Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Alternative history is always a weak argument. Always.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

I really should read my own blog.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Olympics open thread

Reader Interactions

84Comments

  2. 2.

    Karmakin

    DougJ:Are you serious or joking? If the former, could you provide a link where you saw that?

    Yes. I’m a huge fan of curling.

  4. 4.

    Max

    I’m going to immerse myself in the Olympics and check out of politics for the next week and then I’m on vacation.

    Can’t wait for the ceremony tonight. Jealous of you east coasters who get to see it in an hour.

  5. 5.

    canuckistani

    A tragic start to the games. Last Olympics, I was watching luge obsessively. I can’t figure out why they aren’t all dead. That is a scary sport.

  6. 6.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    I have CTV Vancouver on my cable package and just happened to have it on when they decided to show video of the accident. Truly horrific. I suggest that sensitive individuals avoid watching it.

  7. 7.

    Karmakin

    I watched the video of it, and to be honest, I don’t know what the hell the site designers were thinking. To have metal girders that close to the track….it’s simply unthinkable to me.

  8. 8.

    Violet

    So tragic about the luger. Luge is my very favorite sport in the Winter Olympics. I’m gutted that this has happened. I heard on NPR that the course is the fastest in the world and there are concerns that it isn’t safe. This accident isn’t going to put anyone’s mind at ease on that.

  9. 9.

    Comrade Kevin

    @Max:

    Can’t wait for the ceremony tonight. Jealous of you east coasters who get to see it in an hour.

    It’s great that I live in the same time zone as the Olympics, and will have to wait three extra hours to be able to see it.

  11. 11.

    MagicPanda

    Sad. I was getting excited to watch the Olympics with my 5yr old daughter, and I’d already told her that the luge was this crazy sport where people go really fast. I don’t know if I want to tell her that someone died today…

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    They just showed the video on NBC Nightly News. Horrific. I’ve been sad about it all afternoon.

    Yes, luge is scary under the best of conditions, and apparently the fatality today was not the first (although clearly the worst) mishap on the luge run at Whistler.

    Thanks for putting up an Olympics thread, DougJ. Really wish I had CTV access. I would have headed to a sports bar where they are broadcasting Canadian coverage instead of the super-USAcentric NBC — but snow and plummeting temps in Atlanta argued against doing that. (I left the office today at 3:00, got home at 5:30. And that was while it was still light out and temperatures remained slightly above freezing. Yes it’s a 25-mile commute, but 2-1/2 hours is ridiculous.)

  14. 14.

    CanadaGoose

    You scared the bejebus out of me!!

    My husband is a huge fan of Kevin Martin. (If he’d seen this first, he migh have had a heart attack!)

    And the only Olympic tickets we have are for women’s curling.

    Don’t joke around about such serious stuff.

  16. 16.

    zzyzx

    I’m actually going to drive up to Vancouver to see curling next weekend. Seattle->Vancouver(Hockey)->Seattle(seeing music, picking up a friend)->Vancouver->Seattle is what next weekend will be like for me.

  17. 17.

    Napoleon

    They showed that luge crash on NBC news. It was obviously an instantly fatal crash. The guy hit the pole backwards with the back of his head/back of his neck. I can not imagine a worse way to hit.

  19. 19.

    JenJen

    I really don’t know what to say about that horrible video of Nodar Kumaritashvili hitting that pole. It was impossible to prepare for watching, knowing full well how dangerous luge is. Always have enjoyed watching this sport before, but this really darkens things. I’m not a terribly sensitive person, but I curse my own curiosity and wish I’d never seen it. Apparently it’s been all over Canadian media today and NBC, CBS and CNN showed it, too.

    I honestly don’t see how they go through with the competition. This article by Dan Wetzel is compelling.

    My heart breaks for Kumaritashvili, his family, and the Georgian athletes who must be in shock. Best of luck to Vancouver and Canada and I’m still sure the Games will be wonderful, but such a sad way to start the Olympics.

    I love the Olympics! Oh, how I hate to see them start this way.

  21. 21.

    Violet

    @MagicPanda:
    Oh, gosh, I just saw the video and yeah, it’s awful they’re showing it.

    The course looks incredibly dangerous. Of course luge always looks dangerous but it does seem that there are things they can do to make it all a bit safer. Now I’m worried for all the athletes who are scheduled to take to that course.

    Sad way to start the Olympics. I love the Olympics so much and hate to see this happen. Sigh.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I wonder whether the rest of the Georgian team will even march in the Opening Ceremonies tonight. If they don’t, I can hardly blame them; if they do, it’s going to be tough on them and tough on the rest of us to watch.

  24. 24.

    HumboldtBlue

    This is at the same luge track Canadian Olympic officials refused to open for practice in the months leading up to today’s deadly crash.

    Thanks officials, instead of this guy getting in a few weeks of practice on the world’s fastest track, he comes out on day one and dies. Way to protect the home-grown losers ya idiots.

  25. 25.

    MagicPanda

    @Violet: Maybe I’m being an overprotective parent, but I’m not 100% sure I can watch the Olympics with my 5yr old kid if they’re going to be showing this over and over again… Hopefully they’ll stop after today.

  26. 26.

    Violet

    @MagicPanda:
    I can’t imagine they’ll show it again. They won’t want to put off people like yourself who are watching it with kids. I hope they’ll just stick to showing it during the news shows plus give a big warning. But then what do I know. They show crazy stuff during news shows these days.

  27. 27.

    Napoleon

    Look, at least at that part of the track all they need to do it pad the poles and put a screen up so the rider can not leave the track and he ends up back on the track instead of outside of it.

  30. 30.

    Violet

    @Napoleon:
    Some sort of material that would bounce the luger back on the track could help. But is there anything they can do to slow down the track? That seems like it might help even more.

  31. 31.

    Mnemosyne

    @MagicPanda:

    Since when do we show fatal crashes on TV? When I was a kid, you had to rent “Faces of Death” to see that.

    No kidding. Half the time it seems they don’t even give you that “this may upset sensitive viewers” warning — they just run the footage.

    Unless it’s a naked boobie, of course. Then they warn you six ways to Sunday if they even show it at all. Because watching a man die is much, much less traumatic than seeing a naked boobie.

  32. 32.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Were you as shocked as I was when that guy from the Canadian curling team tested positive for steroids?

    Well, at least hey didn’t sweep it under the rug.

    I am all giddy about the winter games. Love the figure skating and also all the ski events. GO USA!!

  34. 34.

    LuciaMia

    Jesus, after how many previous Olympic games, there’d be a problem on how to construct the best luge track?

  35. 35.

    HumboldtBlue

    Because watching a man die is much, much less traumatic than seeing a naked boobie.

    Matthew Continetti, is that you? Or are you really Ben Shapiro?

  36. 36.

    Peter J

    After having watched the press conference with Rogge, I doubt that unless there is major pressure on them to cancel the event, they won’t. They talked about an investigation, but since the luge competition starts on Saturday…

    In reality, they offered nothing but crocodile tears.

  37. 37.

    Violet

    @Peter J:
    I wonder what the lugers want to do. If you’ve trained forever for the Olympics I wonder if you’d want to cancel your event or go ahead?

  38. 38.

    Steeplejack

    God, the NBC coverage is only 15 minutes in and already it’s cringe-worthy. They just ran a Tom Brokaw mini-documentary that might as well be called “Canada: Our Short-Bus Sibling to the North.” Did you know that Canada has given us many fine entertainers, including Michael J. Fox and John Candy? Did you know that the United States is Canada’s No. 1 tourism destination? Did you know that Canadians were right there with us on D-Day? No? Well, prepare to be amazed and enlightened.

    I haven’t seen editorial values like this since that film strip on Argentina in sixth-grade geography.

  39. 39.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    Did you know that Canada has given us many fine entertainers, including Michael J. Fox and John Candy?

    I’m voting for Neil Young as the final torchbearer.

  40. 40.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    Edit: Does anyone younger than geezerdom even remember film strips? Some kid in the A.V. club would get to perform the highly technical task of advancing frames one at a time on a projector in sync with a canned audio track. “The principal exports of Argentina are [beep–advance frame] . . . beef [beep–advance frame] . . . soybeans and [beep–advance frame] . . . copper.”

    God, I wanted to be that kid.

  43. 43.

    mr. whipple

    @Steeplejack:

    “Edit: Does anyone younger than geezerdom even remember film strips? ”

    Sure, I remember. But the AV club people were real dorks.

    (No offense, see inner dork thread below.)

  44. 44.

    MagicPanda

    @Steeplejack: I’m 40, and I remember filmstrips. And I remember the smell of mimeographs. Then again, 40 is borderline full-on geezer.

    Hypothetically speaking, I wonder how old you have to be to have seen a real live film strip in your classroom. 30? 35?

  46. 46.

    Steeplejack

    @MagicPanda:

    Hypothetically speaking, I wonder how old you have to be to have seen a real live film strip in your classroom.

    I don’t know exactly when it was, but I would guess the fault line is when VCRs became cheap enough to invade the classroom. Circa 1982?

    Edit: From 1982 to whenever your cheap, backward school district was dragged kicking and screaming into the modern age.

  48. 48.

    Comrade Mary

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, that was a pretty nauseating, condescending batch of nonsense. They couldn’t shift perspective enough to give y’all Trudeau’s analogy for the CanAmerican relationship instead of Kennedy’s? (“Living next to the United States is a little like sleeping with Tunch — err, an elephant. You always wonder if they will roll over on you. “) And that bit about Steven Harper begging us in Parliament to go out and be politely rowdy? The FUCK?

  51. 51.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Comrade Mary:

    (“Living next to the United States is a little like sleeping with—Tunch—an elephant. You always wonder if they will roll over on you.

    Teehee, that’s just a great insult two fer. If it happened for real, I will pre apologize, and say it was most likely for your alls own good. We say that to all the countries we roll over and crush.

  52. 52.

    Steeplejack

    @TooManyJens:

    I think geographic location is important here. Was she in, like, Bobo, Mississippi? ‘Cause they’re just getting their classrooms stocked with Commodore 64s right now.

  53. 53.

    Karen S.

    Love the Olympics, hate what they’re doing right now on the teevee: Various NBC TV personalities are interviewing U.S. athletes and it’s just silly. I want to see the opening ceremony and the competition, but NBC is doing its level best to fill the four and a half hours of time it has allotted to tonight’s broadcast of the Games. Show more ski jumping!!!!!

  54. 54.

    madmommy

    @MagicPanda:

    Ah, the sweet smell of the mimeograph papers. They were really pungent when still a bit damp from the machine. I also remember getting to bang the chalk dust off the erasers. Now my kids work on a Promethian board and can text the answers to a quiz directly to the board!

  55. 55.

    JenJen

    @Steeplejack:

    God, the NBC coverage is only 15 minutes in and already it’s cringe-worthy. They just ran a Tom Brokaw mini-documentary that might as well be called “Canada: Our Short-Bus Sibling to the North.” Did you know that Canada has given us many fine entertainers, including Michael J. Fox and John Candy? Did you know that the United States is Canada’s No. 1 tourism destination? Did you know that Canadians were right there with us on D-Day? No? Well, prepare to be amazed and enlightened.
    __
    I haven’t seen editorial values like this since that film strip on Argentina in sixth-grade geography.

    This, a thousand times over.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    Something seems to be hinky with the site, at least for me. I didn’t remember reading that comment from Comrade Mary, and when I click the hyperlink in your comment I get nothing. And I can’t find her comment by searching the thread.

    Also, commenting on this and a couple of other threads seems suspiciously light for prime time on Friday night.

    Damn you, WordPress!

  57. 57.

    Delia

    @Steeplejack:

    Hey, what about Leonard Cohen? I demand Leonard. He could sing “Hallelujah” in his gravelly voice and get all the youngsters really confused.

  58. 58.

    Comrade Mary

    @Steeplejack: I could say I was just being sneaky, but what happened is that I posted the whole thing (blockquoted below for posterity), went in to edit, and was locked out as spam. I was vewwy, vewwy hurt.

    Yeah, that was a pretty nauseating, condescending batch of nonsense. They couldn’t shift perspective enough to give y’all Trudeau’s analogy for the CanAmerican relationship instead of Kennedy’s? (“Living next to the United States is a little like sleeping with Tunch — err, an elephant. You always wonder if they will roll over on you. “) And that bit about Steven Harper begging us in Parliament to go out and be politely rowdy? The FUCK?

  60. 60.

    Mary aka Comrade Mary

    I AM NOT A SPAMMER! I AM A HUMAN BEING! (Of course, this is all in vain if my IP is being blocked).

    @Steeplejack: I could say I was just being sneaky, but what happened is that I posted the whole thing (blockquoted below for posterity), went in to edit, and was locked out as spam. I was vewwy, vewwy hurt.

    Yeah, that was a pretty nauseating, condescending batch of nonsense. They couldn’t shift perspective enough to give y’all Trudeau’s analogy for the CanAmerican relationship instead of Kennedy’s? (“Living next to the United States is a little like sleeping with Tunch — err, an elephant. You always wonder if they will roll over on you. “) And that bit about Steven Harper begging us in Parliament to go out and be politely rowdy? The FUCK?

  62. 62.

    Beeb

    I got tired of the fluff and decided to watch MSNBC for a bit. I just checked the NYT and the ceremony itself starts at 9:00. I’ll switch back then. Sorry, Rachel, but I’m an Olympics junkie. I don’t care so much about the opening show, but I plumb love the athletes’ parade. I wonder if the jamaicans will have a bobsled team this year? Has Tonga discovered curling? That kind of thing.

  64. 64.

    ericblair

    @Steeplejack: They just ran a Tom Brokaw mini-documentary that might as well be called “Canada: Our Short-Bus Sibling to the North.” Did you know that Canada has given us many fine entertainers, including Michael J. Fox and John Candy?

    What, they didn’t show the snow-swept streets littered with people waiting twenty years for hip replacements? How could they have missed that?

    At least they could have shown a Tim Horton’s. There’s Canadian culture for ya. Maybe they could have given ol’ Tom some poutine and a beaver tail and watched his arteries fatally clog up on live teevee. I would have watched that one.

  65. 65.

    Steeplejack

    Man, I do not know if I can last until the opening ceremonies. Cris Collinsworth is killing me with his dismally bad interviews. Which is strange, because I usually like him a lot as a football commentator.

    But it’s not all his fault. All these athletes sound like they attended the same “Media Relations Strategies” seminar. Cliché piled upon cliché. Ugh.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Beeb: I did hear somewhere along the way (NPR?) that there will be an unprecedented number of athletes from African countries competing in these Olympics — not, the reporter was careful to say, because they have any hopes of medaling, but to convey the message to young African boys and girls that anything is possible, live your dream, etc.

  67. 67.

    Steeplejack

    @ericblair:

    What, they didn’t show the snow-swept streets littered with people waiting twenty years for hip replacements? How could they have missed that?

    They’re keeping it upbeat because it’s a sports event.

  69. 69.

    PurpleGirl

    K, I have buy a Quatchi plush toy. He can join the four snowlets that I have from the 1998 Nagano games.

    (A friend who worked for IBM was a member of the team that worked on the Nagano games website; he was able to get all four of the snowlets, although not as packaged set. He went to several stores to get them all. Besides the year of trips to Japan to work on the site, he was there for 8 weeks around the games themselves. IBM had at least 300 people working on the project.)

  71. 71.

    cincyanon

    Wait a minute, luging is not an obscure sport. My son did it today… though he and his friends call it sledding.

  72. 72.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Beeb: Remember “Eddie the Eagle” from the 1988 Games in Calgary? Talk about unlikely . . . .

  73. 73.

    JK

    @Steeplejack:

    Tom Brokaw forgot to mention that Canada has also given us Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Robertson Davies, Mordecai Richler, Margaret Atwood, Naomi Klein, and Robert MacNeil.

  74. 74.

    madmommy

    I love watching the athletes march in. They all look so excited! So far the team from Azerbaijan takes the prize for sartorial splendor. The pants and the hats together, that’s a lot of look.

  78. 78.

    madmommy

    @Beeb:

    Such a small delegation, it must have been devastating for them.

    I refuse to watch the video of the poor man dying. I can’t beleive any reputable news organization would show it, disclaimer or not.

  81. 81.

    Beeb

    And here I thought we few were the only Olympics junkies at BJ. But no, it turns out JC started a new Olympics open thread without telling us. How rude. :>) See y’all there.

  82. 82.

    gopher2b

    DougJ: I don’t see why you apologized. Totally unnecessary.

    Putting steel supports beams two feet from a luge track is criminally negligent. Unbelieable.

  84. 84.

    Katie5

    I’ve been watching it on CTV all day. The reason CTV showed the raw feed of the horrific accident was that it was “breaking news” and they didn’t think before they showed it. Now it’s “out there” in all its horror.

    I wish so much that it was still on CBC. But at least CTV stole CBC’s venerable Olympics reporter, Brian Williams (the other Brian Williams).

    No Leonard Cohen. But I prefer K.D. Lang’s version.

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