, they were also supposed to improve their human rights record (ask the Tibetans, among others, how that one worked out) and also improve the air quality in Beijing (and that's not going all that well, either). It's beyond me why the IOC awarded the 2008 Olympics to China, when they must have realized that China would not honor any of its commitments. (Well, no, it's not really beyond me- it's all about the money, and China has plenty of it.)

KerrynowCampau · 1 year ago

"But now, with this every-two-year bs, I don't even watch them anymore. "

Yep, that ruined it. They need another Nancy/Tonya story to get me to care.

billy_bob_tweed · 1 year ago

What's this b.s. disinformation baloney crap about the Olympics being every two years? Utter nonsense. The Summer Olympics are held every four years, and the Winter Olympics are held every four years. The two Games feature entirely different sports, and have always been contested in different host cities. (E.g. The 1976 Summer Olympics were not hosted in Innsbruck, Austria, o-kay?) The Summer and Winter Games used to be held in the same year. Now the IOC off-sets them. What's the big deal about that? It actually seems entirely sensible. Get off the high horse about that regard.

KerrynowCampau · 1 year ago

Maybe it is just the over commercialization of the Olympics that I have gotten fed up with. Allowing professional athletes to compete didn't help.

IAmATVJunkie · 1 year ago

What's really strange is that this is the exact scenario that I imagined. I just imagined it happening during the Games, not before.

And John, you might not enjoy the Games, but people around the world kvell over them. You don't have the interest is sports others do, maybe.

Also, consider that these sports are in general more popular outside the US than inside. Track and Field is a big effing deal in Europe. And I don't have to remind you about football, their football, being the most popular sport in the world.

We are not a typical sporting nation.

SarainKC · 1 year ago

Considering China owns us and the next several generations of Americans, they can get away with whatever they want without so much of a peep from our leaders.