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Olympic Medal Count
Posted on August 6th, 2008 by Ogre
The Official count so far:
Gold Medals:
USA: 0
China: 0
Other Countries: 0
Islamic Terrorists: 16
Words over deeds: 1
Absolutely foolish, likely forced apologies to perceived slights of communists: 1
Anti-Freedom Communists (crushing dissent): 4
Destruction of religious freedom: 100
Freedom: 0
Yeah, it’s not political, it’s about the sports. I’ll be watching lots of the coverage of the actual sports (no thanks to DirectTV because they’re incompetent idiots), but we’ll see how the score continues.
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God knows, I’m no supporter of the Chinesse Communists, nor of their suppression of human rights. But the Olympics is no place for political advocates to make their statements.
I remember being apalled by our own black athletes years ago, who stood on the medal stand with black gloved fists in the air and heads lowered, giving the Black Power salute. That was very, very wrong, and way political. It had no place in the games.
The exclusion of Joey Cheek from attending the games (he’s a winter games Gold medalist) for his Darfur activism has nothing to do with his athletics. I’m not big on Darfur myself, seems to me the world has a lot of messes and messy governments, and we can’t/shouldn’t be trying to run the world for them. We need to stay out of Darfur, as much as many want us to act as cop and change everything so everybody is happy.
We need to stay out of the rest of the world’s business unless it DIRECTLY AFFECTS US INTERESTS. Iraq affected US interests, as did/does Afghanistan. Darfur is just a s**thole, and doesn’t really do anything for or against us. If that changes, and it becomes or is a about to become a terrorist training camp, turn it to glass and return to base.
But I don’t think Joey Cheek, or other activists should be necessarily surprised or offended when they go toe-to-toe with people, and are then un-invited.
As for oppression, we’ve got plenty of the same kind of oppression right here in North Carolina, specifically forced annexation, and the abuses of eminent domain. These local politicians in our own legislature (Tony Rand and friends specifically) and the Chinese communists have a lot in common. Too bad we can’t get the world’s attention the way the CC’s have.
You know, I was thinking about writing a post this morning. It was to compare the communist government with today’s American government. Sure, there’s a few differences, but I can’t find many. The primary difference might be that the communists send police in the night to take people away where they’re never heard from again. The American government sends police in the light of day, claiming to be doing good, and they throw people in jail while everyone is watching. That’s just downright scary.
I wish the Olympics were more about sporting. I truly hope the coverage will just cover sports, but I get the feeling they won’t. Then again, I wish Bush would really do something when he arrives, before the games begin. His speech is a nice start.
Ogre, The U.S. Olympic Team chose Lopez Lomong as the Flag-bearer. Lomong is a “Lost Boy of the Sudan”…. a refugee of that nation’s oppression and genocide…. and now a U.S. citizen.
The symbolism is not blatantly political but sends a very clear message to the Chi-coms.
Daryl, I suppose, then, all that solemn nodding of our heads when we see the “Never Again” inscriptions at Holocaust museums is just lip-service.
The Darfur situation disgusts me.
Send in the 82nd. Kill as many of the bad guys as possible. Extract the 82nd. Repeat as necessary.
I say this only half in jest. I recognize the issues of entanglement half-way around the world but I also do not understand how we can stand by idly while this is happening. Evil (national interests or not) must be confronted.
I didn’t know Lopez was the flag-bearer. That’s a good one. And Bush’s speech, once delivered, was pretty strong, too.
And I agree with you, Dean, on the confronting evil. One of the biggest reasons I supported America in Iraq is because they were taking out Saddam. We can argue a lot about what happened after that, but going in to destroy Saddam was good and right — and America should do things like that — even when I don’t like foreign entanglements!
We have some differences of opinion on this one, and I still must respectfully disagree to a degree with Deans comments in particular. “Never again” sounds great, but it is unfortunately unrealistic to think we can or ever will make every government take care of its people according to our Constitution. Our own government doesn’t even do that now, as I pointed out, with the current abuses of eminent domain and involuntary annexation, forced taxation for socialist causes such as nationalized healthcare and social security, etc etc. We have an embarassing record of human rights abuses, and you have to look no further than the duke lacrosse case to see the government we have right here in our own state. Are we prepared to take down our own government, as our forefathers did, or are we also going to say “Never again” to that tyranny as well. We have to stay vigilant to stay free, but we also can’t fall on every sword. Some of these regimes, as oppressive as they are, have to have the will of the people who live under them making their own stand, and many are simply unwilling to do anything in their own self interest. We as Americans are watching freedom and democracy slip away. If Obama gets in office, which appears likely at this point, we may just be going into a LOT of s**tholes, AKA the Clinton years, when we went to a lot of places we shouldn’t have gone, trying to support people who wouldn’t help themselves. In the case of Germany, it was in the defense of the country that we became involved. Many, many Germans not only welcomed the rise of Adolf Hitler, but turned their heads when abuses to one group or another were evident all around them. They accepted KristalNacht, the overthrow of the Reichstag, etc as a matter of due course. They collectively blamed the jews. And it was the German people who had tons upon tons of bombs destroying their cities and fellow citizens when they eventually also came after us. In that case, we did not go to war because Hitler was killing his own people, and likely would not have done so if it were for that reason alone. He had bigger plans and had to be stopped for the good of the US and for the good of the world. But the Holocaust, as bad as it was, was a problem brought on by the German people and their leader that we ended up solving for them as a sideline. It was actually theirs to clean up, and they failed…. miserably.
On this point, I feel the need to further clarify my beliefs in the statement “Never again”…. you see, to me, it is an action call to personal responsibility. We should all, each and every one, be ready and willing to stand up for what we know is right, at every instance, less the right thing slip away from us. I wrote prolifically about the “gang of 88″, and Ruth Sheehan, and the New black Panthers, and Mike Nifong, because that was wrong, and it is a rogue government that did this. Never again should we stand by and let a rogue government take us, or our neighbors, in the middle of the night. It does not mean that the US will always take up the fight for everyone throughout the world who has been wronged by their own government. They have to be ready to defend themselves, and take personal responsibillity for the governments they live under. Our own work here at home is looking like an overloaded agenda, and I suggest we get very, very busy cleaing it up now, before there is no more America to call home, and the nightmare of Obamamerica begins in ernest.
You’ve both got some good points — it’s nice to see intelligent disagreement. I think we all agree that as a country we need to stand up to oppressive governments. As Daryl points out, perhaps the first oppressive government we need to stand up to is the one currently in power in America. I can’t manage to disagree with that.
Daryl, You make a very good argument. The issue of self-determination is at the core of any nation or society’s destiny.
In the case of Darfur, though, the deck is stacked against these people in such a manner there is absolutely nothing they can do about it.
I’m going to assume for a moment that they did not “ask” for this treatment unlike the Germans who perhaps did “ask” for Hitler and his ideology in a far more democratic setting.
The Darfurians(?) also have nothing by which to fight back. If they had some means to put up an armed resistance, then I’d be more sympathetic to your point… but they do not. They are being slaughtered and they can do NOTHING about it.
I don’t have a nice, neat answer and I recognize we cannot be galloping around the globe to wipe away every child’s tears but……. I can’t imagine we, as the most powerful nation on Earth will let this particular atrocity go unanswered.
(somewhat related to this thread: The County of San Diego has issued a cease and desist order on a church up in the mountains east of town because they were not “zoned” as a house of worship. I’m trying to raise some awareness as to this bureaucratic thuggery. The congregation is going to hold services anyway. I plan on going to show my support and, of course, see what happens).
Of course, if we could fix all the crap we’ve got wrong in this country, it would make it easier — financially, politically, and morally — to help other oppressed peoples!
I think the best way to determine who should be rank first by doing the following: Give 3 points for Gold, 2 for Silver, and 1 point for Bronze. You add all the medals up using this scoring system and those with the most points get to be placed first. I hate it that the Americans always bend the rules so they look good. I remembered in one of the previous Olympic (3 Olympics ago?) when they lost the 100m they stopped calling the 100m medal winner as the fastest man. They said that Michel Johnson is the fastest man in the world because he won the 200m and the 400m by a big margin (bunch of sore looser). Americans always say that if they have a level playing field they’ll always come out on top. Now I see that they cheat by changing the playing field so they can claim they are the winner.
I find it rather, well, interesting, that it seems like 90% of the athletes that are competing for countries other than America train in America. The Olympics is a shadow of what it was. It means nearly nothing to most of the athletes, too. When you get $500,000 and $1,000,000 per game and then you’re invited to the Olympics, they clearly don’t care if they win or lose — or what country’s flag they’re wearing. It’s become a joke, if you ask me. And I like sports and the Olympics.