Olympic Memories

OK, I know that the Torino games are not yet over, but I'm in a stage of life where I must post when I have the time.

I am something of an Olympics junkie, which is unfortunate because 1) US televised coverage of them is terrible, focusing almost entirely on the fluffy "backstory", and 2) because I like the events that they broadcast at 6 am, if at all. The biathlon comes to mind. So for the sake of posterity, I commit some impressions of the current games to the record.

• The fact that the men's ice hockey team contained three players with Boston University on their resumes was a certain sign they were going to suck--and I say this as a proud (from a hockey standpoint) BU alumnus. I place most of the blame on Keith Tkachuk. I have a warm place in my heart for this big man thanks to the goal he scored in the waning seconds of the 1991 collegiate national championships that sent BU and UNM into (eventually) triple overtime (BU lost, but...). But as time passes, this glow is beginning to fade.
• Lindsey Jacobellis: OK, I can get over the strange name, and the "snowcross" event is certainly worth watching. But blowing the sure gold medal so you can gloat before you finish...then trying to gloss it over in the media!
• Bode Miller: What is there to say about this freak? I bet the executive over at Nike who authorized the multimillion-dollar endorsement deal is committing ritual suicide by now. OK, Bode, sure you want to go your own way. Fine. Keep to yourself. Just remember that America likes a nonconformist as long as he is a winner.
• Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis: I love speed skating, but could not care less about the "rivalry" the media has concocted. Davis wants to do his own thing. Let him. I did find it a piece of poetic justice that they both lost (to an Italian!) in the 1500m event the media made out to be the heavyweight bout between Davis and Hedrick.
• Ice Dancing: Everybody fell, and I missed it. Wasn't watching.
• Cassie Johnson: The "skip" of the US women's curling team couldn't engineer many wins for the squad, but I'll remember her for the day an NBC commentator presented her with a loaf of bread supposedly in the shape of a curling stone, but on which the "handle" was very clearly shaped like a penis.

The First Amendment doesn't cover that. Idiot.

OK, so I haven't posted very much in the past couple of months. I have excellent excuses, including the fact that my wife and I are getting ready for our third baby. In fact, I didn't think I'd be posting again quite so soon. But then Cindy Sheehan comes along, and I can't keep my mouth shut.

I was interested to hear that "peace activist" (as she is always identified by the media) Cindy Sheehan had managed to get a ticket to Bush's State of the Union address last night. She pledged to be respectful, but I had my doubts.

It turns out that Sheehan was removed and arrested for wearing a T-shirt that said "2,245 dead." Incidentally, the wife of a US representative was ejected for wearing a "Support the Troops" T-shirt.

Sheehan, of course, sees this as just another example of the lengths to which Bush will go to further his fascist aims and strip Americans of their liberties. In a blog entry about the incident, she says

I am speechless with fury at what happened and with grief over what we have lost in our country...I was never told that I couldn't wear that shirt into the Congress. I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up. If I had been asked to do any of those things...I would have, and written about the suppression of my freedom of speech later. [ed. note: Sure. Uh huh.] ...

After I had my personal items inventoried and my fingers printed, a nice Sgt. came in and looked at my shirt and said, "2,245, huh? I just got back from there."

I told him that my son died there. That's when the enormity of my loss hit me. I have lost my son. I have lost my First Amendment rights. I have lost the country that I love. Where did America go? I started crying in pain.

It doesn't occur to her, of course, that she IS saying whatever she wants and is NOT being censored in any way on this blog. For, as we all know, you can say whatever you want...just not wherever you feel like it. By this yardstick, we started to lose our liberties a long time ago, when certain "elitist" restaurants started being exclusionary and requiring jacket and tie. What about freedom of expression? Why shouldn't I be allowed to wear nothing but my smelly underwear in a snooty French bistro? I'm just expressing myself!

OK, you may retort, it's not the same. The restaurant is a private establishment and can set its own standards. Fine, I say: do you think a woman should be allowed to go to, say, an elementary school classroom (public property!!) and perform a striptease? Freedom of expression! Why not sit down and eat carrots in the middle of a superhighway? Freedom of expression!

The answer is, of course, that even in public places, the public has a right to set standards, to make it so that the actions of a few do not deny the rest the free and appropriate use of the property in question. If the Capitol has a ban on signs within its walls, that seems reasonable. How is a shirt with a big slogan different than a sign? I personally thought they should have ejected the representative in the fuschia dress, but I let that slide.

I know the woman lost a son. That doesn't mean she's not a lunatic and an idiot. I have no respect for her--I'll save it for the memory of her son.

State of the Union Cindy Sheehan Protest Bush Capitol First Amendment