Olympics

[Velvet-Tongue]

What no threads?

How did you all like the opening ceremony China did? I thought it was beautiful. The Light drummers made my mouth open wide as did the rising blocks, floating rings etc.

The walk of nations was fun too. Quite a few countries I never knew about and the costumes were great.

Heard this morning China got golds in women's weight lifting and shooting. I'm eager to see who wins fencing.

drums: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIZmWTdDIgU

acrobats doing calligraphy with their bodies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PydrBiqXOYE

There was alot more but I gotta go to a meeting.

/runs out

[One Eyed Cat]

What no threads?

How did you all like the opening ceremony China did? I thought it was beautiful. The Light drummers made my mouth open wide as did the rising blocks, floating rings etc.

The walk of nations was fun too. Quite a few countries I never knew about and the costumes were great.

Heard this morning China got golds in women's weight lifting and shooting. I'm eager to see who wins fencing.

drums: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIZmWTdDIgU

acrobats doing calligraphy with their bodies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PydrBiqXOYE

There was alot more but I gotta go to a meeting.

/runs out

I refuse to watch the Olympics due to the human rights abuses of the Chinese government. I wish our athletes well, but I do not believe China should have been allowed to host the Olympics in 2008.

[jonny.illuminati]

and now they have murdered an American...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/sp...eijing.html?hp

[One Eyed Cat]

and now they have murdered an American...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/sp...eijing.html?hp

I wish I could say this surprises me. It doesn't. I feel especially bad for the athlete whose relative was killed in the attack.

[Pull~My~Hair]

yep them commies can do some pretty amazing acrobatics...

One of my waitresses is from China and she said every city has a performance they they HAVE to learn and they may be called upon to perform it whenever the government wants...you know like a draft
figures

I watched some of it at work cause it was on, but I definatley don't support them hosting this.

[mystoo]

I refuse to watch the Olympics due to the human rights abuses of the Chinese government. I wish our athletes well, but I do not believe China should have been allowed to host the Olympics in 2008.

Same here. I can't wait to hear what kind of crazy shit is gonna go down though. You know something is going to happen.

[poison]

I'm personally annoyed by the amount of air pollution as well, when China won the chance to host the olympics seven years ago they said they would do everything they could to have the air conform to standards set, and at the beginning of the games whilst the air was meant to read 50 per cubic cm it was in actuality 168.
makes me wonder if it China's athletes have an unfair advantage due to constant training and adapting to the high level of pollution.

[OrganizedKhaos]

That doesnt seem too fair

[SyntheticShock]

I refuse to watch the Olympics due to the human rights abuses of the Chinese government. I wish our athletes well, but I do not believe China should have been allowed to host the Olympics in 2008.

Indeed! I just watched the gymnastics preliminaries that took place in the good ol' USA, that was good for me. Anyone who refers to the Olympics in my presence will hear all about the not so great things China does for its people.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

I never believe in banning the olympics. Mainly because the only people we're really screwing by banning it, is the athletes who have been training for years to get to it. Think about it. You bust your ass for years to get the chance to compete. You win the preliminairies(SP) and then your country decides not to attend. NOW you have to wait ANOTHER 4 years and by then your 4 years older and might not be in the same physical shape as before. It might have pissed off the Chinese government to a point, if we didn't attend, but all and all, it would just mean they would have less competition to win medals. Hell...It might even make them happier if we didn't go.

[SyntheticShock]

Maybe its just me, but I think human rights and decency would be more important than trying to compete for a medal.

[Velvet-Tongue]

To you, but if your life is built around a sport and you're suddenly denied from your right to compete in the WORLDS biggest athletic competition. A place where all of your intense training, sweat and tears can finally be paid back through hard work. I'd be pissed.

[SyntheticShock]

I get that they work and train non-stop just for this one event to prove that they are the best at whatever event they happen to excel in, and I'd be super pissed if I was one of those athletes going to the Olympics that knew about all the happenings in China, but I don't think I could bring myself to go.

I wonder though, if any of the athletes are sucking it up just to get through the competition, as if nothing happened because of all the work and effort they put into their craft. And how many of them are knowingly staying in one of those lovely new hotels built just for them, while poor Chinese citizens were put on the streets.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

Maybe its just me, but I think human rights and decency would be more important than trying to compete for a medal.

Of course human rights and decency is more important. Hell.....I'm hardly into watching sports and to tell you the truth, I probably am not gonna watch a minute of the olympics. Just isn't my thing.

My point is, in the end, I don't think the U.S. banning the olympics would change ANYTHING in China. I think the only way to really hurt a government enough to make them possibly change the way they treat their people would be to get them where it hurts the most....In the government's pockets. Lower how much imports we allow in the U.S. from China. China DEPENDS on us. They need those U.S. dollars to make their country run. We stop allowing products that say "Made in China" into the country and then MAYBE China will start listening.

Banning the olympics though.....I just think it hurts our own athletes more than anything else.

[grebo]

the only good thing in the olympics is the hot bodies of some of the athletes, sport bores me.

i hear they use up massive amounts of condoms cos they go nuts after they finish their events, every olympics they mention it like its a dirty secret.
id like to know if the paralympians go through as many after their events, but no one wants to talk about people who arent "normal" having sex, thatd be bad taste and make people ill thinking of the "disabled" fucking
wankers!

[jonny.illuminati]

the only good thing in the olympics is the hot bodies of some of the athletes, sport bores me.

i hear they use up massive amounts of condoms cos they go nuts after they finish their events, every olympics they mention it like its a dirty secret.

I worked a special security detail for the olympics in greece... i don't know if they used lots of condoms... but there was A LOT of shenanigans going on in olympic village... LOTS and LOTS... who needs safe sex when your an olympic athelete...

[Velvet-Tongue]

Men's Saber was crazy.

We're up one medal over China. They still got us by golds though.

If you all wanna watch events you missed go to http://www.nbcolympics.com and click video. Not alot up yet (Equestrian, fencing, judo, weights, swimming) and a few other things.

[Mr Karl]

. China DEPENDS on us.

.

oh really?

[One Eyed Cat]

oh really?

China as P.T. Barnum

[Velvet-Tongue]

oh really?

We're their biggest customer/debtor. The big industrial revolution they're experiencing? You can thank Walmart and all the other stores that buy cheaply made chinese goods produced in dorm style workhouses/sweatshops.

Nothing like sharing a a small room with 4 people and a 6-7 day 12 hour a day work schedule to boost the economy and keep prices down.

Chinas a powder keg. The style of government they run, its immense population and the finite amount of resources the world has won't support them forever.

[Mouse]

I was really impressed with the opening ceremony, although it was in the back of my mind that the reason they could make such a magnificent display was because they have millions of "expendable" people to use. I mean the hydraulic box display that turned out to be people inside was insane! I did cheat though and check out the photos of the ceremony on NYT website before it aired that night and LOVED the shot of the red fireworks streaming above the "bird's nest" arena. Those photographs were something else.

[Madam Yummi]

Am I the only one who found the opening ceremony completely boring? I didn't see it all. I only watched parts of it in passing, but everything I saw was boring. Especially the torch lighting.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

oh really?

Oh, I'm not saying we don't depend on them also, since companies LOVE producing shit-made products and then mark up the prices like crazy. Still, if we REALLY wanted them to change the way they treated their own people, this would be the only way besides going to war. China wouldn't budge any other way. Do I honestly think we would ever stop the importing of products from China? Well....FUCK NO....Because we would be destroying the way we make money too. I'm just saying, banning the olympics to make a point? It be as wasteful an option as recycling cans and bottles, thinking that this alone is REALLY doing your part to save the enviroment.

[Amelia G]

Has any country ever, in the history of the world, made significant policy changes based on another nation staying home from the Olympics?

[Ajax Knucklebones]

Has any country ever, in the history of the world, made significant policy changes based on another nation staying home from the Olympics?

Of course not......