Originally Posted by phillyaggie Olympics, Schmolympics. It has become one giant penis competition among countries ... So I say, screw it.

American related to Olympic coach stabbed to death in Beijing By Frank Fitzpatrick and Mike Jensen Inquirer Staff Writers Authorities here yesterday said a family member of a U.S. Olympic volleyball coach was stabbed to death by a Chinese man at a popular tourist attraction. The man later killed himself. According to the Beijing Municipal Government, the killer also attacked a relative of the victim and their Chinese tour guide about noon. The attack took place on the second floor of the Drum Tower, an ancient monument near Houhai Lake in this capital city. The U.S. Olympic Committee said in a release that the second victim was "seriously injured". The slayer was identified as Tang Yongming, 47, of Hangzhou City, and police said he committed suicide by leaping from the tower. There was no immediate indication of a motive. The USOC confirmed the death of the coach's relative but did not identify the coach or any of the victims. "Our priority in this hour is to attend to the needs of the family members, the U.S. Olympic men's indoor volleyball team and staff, and the entire U.S. Olympic delegation," the USOC said in a statement. "In addition, the USOC is working closely with the United States Embassy, United States law enforcement authorities and local law enforcement authorities." The killing occurred less than 24 hours after the memorable opening ceremonies to the 2008 Summer Olympics. In January, China reported that the nation's muder rate for 2007 had declined 10.3 percent from the previous year.

I have been a fan of the Olympics my entire life...


until Salt Lake City. When it became clear that Mormon town bribed the IOC to host the Winter Games there, my interest in the Olympics quickly turned to disgust.

The last Summer Games that I watched on TV for any length of time was the Athens games, only because I love Greece (and Greeks) and it was a chance to look at much of the countryside that I am familiar with from my last visit there.


But because of the issues in Sri Lanka and Tibet, I am not going to watch one iota of this year's Olympics at all. My DVR is full of other programming that I care to skim through, but as far as Bejing goes, I couldn't give a rats ass about their $40BN games. Did anybody even bother to watch the taped rerun of the opening ceremonies last night? I didn't. I tuned out at the gym and worked on some programming code instead and kept the TV turned off.




The only way I'd ever spend a dime on anything Olympic-related ever again is if they host the Games here in Philadelphia; but we're way too poor for the IOC to ever consider us for that--as evidenced by last year's American-congregation of the IOC visit... who decided to pump up Chicago over us, instead. [Personally, if Atlanta can host the games, I don't see why we don't have a shot, but whatever.]

Originally Posted by gophila Only a government as immoral as China's would use the Olympics as an excuse to intensify suppression of Chinese people and worsening its overall human rights record and the persecution of Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners and Christians. Read Ethan Gutman's extraordinary article from the Weekly Standard for valuable insights on this topic: http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Pu...4/986himak.asp

Originally Posted by MayfairMeat The only way I'd ever spend a dime on anything Olympic-related ever again is if they host the Games here in Philadelphia; but we're way too poor for the IOC to ever consider us for that--as evidenced by last year's American-congregation of the IOC visit... who decided to pump up Chicago over us, instead. [Personally, if Atlanta can host the games, I don't see why we don't have a shot, but whatever.]

Originally Posted by Hospitalitygirl And of course, in Chicago's quest to prove their own Olympics-worthiness, they hosted that event in the park around the 4th of July, and had the shootings. http://www.suntimes.com/news/politic...t11web.article