Oh the Olympics started this weekend. I was just visiting Mousewords and was reminded. She's as indifferent as I am. I used to like it when you got to see the actual sports competition and not the 'Skin and Bones to Muscles' melodrama with violins about the poor young girl whose immigrant parents cleaned toilets and overcame scoliosis against the backdrop of war torn Eastern Euthanasia to come to America, buy a house, then sell the house so that young Miklashidofjhaku could pursue her dream of competing in the Olympics and make her family proud and make life worth living even if she ends up not getting a medal anyway. Wouldn't you just love to find out what happens to these families after the Olympics?
I won't miss the Howard Cosellsian type commentary about the .0001 second loss in time due to a swimmer's stray armpit hair that caused drag in the 1962 Olympics in Rome or amazing win of the Ethiopian runner who prevailed despite his hangnail in in 1952 regardless of the unexpected 2 degree fall in temperature during the race which caused him to suddenly stop sweating forcing to him to push himself even harder due to the change in blood pressure and forcing his mind to produce enough endorphins to overcome the pain of the hangnail. When you are so engrossed in the commentaries, you can barely pay attention to the event you are watching or you are so busy rolling your eyeballs, you forget to watch the tv.
It's all so patriotic too, isn't it? Downright makes you hate countries who beat Americans. I don't think that is such a good idea in these times unless you're a neocon hawk. Well anyway, I hear that the Olympic coverage is going to get hundreds of hours of airtime. Apparently this is more important than the DNC, the Iraq war, the hijacking of our democracy, the threat of terrorism, children going to bed hungry unless of course an olympic hopeful's family gave up eating in order to send their child to play ping pong or yacht for America.
Mousewords makes a good point too: "The Olympic coverage veers dangerously close at times to being an exercise in Americans patting themselves on the back for being better athletes than the entire rest of the world. It's fine to root for the home team, but in international sports it's important that one also learns to appreciate good athletes from other countries." She makes a lot of good points that you can read there so I won't cover those. But it's a good thing that people in other countries won't see American coverage of the Olympics... "Wow for a bunch of bullies, they are sure a bunch of whining babies," they might think. That's really NOT us though. That's the broadcasters. That's the fascist media. They are an embarrassment.
Oh I'm sorry I'm so cynical. I'd seriously enjoy watching the competition in particular sports I am interested in just to enjoy watching the endurance and stamina of athletes regardless of where they come from, because it's quite a beautiful thing. I remember back when you could have a satellite dish and actually get TV from around the world and see what's happening without the propaganda and commentary. Now it's all regulated.
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