- = - = - = - THE OLYMPICS - = - = - = - (your comments on the sport events)

[Alnitak]

Not in the least.

Looked like a joke to me. Of all the problems facing women you point to a lack of a female head of state as an indicator of which countries treat women poorly.

Except that it isn't a statement made in a vacuum. It is a comparison addressing proportion of outrage, indignation, protest, or propaganda. The Russians haven't enacted a pogrom. They haven't tried to exterminate gays. They haven't tried to deport them.

Neither had Germany in 1936. That's the problem. The world celebrated the games in Germany and the Nazis felt like they had a pass to do more.

Russia does have even more anti-gay bills sitting in the Duma just waiting to be passed, including one that would break up families of gay couples. If there were no outrage, if nobody cared, it definitely would pass.

The point was that outrage over gay oppression is suddenly supposed to take center stage because we are supposed to focus on our own sympathies and simultaneously ignore the much greater numbers of people who are oppressed in other countries that have hosted the Olympics.

We did in China, and the air was awful.

If ancestral atrocities are the valid topic here, as Alnitak contends, then the present atrocities of Israel are also on the table, and their actions against the Palestinians make the treatment of gays in Russia pale by comparison.

Indeed.

 

[xbuzzerx]

There is a huge difference from Chik-fil-A quibbling on JUB.

The Olympics is an international congress of nations, not just a sporting event. I'm not even a sports fan, nor do I have cable, so I'm not exactly following the games. The network has made it such that regular viewers can't watch it conveniently anyway.

I don't see a difference here; in fact, just the opposite. You illustrated why an event of incredible prestige and of an enormous amount of money being hosted by a country supporting far worse policies than Chik-fil-a was is much worse than eating some chicken. International eyes are watching, including countries that are already further along with their anti-gay "pogroms" than Russia, such as many African states.

But my point remains, and remains uncountered: there are "heinous" and "unjust" policies that all the great powers have, so there would never be an Olympic that some group wouldn't jump up and down and insist we boycott.

False equivalency. Saying that any nation has injustices or problems in its history is not the same thing as randomly picking a country currently engaged in vicious state-supported persecutions for a major international event and saying "it doesn't matter, every country has done bad things, we're totally not sending a message of any kind."

Oh, and remember to keep using "morally bankrupt" in hopes that a reader will focus on that ruse instead of the actual arguments posted. Branding your opponent is an effective propaganda technique if not a valid debating tool.

I don't feel any particular need to "villify" you publicly to other people. You frequently do that with your own stances on matters of any importance. You can go on for hours about things like etiquette and similar trivia, but on any actual hard issue of social justice touching real people and their well-being (or even their physical safety and right to live without being murdered) you manage to always be on the wrong side of the issue, consistently.

 

[mikey3000]

I still can't believe the amount of empty seats there are at all the venues. That is disappointing.

 

[gsdx]

^ CBC showed the process necessary for the Russians to attend the various events:

1 - Obtain tickets. A difficult process at best, and extremely frustrating at worst.
2 - If they are fortunate enough to obtain tickets, they must queue up in order to apply for a spectator's pass which allows them to use the tickets and to attend the event.
3 - Once they apply for the pass, they must join another queue in order to pick up their pass.
4 - With pass in hand, they must queue up one final time in order to activate the pass which will actually allow them into the venue.

I've seen shorter lines at the Cineplex, and they spend hours in them.

 

[m1thousand]

It would have been interesting to go to the Vancouver Olympics, but ski events in Whistler. According to google, an hour and 43 minutes from downtown Vancouver. (2 hours fom where I live).

Events in Vancouver were skating, speed skating, and ???You can get the tickets, deal with the traffic and everything else, or you can watch from the comfort of your home where you see the whole ski run and not just a quick glimpse of athletes as they ski, luge, jump, etc past you.

Why did the skating dance couples not get their medals there (but later elsewhere?) They didnt explain that.As someone who doesnt skate - never learned - how many people know the difference between a flip and a salchow? It would help to show a piece about how the jumps are different (forward, backward, inside edge, outside edge)

The half pipe with skis was silly

 

[Kulindahr]

The half pipe with skis was silly

I second that!

I've grown really tired of figure skating, so the dance bit was fun to see.

I thought the luge relay was a great idea. And as usual, curling fascinated, both geometry and physics.

I got really frustrated trying to explain the biathlon to a buddy who'd never heard of it before. Once he got it, he said they need a second version, where they're shooting at moving targets. Then another buddy took the idea even farther and said make it a paintball event . . . .

 

[gsdx]

I got really frustrated trying to explain the biathlon to a buddy who'd never heard of it before. Once he got it, he said they need a second version, where they're shooting at moving targets.

Perhaps you should explain that, after all that skiing and pumping with their poles, they have a hard enough time trying to stop their bodies from moving just to hit the targets.

 

[palbert]

Russia's hockey team tumbled 3 to 1 to Finland and is now out. That had to hurt.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/winter-olympics-2014-russia-knocked-out-of-olympic-hockey-by-finland/

 

[Kulindahr]

Perhaps you should explain that, after all that skiing and pumping with their poles, they have a hard enough time trying to stop their bodies from moving just to hit the targets.

He meant like the moving ducks at a carnival attraction, I think.

 

[pat grimshaw]

I still can't believe the amount of empty seats there are at all the venues. That is disappointing.

But it seems to happen at every Olympics.

 

[gsdx]

He meant like the moving ducks at a carnival attraction, I think.

Oh, I'm sure of that. What I meant (but didn't explain very well) is that, after all that exertion and exhaustion in getting to the shooting pads, even stationary targets would be bouncing around.

 

[mikey3000]

Oh oh.. they're going to end up in the gulag.

Russia's hockey team tumbled 3 to 1 to Finland and is now out. That had to hurt.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/winter-olympics-2014-russia-knocked-out-of-olympic-hockey-by-finland/

 

[mikey3000]

But the Canadian hockey girls FUCKING ROCK!!!!! Oh my! What a game!!!

 

[Kulindahr]

But the Canadian hockey girls FUCKING ROCK!!!!! Oh my! What a game!!!

It was like they suddenly woke up near the end and came on like a force of nature.

 

[mikey3000]

I was emotionally confused. Both teams of girls were crying, one for joy and the other for sadness. I didn't know who to feel more for. Chicks! So confusing.

 

[Gentleheart]

I can't follow sporting events in a country where gays are being beaten up.

Honestly, I don't know how you all do it and wake up in the morning with a clear conscience.

You probably won't see (or recognize this), but I agree with you emphatically.

 

[mikey3000]

Even if a good percentage of the participating athletes are gay themselves? When yoh watch, you support the athletes, not the host country.

 

[palbert]

I can't follow sporting events in a country where gays are being beaten up.

Honestly, I don't know how you all do it and wake up in the morning with a clear conscience.

I tend to take my thoughts from one of our Russian posters (name not recalled) who seems to take the position that it is their problem in their own country to deal with in their own way. (Maybe he will enter the discussion and correct me if I'm wrong.)

 

[xbuzzerx]

I tend to take my thoughts from one of our Russian posters (name not recalled) who seems to take the position that it is their problem in their own country to deal with in their own way. (Maybe he will enter the discussion and correct me if I'm wrong.)

He also said he thought the Olympics period were an unethical waste of money in a country that has spent as much as Russia and has so much poverty as Russia. It's too bad he doesn't post more, I told him we could use more int'l voices in CE&P.

 

[Alnitak]

He also said he thought the Olympics period were an unethical waste of money in a country that has spent as much as Russia and has so much poverty as Russia. It's too bad he doesn't post more, I told him we could use more int'l voices in CE&P.

Just how far would $51 billion go in Russia?

- - - Updated - - -

I tend to take my thoughts from one of our Russian posters (name not recalled) who seems to take the position that it is their problem in their own country to deal with in their own way. (Maybe he will enter the discussion and correct me if I'm wrong.)

True. The Russian gays must help themselves in addition to accepting help from the rest of the world.