Olympic Nausea

[pwwka]

I'm doing what might be called "boycotting" the Olympics. I'm not watching it, and letting people know why. I've very little idea about who's leading, though I'm sure it will remind us of the USA-USSR showdowns of old, only with a different communist nation of similar moral decrepitude. I do know Finland got a gold medal. Ain't that cute?

I play

Comments

[clariyt]

I always boycott the Olympics - apart from the opening and closing ceremonies - because I detest sport

[sherarara]

There are increasing numbers of families in China now who have more than one child. They only receive state subsidies on their first child.

A student of mine told me that you're still fined, however, for having a second child.

[ferretglen]

Bleh, just bleh. First, the one child policy is still very much in place, it depends on your region how harsh they are or not. If you're not ethnically Han? Good luck, several regions still wield forced abortions with regularity. They've only flexed on it a little with the recent earthquake and only in those regions

[sherarara]

I'm not big on China either, which is why I haven't been watching either (but I'm secretly keeping track of our medals on iGoogle

[clariyt]

Almost all China commentators seem to agree that the current situation is a transitional period and that problems of endemic corruption, political repression, environmental degradation, and vast economic inequalities are untenable. But even Lou Dobbs can get on board with the idea that life in China is likely to be far more comfortable than in some other places including, if you're a woman, US ally and partner, Saudi Arabia

[pwwka]

Justifying a mistake by citing other mistakes seems counter-productive to me, and I'm sure certain Jews who attempted to attend the Olympics in Nazi Germany would have agreed. If we must look at the past, I should note that Germany did not get better until there was an armed intervention. Yes, this is only the second time the Games are being held in Asia. I could name a dozen places it could have been held, all with better human rights records than China. And certainly I could name places that aren't violating the Committee's own code

[clariyt]

I should have made it clearer that the line relating to "bigger brains than ours" was not intended seriously; perhaps I relied too much on punctuation. I didn't request sources, it seems unnecessary in a blog

[jasongrossman]

Totally +1