Grass doesn't look greener with L.A. stadium plans - JSOnline

Meanwhile, because of a 1996 deal to erect Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ohio's Hamilton County - where one in seven people lives below the poverty line - has cut funding for social programs, partly due to huge debt payments on the new building.

Nice to know everyone has their priorities straight.

In the tiny suburb I grew up in, at least when they went on a building binge it was for a library. But the massive boondoggle is now massively driving up property taxes and driving down home values--the real estate market is at a standstill, because nobody wants a property tax bill bigger than their mortgage.

Do politicians care? Apparently not. They seem to believe there is always enough money around to take more, and that taking more will bear no consequences.

Congratulations to India, world cricket champs!!

Waiting at my doctor's office today, I saw this magazine cover



I'm not anti-hunting. I don't see why killing an animal by shooting it is worse than whatever more "natural" way of death would otherwise occur. Species have been killing and consuming other species here on Earth for billions of years. In addition, I think that hunting is generally a positive force for conservation. Hunters care about the environment because they want to be able to continue hunting, and allow future generations to do the same.

However, I found this magazine cover disturbing. What sort of person finds it thrilling and adventurous to kill 100 coyotes in a season? Whatever sort, there are apparently enough of them out there to make Outdoor Life think they can sell magazines this way.

I don't think this is "sport," I think it is wrong. It reminds me of the buffalo and passenger pigeon hunts of the past.




Poking around the web, I found one other person out there who agrees with me.

Ann says: I like this line from your link:

The most common rejoinder given is, 'They're PREDATORS!" Well, we don't shoot attorneys, politicians or investment bankers, do we?

Meb Keflezighi became the first American man to win the New York City Marathon since 1982 on Sunday.

"The USA gave me all the opportunities there is in education, sports and lifestyle," he said. "To be able to represent the USA is a big thing for me."

Congratulations!

Some women are suing in Canada for the right to ski jump in the Olympics.

Legal arguments over whether Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, known as VANOC, are at the crux of a B.C. Supreme Court case that wrapped up Friday. Fifteen former and current women ski jumpers are suing VANOC for their sport's exclusion from the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Some somewhat random thoughts:

It seems western society has pretty much reached the point where anyone can sue anyone or anything at any time for any reason. This puts way too much power in the hands of lawyers.

How many serious women ski jumpers are there? A few dozen? Making a sport with so few participants an Olympic sport just cheapens the whole games. There should have to be some critical mass of people involved in the sport before it gets Olympic status. In the case of Women's ski jumping, there has apparently been only one world championship to date. The sport too green. And yes, I would cut some of the events they already have. Hammer throw? Have you ever seen a hammer? Held one? Thrown one? Know anyone who has?

The article says "The women are seeking a court declaration that VANOC must either hold women's ski jumping in 2010 or no ski jumping events at all." Real nice. See if you can spoil it for the men.

What is and isn't a sport anyway? Ski jumping? How about darts?

Why do we need separate events for women and men? A woman gymnast with good jumping ability, timing, and lightness to sail on the air a bit may have an advantage.

Does every sport done by one gender have to be done by the other? We all know where that will lead...

I haven't liked the Steelers since Super Bowl IX. But I just saw James Harrison's 100 yard interception return at the end of the 1st half. I was on my feet shouting and cheering him on. Awesome! Totally Awesome!!!

Packers: 24
Viqueens: 19

Surprisingly the international edition of the German magazine "Spiegel" has a long article about the Olympic committee's "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" act when it comes to the freedom to protest that the Chinese promised when they won the games, but have--surprise! surprise!--not delivered.

Rogge's Silence: The Phantoms of the Beijing Opera.

As far as my extremely-rusty German goes, I can not find the same article in the German edition. But on Monday they did print an article about a protester that was arrested when he applied for a permit to demonstrate--this was what the Chinese government promised to allow: like in the US, the Chinese set up specific protest areas and were to allow permits to grant people the right to protest. So far, 77 applications to protest have been filed. None resulted in permits, but most resulted in the arrest of the person filing the request.

Newsweek has a similar article: Why China Sentences 70-Year-Olds

If anyone needs an example of how brittle China's Communist Party leaders think their country is, look no further than the case of Wang Xiuying and Wu Dianyuan. The elderly women, who both walk with canes and have failing eyesight, were sentenced to serve one-year terms in a labor camp after they applied to hold a legal protest in Beijing. And if you think there was no method to this madness, that it's somehow the fault of some random thug in the Ministry of Public Security, I'd caution you to think again.

[...] So when Wang and Wu heard that, with the Olympics, authorities in Beijing had set aside special protest zones in three parks, they applied. Not once but four times. On the fourth time, they were detained and then sentenced -- by the cops, not a judge -- to a labor camp. (They haven't been incarcerated yet but will if they violate various provisions or regulations.)

Time picked up the same story about the grannies being sent to a labor camp.

The Washington Post picked up the non-existent protests too. In fact, they went along when a prominent protester invited the media with him when he went to apply. He ended up disappearing: After Friend Disappears, Ji Sizun Confronts Police and is Detained Himself.

When the Chinese government announced at the end of July that it would set up special zones where people could demonstrate during the Beijing Olympics, it seemed almost too good to be true. For months, the country had been under fire from critics who accused it of trying to kill dissent ahead of the games.

While optimists said the fact that Beijing is allowing any public protest at all is a victory for human rights, pessimists worried that the whole thing was a set up and the applications would be used to round up protesters and control their movements during the games.

Obviously, the pessimists were right.

WaPo: "The three protest zones have so far remained empty of demonstrators."

At least the IOC has made a little noise about this.

[Globe and Mail] In a tacit criticism of China's intolerance of dissent, the International Olympic Committee says the Chinese government should have allowed its official protest zones to be "genuinely used" by demonstrators, rather than letting them sit empty.

It is the latest sign of IOC discontent with China's unwillingness to permit any demonstrations at the three parks where the government had promised to allow protests during the Beijing Olympics.

Beijing announced this week that it had received 77 applications from 149 people who wanted to protest at the designated zones during the Games. Yet no protests have taken place. All of the applications were "withdrawn" or rejected for various reasons, according to the city government.

In reality, many of those who applied were detained or jailed by the authorities, human-rights groups say, arguing that China used the protest zones as a propaganda tactic to give the appearance of complying with international standards, while actually using the application process to identify potential protesters.

Other articles: Daily Telegraph (London), New York Times, AP, The Star (Toronto).

This is funny and explains perfectly why I can't stand watching any NBC coverage of the Olympics:

"Athlete without Compelling Personal Drama Expelled from Olympics"

Who, I wonder, is surprised that the Chinese have flouted the rules and allowed gymnasts under 16 to compete in the Olympics?



I think the lesson to be learned here is that unenforceable laws only serve to benefit the unscrupulous.

I would advocate getting rid of this age limit. This would help to make the competition more fair. The intent of the rule, they say, was to keep girls under 16 from getting hurt. But I find it hard to believe that young gymnasts will train any less hard, or push themselves any less in the competitions in which they are allowed to participate.

The same lesson should be learned and applied in contexts beyond the Olympics. Remember the our treaty with the USSR to stop producing biological weapons? They kept right on producing them, of course, while the USA actually followed the treaty and stopped. Remember Carter's disastrous agreement with North Korea during the Clinton Administration? Who was surprised when the North Koreans took our aid money and kept right on going with their nuclear program?

Consider international environmental agreements. It doesn't seem to register with people who advocate greenhouse gas treaties that these treaties are essentially unenforceable. Does anyone believe that China's emissions could be verified by some inspection process? I don't believe that any international agency would have the manpower or funding to do so. Nor do I think that such an agency would be insusceptible to bribes.

Suppose the US and China enter into a greenhouse gas agreement. Compare what would happen in the US:

A Federal agency within the US government comes up with a plan to reduce emissions. Emitters such as power plants and factories are required to report their emissions. The agency enforces its regulations through some sort of financial penalties. Environmental watchdog groups make sure that the agency follows through, using the Freedom of Information Act to request copies of industries' reports, and suing the industries and the Federal agency if they detect non-compliance. Reports in the free press highlight failures in the system, and the people demand action. The US economy takes a hit from the additional cost associated with meeting the new regulations.

to what would happen in China:

No real actions to reduce emissions are taken. The day before the annual report is due, a bureaucrat somewhere within the Chinese government fills out a form showing that China not only met its goal, but exceeded the goal by 5%. Meanwhile, a statement by the propaganda minister is prepared for publication in China's government run newspapers heralding this great success and scolding the corrupt West for falling short.

If we feel that reducing greenhouse gasses is the right, i.e. moral, thing to do, and we are willing to let the Chinese get a competitive advantage, then let's go ahead and cut our emissions. But let's not kid ourselves about what China and other dictatorships would do under an international agreement.

We played Team Handball in high school gym class back in good old Wisconsin. It is perhaps the most bizarre sport I've played. Imagine soccer, but you use your hands and dribble the ball like in basketball. Rather than a basket, keep the goal as in soccer. Imagine the goalie trying to stop a guy from throwing the ball into an enormous goal. Good luck. Anyway, my impression of the sport was pretty much this guy's, from the Corner:

As my brother and I were trying to figure it out (we were watching Spain versus Poland), one of the Spanish players actually clotheslined one of the Poles — I mean he hammered this poor Polish dude. We both howled. It was cartoon funny — like when Bugs Bunny clotheslines the wolf. All that was missing was the head and body going forward while the rubber-like neck goes ten feet in the opposite direction to a reverberating “boing!”

Play stopped, but no foul was called. The poor dazed guy picked himself up, rubbed his jaw, and incredulously gestured to the referee — arm fully extended in the proper clothesline position. The ref and the Spanish clothesliner both just shrugged, like, “Sorry dude, all part of the game.”

Hilarious!

Ann adds: I would only add that at our high school...only the boys played handball. I believe at the time, the girls were outside playing field hockey.