Quote of the Day

From Glenn Reynolds on the 2008 Bejing Olympics:

I won’t be going, and I don’t plan to watch. The Olympics are a fount of corruption and chicanery anyway, upholding no ideals and promoting no good ends anyway. Plus, they’re boring.

I won’t be watching either.  Even the shooting events.  What the Chinese government is doing is a disgrace.  The only thing more disgraceful is the IOC’s capitulation.  China should not be permitted to host another Olympics until it cleans up its human rights record.  What’s next?  Havana Olympics?

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18 thoughts on “Quote of the Day”

  1. Havanah … nah … Yemen. Saudi could have gotten it, except they want to behead Jews, Americans, and all infidels …. the folks that watch the Olympics. Iran would be in the running as well, but our military will likely be running that dung-hole as well.

  3. nahh, olympics 2012 live from Gaza…

    new events will include propaganda races, hand grenade egg race, lying about the Israelis, underground arms smuggling, blind rocket launching and throwing rocks at tanks. for the closing ceremony, we will have a spectacular IED demonstration.

  5. Afghanistan Olympics where the runners have to navigate a minefield and get past roadside bombs and Taliban snipers. The survivor gets gold-plated body armor. Second place gets a silver casket. Third place gets a bronze cremains urn.

  6. The real reason for having the games in China: Coca-Cola, Atos Origin, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Lenovo, Manulife, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung, and Visa. Maybe you should let them know of your displeasure.

  7. Reynolds nails that on all counts.

    He forgot the coverage is painful. 20 minutes of childhood and tinkly music between each actual race or whatever.

  10. The Olympics were revived by de Coubertin to serve as a non-political forum in which various peoples could come together through sport and understand that we are, in the end, all the same. I am not a fan of the Chicom government, but the Olympics ought not be used as political football. Jimmy Carter’s pinheaded decision to stay home in 1980 and the Soviet response in ’84 should be sufficient proof of that. With that said, I’m not going to watch them either; they are boring. If they’d televise the small, unknown sports – like shooting – I probably would, though. Money and shit-head network executives have ruined them. JW

  11. I’d watch the fencing if they ever bothered to show it. And probably the shooting and the archery.

  12. Likewise on those – though they’d also have to get reasonably competent announcers to cover the fencing; ones who know how right-of-way works…

  13. Voolfie has a point. 1980 and ’84 pretty much killed the Olympics for me. I haven’t enjoyed watching since Montreal ’76 (and that mostly because it wasn’t Munich). One kayaking event from Atlanta was interesting, because making the “river” was a technical feat.

  14. I don’t even watch regular sports programming.

    I wonder if their software is setup to detect ssh connections…

  15. “The View” and the Olympics have two things in common. I am aware of both, and I am not interested in watching either.

  16. Upon further reflection, it’s clear that the games have been “politicized” at least as far back as 1936…and the cold war intensified that. But today, in my opinion, the politicization isn’t much of a factor (except for everyone routing against U.S.). Today, the Olympics are a multi-billion dollar BUSINESS. The IOC, the USOC, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, etc. are packaging the same product they’ve always packaged. They have no idea – and no concern whatsoever – about who’s NOT watching – or why. Only when the ratings plummet (as I predict they will for these games), only when the checks stop coming will the “corner office” crowd and the fat-cats at the I.O.C. sit up and take notice.

  17. Voolfie, the main sponsors must have thought about the possible decline in viewers in their own traditional markets. That doesn’t bother them. The markets in the Western world are pretty much set already. The market in China is open for the taking, however. That’s 1.3 billion people. The olympic sponsors get a nice marketing boost compared to their competitors.

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