Figure skating fiasco?

The Sochi Olympic Women's Figure Skating finished yesterday, with Adelina Sotnikova of Russia winning gold, and defending champion Yuna Kim of Korea winning silver.

Korea's newspapers today are full of criticism about the competition. Some reports very precisely cite bias & error (link). Some in Korea now call this the "Suchi" 수치 Olympics, using a word for humiliation or black eye. There's a great global search for allies abroad - people & reports who reconfirm: Yuna Kim and the people of Korea were robbed.

I know the extent 김연아 is beloved by the Korean people. And she surely gave a very strong performance. But good sportsmanship at minimum requires we also consider Sotnikova's performance - which surely was excellent, and perhaps she had more sparkle.

Kim seemed a bit tired and bored - not wholly the dynamic elegant brilliance we've much enjoyed in the past.

Consider Kim's short program:
"Send in the Clowns" is a dark song, full of regret. It talks of farce, fools, and "Losing my timing this late in my career..."

Sorry. Not an uplifting theme.

Was Ms. Yuna Kim predicting -- even forcing -- her own rejection?
"Making my entrance again with my usual flair.  Sure of my lines. No one is there..."

Here are additional analyses: for Sotnikova (link)  and for Kim and here's an NBC scored & annotated video comparing their performances (search for sotnikova-kim-free-skate-routines-side-side if link is dead).

Congratulations to all Olympic competitors !

Here's one further great analysis, by Joe Posnanski (link).

I prefer track & field. Athletics measures time, distance and height objectively, with far less subjective judgement and minimal potential for referee interference (events hotly contested in Olympia 2800 years ago). Perhaps, in present form, figure skating & synchronized swimming should not be Olympic sports at all. Should we add further medals for aerobics & square dancing, pottery & violin?

Sắm? mua sắm

I've never studied Vietnamese.

If born a few years earlier, I'd perhaps have been sent
by my government to Vietnam as  (choose one):
  · an emissary of peace
  · a pawn of imperialism
  · fertilizer

Anyhow, we in America now enjoy hard-fought freedoms won in part by the Vietnam carnage:  We've no required military servitude (draft, selective service) thanks to the sacrifices of Vietnam. No longer can America's wealthy, aging evil arseholes use federal funding to beat & brainwash our youth - shipping them abroad, forcing conflict with local enemy young'uns to battle unto death.

That American process is now open solely to volunteers  (and this season they're battling elsewhere).

But back to the word sắm - a word for the war we fought and lost - "SHOPPING"  - (sắm means "shopping" in Vietnamese).

Better shopping than suffering... But we were told the Vietnamese people were threatened with hell. That's why America & its allies bombed everywhere, and killed with abandon.

Why did we fight?   Did the average shopper win?   An online image search for  sắm  (link) shows scenes that might highly disturb the 50,000+ Americans (and 5000+ South Koreans, and 500+ Aussies) sent to horrible deaths in Vietnam. We killed over a million people in Vietnam, and badly lost (!?)   Was it simply corn-fed Daddy Warbucks vs. Tycoon asiatica? President Nixon & Nobel-laureate Henry Kissinger warned of horrors and fed us lies. Travel to Vietnam -- see for yourself. The shadow of war is unpopular with Vietnam's youth. But asking questions is vital to us, because America still fights elsewhere. Every American should examine the perversity of U.S. government deceit & understand it extends well beyond Dirty Dick Cheney. Our history of slavery, and genocide (native Americans), should indicate a need for careful checks-and-balances to counter psychopathic abuse of weaker folk.

"sắm" and "mua sắm" -- let's go shopping ...
It seems we fought for consumerism, for shopping, for love of profit and glitz.

Let's pray our leaders don't mislead us.
But expect they do & will....

sắm.com

Social Disgrace

Last Friday my former school district (where I was a student) decided to layoff 42 staff members, including eleven regular teachers, due to lack of funds. It's now the middle of the school year - an outrageous time for layoffs.

America funds overseas adventurism and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We keep huge permanent military bases in Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Germany, etc., and give bountiful aid monies to Egypt's puppet military rulers and to Israel...

The local school district claims the cause of budget problems is "special education" for children diagnosed with irregularities. More reasonably, such funding should come from the national budget, but social services are also threatened there.

Thus we've not enough money to run decent schools in America...

Education of the average kid now comes from Fox News, CBS, Disney, MS-NBC, etc.

The result is permanent subservience. Sure, a local child might secure success as a hip-hop artist or pro golfer. But for most onward opportunities, the public school kids won't be competitive with kids from more proper private schools.

Our communities create more & more restless proles, shut out from the elite workforce.

But this "elite workforce" is actually insecure. Employers typically cannot be loyal to staff. A business downturn or supply source recalculation may mean any worker might suddenly be told to clear their desk and escorted from the workplace. 

So in fact we must help train young people to become more self-reliant, more entrepreneurial, and more independent. It's either that or our youth is only prepared to be mired in low-wage service jobs.

GOP Dunderheads

The Republican Party of the USA treats people as idiots.

They gave us Vice-President Dan Quayle, who dreaded travel to Latin America cause he never studied Latin. We were saddled with George W. Bush, an idiot & asshole who only advanced past 8th grade cause Daddy was rich and Grampa could get you fired. Sarah Palin is another washout - an icy drip to fade away unless summary justice finds her first...

Republicans offer shit, then beg us to forget: Nixon, John Mitchell, Robert Bork, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Palin, Mitt Romney. Each a scumbag loser no more momentous than yesterday's trash. They each fade to rich retirement while the typical American gets nothing but grief. Thank Republicans each time you're reamed (& Democrat dogs won't help - Wake Up - to the cost of apathy!).

Don't Sit Back

      Complacency  =  Consent  =  Captivity

Conquer Babylon!

Corruption & blackmail are cunning, quick-growing, costly parasites.

Americans today are taught it's discourteous to talk politics; meanwhile, politicians steal our wealth. Our kids are shipped abroad by the military: to kill & die for some asshole's greater profits.  

Grey grit, icy stairs
The world outside is frightful
Conquer Babylon!

"引蛇出洞"

Blizzard!

It's foolish to slowly release the "Snowstorm snippets" of Edward Snowden.

Snowy and his cohorts could be terminated any time.

Spread the information now around the world. Let's see how we've each been raped.

Show Us the Information.

Super Bowl Tuesday?

What if 2 teams forever challenged the Super Bowl?

Their fans choose the lineup.

Seems like a bad idea? Welcome to politics USA, where Election Day offers Republican Dickwad vs. Democrat Dork. Both funded by (and fully indebted to) Richie Rich.

Keep telling yourself -- it's the best system possible.
Baaaa--