China 2008

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by HatterDon, Aug 9, 2007.

  1. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Location:
    Peoples Republic of South Texas
    Twenty-four hours ago I sat on the couch and watched The Today Show [hey, HatterMom likes to watch it] promo the two weeks of overexcess by showing the -365 days celebrations live from Beijing. Stifling big yawn.

    Over the years, I have grown to absolutely hate the Olympics. When I was a kid, there was an athlete from El Paso who was in Melbourne for the meet and everyone in the city was so pleased to have somebody representing us. NOBODY GAVE A CRAP IF HE WON ANYTHING. Over the years, this has changed to where somebody is a failure if she gets silver instead of gold, or if he wins only two golds instead of 5. Add to this the constant commercial tie-ins, enough doping scandals to embarrass a European cyclist, and the constant whining about our men's basketball team, and I had enough during and after the LA Olympics way before the turn of the century.

    Yes, I'd like our boys and girls to do well at soccer -- if NBC decides to let us watch any of it -- and I'd like to see if any asterisks will be applied to any of the outdoor track records set since Beijing's atmosphere contains more chemicals than your average BALCO lab, but I think I'll snore through most of it.

    But here's why I waited 24 hours to post this thread. 'fog, you let me down by not ranting on this earlier. NBC featured an Olympic medal winning swimmer -- don't ask me who, like pro tennis players, they all look the same to me -- smiling with his McDonald's logo warmup jacket prominent [surprisingly, Today had just finished a feature on McDonald's food!] -- speaking with us LIVE from ... TIANAMEN SQUARE which was festooned with huge photos of Chairman Mao. And the only outrage to be heard was from our couch.

    We're killing people ostensibly to force democracy on people who apparently don't want it and we're also helping promote "world unity through sport" by cavorting in a square that is the international symbol of suppression of freedom and the people's will -- while the author of the Cultural Revolution glares down on us? Dah-dah-dah-dah-DAAAAAAAAAAAH, I ain't lovin' it.

    I expect to watch as much China 2008 as I do the North Fargo Curling championships. Hell, I might even watch a Yankees-Red Sox game. Bah, frickin' humbug!
     
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  2. jmh

    jmh New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2006
    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    Curling can be quite entertaining, you should watch it more! :D
     
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  3. andyns

    andyns New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2005
    Location:
    Halifax, Canada
    RE: Re: China 2008

    Hey now, I curl! Although, it is Canada.

    The Olympics bore me and China irritates me. I've been to China, it's a third world country, forget it.
     
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  4. jorge11

    jorge11 New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 2, 2007
    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    RE: Re: China 2008

    i like a lot of the events of the summer olympics -- especially track and field (and soccer, of course). what kills me is friggin' Bob Costas and the networks having to turn every athlete into some special interest story. ugh!!

    tell me how training is going or why Jamaica couldn't get the baton around the track in the Sprint Relay --- don't tell me how <insert random athlete here> had to run 34 miles up hill to school, carrying his 4 brothers while not having any shoes!!!
     
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  5. BarryP

    BarryP New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2007
    Location:
    Evansville, Indiana
    RE: Re: China 2008

    I do miss the days of the Olympics being an amateur sporting event and more air time being spent on the events rather than the individual athletes. Ah the good old days!
     
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  6. WonsanUnited

    WonsanUnited New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2006
    RE: Re: China 2008

    How about we award the Oylpics to cities that can keep their enviornment all clean? London is doing that, Beijing are just a bunch of upper-class cunts who like to hire thugs to get the job done. And those thugs aren't good at cleaning up the fucking place!
     
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  7. nevzter

    nevzter Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 5, 2007
    Location:
    A City by a Bay
    RE: Re: China 2008

    Aside from the gross pollution eminating from China, and the myriad horrendous civil rights violations taking place as I write this, I query: 'why was this country awarded the Olympics?' And I will answer myself: oh yeah, money...
     
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  8. Lyle

    Lyle New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2007
    I've been to China and Beijing. A couple of summers ago. It is polluted as like nothing I've ever seen before.

    It's going to be hard on all the atheletes unless China shuts down half the country to keep the skies clean for two weeks, which they might actually do.

    It's going to be mess I bet because of the politics and pollution.
     
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  9. FFCinPCB

    FFCinPCB New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2006
    Location:
    Santa Rosa Beach, FL
    Not an alarmist. Just someone with an International Relations and International Law degree (which makes me nothing really, and certainly not an expert). But, for the forseeable future, the biggest threat to the United States national security and well being is, in my sincere opinion, China.

    Tianamen is a distant memory that has been shoved under the rug. And the world, and in large part United States policy, is to blame for that sacrifice and great democratic movement being quickly choked to death and purposely forgotten.
     
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  10. krhimself

    krhimself New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 11, 2005
    Location:
    Orlando, via Japan
    Re: RE: Re: China 2008

    And the "backing" of a billion citizens? Well, maybe not...

    I guess the Olympic committee bought into and ate up all the positives that the Chinese delegation presented to them, and forgot that most of the country is still a third-world cesspool. With all the problems that have (and haven't) been mentioned here, it's puzzling that Beijing could become the venue for such a major world event.

    The level of pollution in China has gotten so bad that it is now starting to have a negative affect on air qualities of neighboring countries. Every few weeks during springtime, a dust storm pops up in a desert somewhere in China; most of the dust gets mixed up with pollutants and other toxins. Then it gets blown eastward, making beelines for Japan and Korea -- and sometimes, the effects are bad enough to paralyze entire cities.

    I went to Japan during the month of May and experienced the dust storm first-hand -- twice. On one of those days, I was to leave my city (Kitakyushu) on a bullet train for a destination that was over an hour away. When I left, the city was covered in a rather thick cloud of dust, and I barely recognized the sun. And it didn't look any better at the destination, either; if anything, the effect of the dust actually looked stronger there.

    Safe to say, it wasn't a very pleasant sight. But it only lasted a day in Japan. Imagine having to wake up to that for 365 days per year... :?
     
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  11. Lyle

    Lyle New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2007
    Yeah, coming back from the Great Wall we experienced a dust storm in Beijing (not the first time I had seen one having lived several years in Lubbock, TX). In Hong Kong, a typhoon that I ended up landing in in Taiwan, pushed all the pollution and dust into the area and created something like a heavy orange fog.
     
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  12. timmyg

    timmyg Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2006
    human rights/pollution/olympic committee corruption/bob costas and keith olbermann aside...

    China is like 12 hours ahead so nothing will be live and i can just hop on the information superhighway (remember that??) to get the info/stats.

    i may watch some basketball. but i will probably stop after the USA loses to Montenegro and Gambia, and Coach K blames the different rules and not the fact that americans dont know how to play the game (correctly) anymore.


    Doesnt it put you in unemployment though? :wink:
     
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  13. quickdraw

    quickdraw New Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2007
    I despise the Olympics. I don't know why really. I guess it is just because nothing about it fascinates me.

    Now if they were to show more soccer matches, then maybe I'd be more inclined to watch.
     
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  14. pettyfog

    pettyfog Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2005
    They still put on the Olympics? China got the olympics?!!!


    Hmmmm...

    Seriously, I find it amusing that someone seems to think the great democracy movement in china is dead. Because the government isnt showcasing it!

    Far from it. All the ills stated above are without doubt true.. but they will serve to promote China into the real world.

    - apart from those 'educated' in the west, some of whom will advocate they all go back to backyard foundries and 1/8 acre of land farming.

    Yes, even the tainted foodstuffs and toy painting will serve their purpose.
     
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  15. Spencer

    Spencer Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2005
    Stop the whining!

    Well I must say its become quite fashionable to bash the Olympics in our media. Its seems the sportswriters and such do nothing for two weeks but complain about how terrible the Olympics are and how they're not what they used to be. They do this rather than REASEARCHING AND COVERING THE EVENTS.

    And as is always the case what is presented repeatedly over a long period of time i the media tends to rub off on the people who adsorb the media, us. And so now everyone bashes the Olympics, cause thats what you do.

    I think its all a load of bull. I love the Olympics. Ya the commercial tie-ins are annoying, there also annoying every time I turn on the Tv, radio, open a newspaper, go to the grocery store, go to a fast food restaurant, and oh ya lest I forget WATCH A SOCCER GAME. If you are a footy fan surely you have no right to complain about commercial tie-ins, surely.

    Come on senor Don you complain about doping. Its a competitive event in which some will do anything and compromise anything to win. Does this not also happen in soccer for example? Along with Tap-ups, Bungs, back door deals, as well as good ole match fixing.

    And of course you'll be able to see the soccer, they show every event. And if your sick of people complaining about the basketball team then do the opposite and support them. I tried doing that during the world championships last summer on here but I was alone in the fight, everyone else just....complained.

    The things you guys are spewing are near the exact words that the so called experts on ESPN spew every time the Olympics start up. Don't tell me you lot are going to be suckered into that, defining your opinions based on what the likes of Tony Kornhieser and Skip Bayless tell you. You guys need to stop the hatin!
     
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  16. FFCinPCB

    FFCinPCB New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2006
    Location:
    Santa Rosa Beach, FL
    Sometimes. The funny thing is that with all that background, I work in the real estate arena for the time being.

    My point being, your degree doesn't make who you are or what you do. It mostly shows that you had the discipline and interest at one time. While I still maintain an interest in things international (especially footie these days), I would consider myself somewhat embarrassingly out of the loop. Family life can do that.
     
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  17. pettyfog

    pettyfog Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2005
    RE: Stop the whining!

    Well, said Spencer...
    And NOW I have to admit I was cowed by the comments on the personal interest focus. Before I even read them.. it seems to be built into the 'cynical fan' personna we all have to put up as a front.

    I like the personal stories. There i said it.

    No one likes to be seen as the whitebread emotionalist watcher.... but that's what the Olympics is REALLY all about, isnt it?
    Look at the great movies:
    'Chariots of Fire', 'Miracle {on Ice}' even 'Cool runnings'

    Anyone really hate those?

    It takes a certain guy to pull it off, though and we dont have Jim McKay around anymore. Brent Musberger didnt do too bad a job, Bob Costas could and did pull it off but made it worse at the same time.

    It's ONLY that the bar has been set so high by McKay, and to an extent Curt Gowdy, that we are so cynical.

    Let's get up a petition to force ABC to loan Al Michaels for the event
     
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  18. HatterDon

    HatterDon Moderator

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Location:
    Peoples Republic of South Texas
    RE: Stop the whining!

    It's a sad state on the level of sports commentary when we need someone to RISE to the level of Brent Fussbudget!
     
    #18
  19. ChicagoTom

    ChicagoTom Administrator

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2004
    Location:
    Chicago
    RE: Stop the whining!

    I do not mind Costas at all. I think he does a great job with the Olympics and any other event he covers. What is so bad about him?
     
    #19
  20. Team_of_McBrides

    Team_of_McBrides New Member

    Joined:
    May 28, 2007
    RE: Stop the whining!

    I could go for some Al Michaels shouting, "Do you believe in Miracles? YESSS"
     
    #20
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