On The Third Hand

Wednesday, 20 Feb 2002

Rude, crude and socially unacceptable [permalink]

I have been, to the best of my ability, ignoring the Olympics. I may be a bit behind on this; I had heard an Australian had won the speed skating. I had heard he'd avoided a pile-up, and come from behind and won. I had heard some booed him. What I had not heard was that most of the Americans booed, nor had I realised that there are writers who are still booing (Bob Ryan, Boston Globe)

I've also been a bit behind on blog-reading (especially of those blogs on the blogspot yo-yo), so I didn't catch Tim Blair's posts on the matter until today [most other links are via Tim].

Having read more about the matter, I am totally appalled, and I agree with Christopher Johnson's comment of "Sometimes it's really embarrassing to live in this country" (he referenced the above article by Ryan). One columnist got it right, and wrote a great piece about Steven Bradbury, the Australian gold medal winner.

Yes, ladies and gents, the man won that gold fair and square. Racing of any sort is a combination of speed, determination, skill, balance, tactics, and luck. Steven Bradbury might not have had the speed (though he obviously had enough to qualify), but he certainly had the rest of it. A race is not a dance, where "pretty" counts for points. In a race, the first one across the finish line wins. Steven was first across the finish line. He won. Our guy got the silver by essentially crawling over the finish line. He won the silver. Deal with it.

I know the US guy was the gold 'favorite', I know some people in the US are disappointed that he didn't win. But quit acting like a bunch of whining five year olds who have just been told they have to share a toy with a friend. Especially when that friend is fighting by our side, and taking losses too.

To Australians only:...on a cheerier note: Two golds so far! Good on ya, mates!
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Short stuff [permalink]

• Seems the UK has decided to tax some illegal business. The US income tax system allows for that. It's a good idea. We've probably put more Mafia away for income tax evasion than for the actual crimes. I'm not sure if this still applies, but back when I was doing taxes IRS info was not usable in a law court as evidence of a crime.
• Dumb or deep? Seems there are leaks from Pentagon about their new Office of Strategic Influence, and the possibility that it will be giving out disinformation. If this was a true leak, heads should roll. If it is a deliberate leak, there are some very interesting angles to it. This quote is especially interesting: "Asked if such e-mail would be identified as coming from the American military, a senior Pentagon official said that "the return address will probably be a dot-com, not a dot- mil," a reference to the military's Internet designation." That will make real leaks very much less believable. Confusion to the enemy? I like it... [found this via the AWOL Sarge; Rand Simberg also has some interesting comments on it.]
• Andrea Harris has posted a fine take-down of an an article written by an anti-globalization type in the Daily Wanker (oops... I mean The Guardian).
• U.S. Won't Invade N. Korea says President Bush. But he still thinks the regime is evil... What he said is: "We have no intention of invading North Korea". Which doesn't rule out a number of other things we might do...
• Speaking of North Korea and evil, Ken Layne has some links to old Tabloid Net articles on North Korea -- not for weak stomachs. I'll back those articles with what I was hearing at the time (I was in Thailand then, and I heard a lot that never got in the news over here.)
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