Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

This really is a full service blog.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Accountability, motherfuckers.

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

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Republicans in disarray!

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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Olympics thread

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The Olympics should be a minefield for conservatives: it’s headed up by an international federation (sort of like the UN), there are gay athletes, there is ample opportunity to display insufficiently patriotic attitudes, and there are numerous potentially offensive advertisements. Why hasn’t there been a big Olympics-related wingnut freak-out of some kind yet? Or was there one and I missed it?

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174Comments

  2. 2.

    Desert Rat

    Because there are few better forums for the sort of vapid, shallow jingoism they wallow in.

    USA! USA! USA!

  7. 7.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Why hasn’t there been a big Olympics-related wingnut freak-out of some kind yet? Or was there one and I missed it?

    You mean like another bombing?

  9. 9.

    Incertus

    @Desert Rat: Yeah, like that vapid Al Michaels comment about how before the 1980 hockey win, people were burning US flags, but afterward, they were waving them.

    Speaking of Al Michaels, is it just me, or does he look like he’s about to collapse into a lump of jelly at any second? I expect him to have a stroke any time he’s on camera.

  11. 11.

    r€nato

    @Zam:

    I think you have a point; the Winter Olympics tend to be very Aryan, don’t they? Though I have seen more black Germans there, than I have in the rest of my entire life.

  14. 14.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    Why hasn’t there been a big Olympics-related wingnut freak-out of some kind yet? Or was there one and I missed it?

    Because the wingnuts blew their load when Chicago and Obama saw their 2016 Olympic bid go down in flames.

  15. 15.

    4jkb4ia

    All the medal ceremonies for US athletes have been fully televised so that was one less thing to complain about.

  17. 17.

    mr. whipple

    Why hasn’t there been a big Olympics-related wingnut freak-out of some kind yet?

    As if on cue….

    CNN) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been hospitalized with chest pains, his staff confirmed Monday.

    His doctors are evaluating the situation, and Cheney, 69, is resting comfortably at George Washington University Hospital, the staff said in a statement.

  20. 20.

    Mike in NC

    >All the medal ceremonies for US athletes have been fully televised so that was one less thing to complain about.<

    Thus it has always been. It's like when there's a plane crash someplace and the first thing the reporter says is "X number of people are known dead, but fortunately none of them are Americans".

  21. 21.

    4jkb4ia

    “Michael Phelps in 19 minutes”? Why do I care about Michael Phelps during the Winter Olympics? Was ski jumping that uninteresting?

  22. 22.

    jl

    The Olympics may be run by sinister Commie-Nazi One World Governemnt overlords.

    But the red blooded Olympics fans were mean and made a collectivist Danish Euro-totalitarian curling player cry today.

    So, no problem.

  25. 25.

    jaxtra

    excuse me, sorry, just SOME fuckhead, sorry pal, imho right wing freak out is to often too true, i have mixed feelings about even joking about these lunatics’s behavior

  26. 26.

    jaxtra

    excuse me, sorry, just SOME fuckhead, sorry pal, imho right wing freak out is to often too true, i have mixed feelings about even joking about these lunatics’s behavior

  27. 27.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Not to mention slippery slopes, which they lurve to go on and on about.

    I think Wingnutting should be an Olympic sport.

    The dog whistle competition alone would be worth watching.

  29. 29.

    Barry

    “Or was there one and I missed it?”

    I think that if you don’t see a right-wingnut freakout, then yes, there was one, and you missed it.

    I’m not sure that it’s possible for those guys to not freak out.

  30. 30.

    KG

    because they need the Olympics, and the first two commenters got it.

    the one that I am waiting for is when they find out that there is an openly bisexual male pro wrestler. And what’s worse, his real life boyfriend is his manager/valet. That’s going to be fun.

  31. 31.

    Peter J

    A lot of those Aryan countries are quite left-wing, though.

    You’re going to be quoted in Jonah’s next book; ‘Liberal Nazism’.

  33. 33.

    someguy

    Because wingnuts don’t watch any sport that doesn’t involve over-compensating would-be-meth-freak latent homosexual rednecks beat up (by hand, or using automobiles) other over-compensating would-be-meth-freak latent homosexual rednecks.

    Well, except for hockey, which some of them watch because they think toothless long haired unshaven dudes must surely be fellow over-compensating would-be-meth-freak latent homosexual rednecks, even if they do have commie names like Vladimir, Sergei, and Jaromir.

  34. 34.

    Just Some Puckhead (formerly danimal)

    Why hasn’t there been a big Olympics-related wingnut freak-out of some kind yet?

    Because the US teams kick butt??
    U S A!
    U S A!
    /turns off inner wingnut

  36. 36.

    Brian J

    Not having watched more than five minutes of this year’s games, I couldn’t tell you much of what has happened. But if something did go wrong, it’d no doubt be Obama’s fault. Bill Kristol would suggest targeted air strikes of Iran as a way to show those Canadian bastards who’s boss, among other things.

    Wait a minute, you’d say. That has nothing to do with Iran! And off to the black prison you’d go.

  40. 40.

    Bob K

    Maybe because with a few of the skiing events postponed due to no snow, it takes away from the whole “OMG, there is a boatlad of snow in DC, global warming my butt!!” thing.

  41. 41.

    mr. whipple

    we’ve had Jimi Hendrix, J Geils Band, Dolly Parton (and someone) and the Dixie Chicks during ice skating. This ain’t your parent’s Olympics.

    For the kids that are in the Olympics, that is their parent’s music.

  45. 45.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been hospitalized with chest pains, his staff confirmed Monday.

    Prolly from waxing his chest for a Real Men of CPAC centerfold.

  47. 47.

    ajr22

    I just assumed cause fox wasn’t showing it, they didn’t know it was happening. That or they are protesting msnbc.

  48. 48.

    Brian J

    @Elisabeth:

    Uh oh. I guess this means that we actually might bomb Iran then, huh? Or according to Republican logic, would that make North Korea the rightful target?

  50. 50.

    Elisabeth

    @Brian J:

    The story was really sweet. She travelled with her brother and they are so excited just to compete while knowing that she stands no chance to be anywhere near medal contention. Her mother couldn’t travel due to health problems and her father couldn’t afford to.

    It really reminds us that we really aren’t so different after all. I hope CTV shows her run(s). I’ll be cheering loudly.

  54. 54.

    Ash Can

    I’m watching women’s hockey on CNBC, and just grooving on the fact that it’s an Olympic medal sport. Life is good. :)

  59. 59.

    Darkrose

    Because with the exception of hockey, Real Americans ™ don’t do winter sports because they’re either elitist (skiing) or gay (figure skating). That’s why there hasn’t been wingnut cheering over Lysecek beating Plushenko, despite all of the attempts to make Lysecek into the Great Straight Hope of men’s skating.

    I admit that I am a little surprised that no one’s taken the opportunity to rail against those no-good Canadians and their socialized medicine. But the MSM is probably just covering up the truth about the Canadian defectors trying desperately to escape the ration lines and death panels.

  60. 60.

    PurpleGirl

    @Elisabeth: Dolly Parton (and someone). That someone was John Denver, singing Thank God I’m a Country Boy.

    And it is their grandparents music.

  65. 65.

    Mike Kay

    @mr. whipple:

    His doctors are evaluating the situation, and Cheney, 69, is resting comfortably at George Washington University Hospital, the staff said in a statement.

    They’re trying to locate a wooden stake and Buffy.

  66. 66.

    HumboldtBlue

    I’m watching women’s hockey on CNBC, and just grooving on the fact that it’s an Olympic medal sport. Life is good. :)

    Don’t get too comfortable with women’s hockey as an Olympic sport in the future. It’s up for a review before 2014 and there are indications it may be dropped. They will use the lack of competition angle this time, instead of falling back on the “women can’t handle the rough stuff” they use to keep women ski jumpers from the games.

  69. 69.

    Elisabeth

    @PurpleGirl:

    LOL. That’s someone alright. I think I was distracted by the fact that the French had such wonderful music they could have chosen from and they went with country from the US. Better than that mess the Russians chose, though.

  70. 70.

    scarshapedstar

    I was gonna mention that the IOC turned down Obama’s bid for a Chicago Olympics, but I’ve been beaten to it. Anyway, that’s the answer.

  72. 72.

    gwangung

    @Elisabeth: Surprised the wingnuts haven’t been complaining about excessive political correctness concerning the Russian ice dance pair. (on the other hand, since they displayed all the taste of a bad Las Vegas showgirl routine, maybe they decided not to get into it…)

  73. 73.

    zzyzx

    I still can’t believe I got to see two events. We dashed back across the border just as US/Canada was ending as we were scared there might be riots.

  74. 74.

    Elisabeth

    @gwangung:

    The fake ferns might have been too much for even the wingnuts; the NBC dude certainly hated those costumes. Those were tuned down from a previous competition, too.

    I was ticked that the guy kept pulling the girl’s hair in some kind of caveman move.

    It was too bad the music got so upstaged because it was really beautiful.

  75. 75.

    Anne Laurie

    @MikeJ:

    All skaters should be forced to use their country’s Eurovision entry.

    I thought we were the only first-world country that blatantly ignores the Geneva Convention accords.

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack

    @Allan:

    Dude, I’m pretty sure that’s Reese Witherspoon, not Anne Heche. Anne has not been the same on skates since she broke her ankle in ’06.

  78. 78.

    Paula

    I second “saving it for the World Cup”.

    The Olympics are feel-good ‘n happy ‘n shit with personal stories and teary medal ceremonies and figure skating/halfpipe deliberation, but the brutal efficiency of WC matches are much less time consuming. Two teams walk out, stare ahead while 2 national anthems are played, and proceed to kick each other’s ass and/or submit to fake foul brattiness. And between Univision and Telemundo I don’t have to listen to hyperventilating from American commentators.

    Can’t wait for the USA/England match-up.

  79. 79.

    seabe

    Because the Olympics is just another means of conducting war against foreigners lol. Duh, Doug. Get with it.

  80. 80.

    Frankie

    Am i the only one who thinks that today’s conservatives would have rooted against the 1980 hockey team if their story played out identically with Obama as President?

  81. 81.

    Bob S

    @Colette:
    IOC President Avery Brundage was an unapologetic Hitler supporter, publicly supporting the Reich as late as 1941. He was opposed to apartheid Rhodesia being excluded from the Olympics.
    From 1980 to 2001, the IOC was headed by the proudly fascist Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was a Franco supporter until his death in 1975 (he’s still dead, by the way). His tenure was distinguished by a level of privatization and corruption that would have been envied by both Reagan and BushII.

  89. 89.

    fraught

    I’m not comfortable knowing that Cheney is resting comfortably. I want him thrashing around in fear of the devil; I want him terminally uncomfortable. Does that make me a bad person?

  92. 92.

    ellaesther

    @mr. whipple: My husband does, and he’s an American. Now. After living most of his life elsewhere. But he’s an American now, damn it, and that’s what counts!

    And boy is he sick of the jokes that American comedians tell about soccer.

  93. 93.

    Katie5

    The Hungarians just did (dirty) ice dancing to a “Rock This Party” remix???

    In other news, there’s been a blowup over RDS, the French language station’s comments about Johnny Weir:

    “This may not be politically correct,” Mailhot said during the segment, in which Weir, who is known for his extravagant performances and fashion flair, was shown sporting a semi-sheer, pink-and-black costume he designed himself.

    “But do you think he lost points due to his costume and his body language?”

    Goldberg replied that Weir’s feminine style may reflect badly on other male figure skaters.

    “They’ll think all the boys who skate will end up like him,” he said. “It sets a bad example.”

    In the earlier RDS coverage of Weir, Goldberg and Mailhot also brought up South African runner Caster Semenya, who was forced to undergo gender testing following her 2009 win at the world track and field championships in Germany.

    “We should make him (Weir) pass a gender test at this point,” Goldberg said, and Mailhot then jokingly suggested Weir should compete in the women’s competition.

    Well, at least they apologized about the costume crack. Sigh.

  94. 94.

    John O

    @gbear:

    gbear, you can find another one. When I started my search, there were a zillion dogs within short driving distance, and they’re constantly restocked.

    He’s been great and is no dummy. I love him. And Stella has been terrific with him and me, too.

    Must love dogs.

  96. 96.

    Mike in NC

    I’m not comfortable knowing that Cheney is resting comfortably. I want him thrashing around in fear of the devil; I want him terminally uncomfortable.

    Whatever soul he had was sold a long, long time ago. Time to give the devil his due!

  98. 98.

    de stijl

    All skaters should be forced to use their country’s Eurovision entry.

    Lordi, Finnish skaters are so fucked.

  101. 101.

    Bender

    it’s headed up by an international federation (sort of like the UN),

    …which gives the UN a run for its money as the most corrupt and self-serving body on the planet.

    there are gay athletes

    It’s the Canadian TV guys who got into trouble for taunting the gay skaters.

    Honestly, Doug, update your cartoon. There are gay firemen, but conservatives don’t picket the firehouse. There are gay NASCAR drivers, but people still cheer for Jeff Gordon.

    Apropos of nothing, but Evan Lysacek is dating Nastia Liukin? You don’t say.

    there is ample opportunity to display insufficiently patriotic attitudes

    Opportunities rarely taken. It’s the abundant patriotism of the Games that brings the joy, the tears, the drama, and makes these games popular around the globe. U!S!A! U!S!A! U!S!A!

    and there are numerous potentially offensive advertisements

    Did Tim Tebow and his mom make an Olympic ad?

  102. 102.

    Brick Oven Bill

    It is worse than that DougJ, the only demographic performing well is the one who evolved in the presence of snow and ice.

    Guards!

  105. 105.

    Paula

    Phuck the Phrench. Americans on the web (assuming they’re not all women) who were following the men’s free skate were all about how Weir wuz robbed. And we’re def one of the most homophobic nations on earth.

  106. 106.

    Paula

    Of course, Johnny’s skating for America, so … it may be a wash.

    In any case, it seems more likely that Weir’s choreography is less challenging than the new judging rules requires. Add that to the fact that Olympic skating judges have been downgrading the importance of the “artistic” element for the “technical” since the mid-90s (srsly, that Russian dude got the same artistic score for gyrating his hips as the gold medal winner) and Weir is at a disadvantage, competitively speaking.

  107. 107.

    Mike G

    Apparently you missed the Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Games.

    That video of the conservative conference where the dipshits erupted in cheers on the news that Chicago lost?
    That should be played over and over every time those fuckfaces start sneering about how non-rightards are insufficiently flag-kissing and “hate America”.

  108. 108.

    Katie5

    @Bender They’re not Canadian TV guys–they’re Francophone guys. Quebec broadcasters have a history of making jabs at the perceived political correctness of the Anglophone media.

    The Brits are dancing to Linkin Park. Not your mother’s or grandmother’s music.

  109. 109.

    Keith G

    @Katie5:

    In other news, there’s been a blowup over RDS, the French language station’s comments about Johnny Weir

    A cool thing about Johnny is that he doesn’t take umbrage at stuff like that. He jokes about it and moves on. In fact, I get the impression that he relishes the chance to play off such events. His skating years are mostly passed and so now its all about marketing Johnny Weir Inc.

    RDS is just helping out.

  110. 110.

    mai naem

    OT- I can’t stand Tom Brokaw. Like Bill Oreilly, I think Brokaw acts like the way reporters act in the movies. Or he thinks he’s acting like Ed Murrow did but he’s wrong.

  111. 111.

    mr. whipple

    . Americans on the web (assuming they’re not all women) who were following the men’s free skate were all about how Weir wuz robbed.

    Bah. He did an easier routine.

    Some folks were mocking on my crush Julia Mancuso for wearing a tiara. If Weir woulda worn it, his fans woulda went gaga like it was the greatest ever.

  114. 114.

    Mark S.

    This is the first time I’ve ever actually watched curling, and it’s pretty damn entertaining. There’s a lot more strategery than I thought.

  115. 115.

    DMD

    Why would the Olympics be a minefield for wingnuts? It allows them to let their patriot flag fly (USA! USA! USA) and bash NBC for not being patriotic enough.

    If anything, they should freak out over VISA’s “Go World” commercials. Where’s the patriotism, VISA?

  117. 117.

    John O

    @Keith G:

    Thanks, KeithG.

    It’s even truer than that, really. Got a great big great family and friends of many years, so I probably turned out so solitary just because I could afford it, emotionally, and subsequently financially.

    In any case, I’m awfully lucky and so are my creatures.

  118. 118.

    Andrew Pulrang

    Why no conservative freakout?

    1. The United States is winning the medal count.

    2. They like sports.

    For most conservatives, it isn’t about ideology, its about stuff they like and don’t like. If they like it, they like it to be plentiful, well-funded, and as well-organized as possible. Guns, NASCAR, sports, armies, religion, etc.

    If they don’t like it, they bring to bear all the best ideological arguments to oppose it, like education, the social safety net, healthcare, contraception, racial / ethnic decency, etc.

    Medicare is the most notable recent example. Older conservatives have it, depend on it, so they defend it, even though it violates their supposed ideology. But it’s theirs, they benefit from it, so all bets are off.

  120. 120.

    madmommy

    @DMD:

    The Visa commercials are really good, and the one with Dan Jansen is definitely a tear-jerker. I remember watching him fall after his sister died, and then winning years later.

    Perhaps if the wingnuts knew about all the sex going on they could get some righteous indignation worked up. All those athletes, so young, so full of energy. And hormones. There’s got to be some serious nooky going on in the Village every Olympics!

  124. 124.

    John O

    @Keith G:

    I had never seen him skate. Just because you’re straight doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate some style and panache.

    TBogg’s post title was classic, though: Johnny Are You Weir.

  125. 125.

    Steeplejack

    @Katie5:

    Blockquotes made easy:

    Last line of “regular” text above blockquote.
    &#060blockquote&#062
    Paragraph 1
    &#095&#095
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    &#095&#095
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    Resume normal text.

    (h/t Monkeyboy © 2009)

    Notes: (1) Don’t leave a blank line before the blockquote. If you do the blockquote comes out in bold. (2) Use two underscore characters between paragraphs in the blockquote, otherwise only the first paragraph ends up in the blockquote.

  126. 126.

    freelancer

    @DougJ @top:

    Why no conservative freakout?

    Easy. Obama hasn’t made any really public statement about how the USA is doing awesome in the Olympics. The second he says anything positive about the country’s athletes and their accomplishments, they will pounce.

    They will say he’s being arrogant and selfish, doing nothing but at the same time taking credit for the hard work of real American athletes.

  127. 127.

    toujoursdan

    They aren’t French. They are French Canadians. The only thing they barely have in common are almost incomprehensibly different ways of speaking the same language. Geez, it’s like condemning the Kiwis (New Zealanders) for invading Grenada.

    I watch RDS all the time because they generally have the best hockey coverage. Most of the announcers are from the Saguenay region of Québec which is notorious throughout the province for being ummm… “Rougeneck Country”: lily white, uber-Catholic, he-man land where brown skinned people don’t dare tread. Any gay person leaves the Saguenay for Montréal or Québec City as soon as possible. It’s cold (even by Québec standards) and boring.

    Most people in Montreal and Québéc City don’t have any bad feelings about gay people. There are gay characters on almost all the homegrown Québec TV shows. Support for gay marriage was much much higher in Québec than the rest of Canada and the head of the separatist Parti Québécois was openly gay. He was pressured to resign because he was a coke-head and a moron, not because he was gay.

  128. 128.

    de stijl

    What was the music for the French team about ten minutes back? I know it’s from (or used in) some famous movie, but I can’t place it.

    Maybe it’s not from a movie, but gets used in trailers all the time.

    I hate instrumentals in that you can’t Google lyrics if there aren’t any.

  131. 131.

    soonergrunt

    Some folks were mocking on my crush Julia Mancuso for wearing a tiara.

    You know I wasn’t, right?

    Secondary to my post last night, I’m taking the fuzzball to see the vet tomorrow. Earliest appointment I could get. I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes.

  132. 132.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    What happened to ice dancing this Olympics? It is bad pair skating without the jumps. Where are Torvil and Dean to bitch slap these losers? Curling is more exciting.

  133. 133.

    someguy

    But the MSM is probably just covering up the truth about the Canadian defectors trying desperately to escape the ration lines and death panels.

    Hah. You joke about that. But take a look at Team Canada next time it takes the ice, then come back here and tell us what happened to Marty Brodeur. Dude totally got death paneled. If the dude makes it out of Canada alive, I’d be surprised, and he’d probably better go on the disabled list whenever it’s time for the Devils to play Montreal or Vancouver. I’d say “Toronto” too but we all know Toronto hasn’t had a hockey team for the last 40 years or so.

  136. 136.

    freelancer

    @de stijl:

    If I had seen it, I’d be able to tell you. I have a Rain Man like ability to recall shit like this. In my darker moments, I’m convinced that it’s my one true God-given talents.

    @soonergrunt:

    I’m taking the fuzzball to see the vet tomorrow.

    Please don’t talk about your balls like that.

    In all seriousness, best of luck to you.

  138. 138.

    Steeplejack

    @AhabTRuler:

    Looks good to me. And a haiku to boot.

    However, if for, say, poetry, you want no blank lines in the blockquote, do it like this:

    &#060blockquote&#062
    &#060p&#062Potatoes and beer&#060/p&#062
    &#060p&#062food for the hungering soul&#060/p&#062
    &#060p&#062grown fat on wisdom&#060/p&#062
    &#060/blockquote&#062

  144. 144.

    Joel

    @Incertus: I never found a primary source for the Al Michaels comment. Given that he’s one of the more neutral/professional sportscasters out there, color me surprised if it’s true.

    Here’s an interesting list of facts about the 1980 semifinal.

  147. 147.

    Steeplejack

    @Kobie:

    I think there were some Old Navy ads with Gloria Vanderbilt further back that were even more atrocious, but fortunately my memory-suppression mechanism is still holding.

  148. 148.

    Steeplejack

    @Joel:

    I never found a primary source for the Al Michaels comment.

    I thought he used it this last week or so in some NBC pseudo-documentary promo snippet about the upcoming hockey coverage.

  152. 152.

    PanAmerican

    @mr. whipple:

    The US viewership for the 2006 final was about the same as the total viewership for a World Series.

    IIRC the US and Mexico are FIFA’s best TV rights deals.

  153. 153.

    Joel

    @John O: I almost bought the flip (previous generation) but decided to roll with the Canon TX-1 via ebay for the ~same price. It’s not the same caliber of video recorder but the ability to use SD cards, zoom somewhat and take palatable pictures convinced me to go with it.

  155. 155.

    Mornington Crescent

    US viewership for the Canada-US hockey game was the largest since game 7 of the 1973 Stanley Cup finals between the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Blackhawks at Chicago Stadium, which still is the largest TV audience for a hockey game in the US.

  156. 156.

    Desert Rat

    @Paula:

    You’ll be happy to know that Martin Tyler is the lead voice for US World Cup broadcasts…a huge upgrade over the assclowns ESPN/ABC had lined up four years ago.

    He’s only the best play-by-play guy for English Premier League broadcasts.

  158. 158.

    Joel

    @Steeplejack: Fuck it, they already make them wear those ridiculous facemasks. They’re practically checking out on the ice to begin with. I think the no-checking rules promote interferences (i.e. holding, hooking, etc.)

  160. 160.

    J. Michael Neal

    @Joel:

    Here’s an interesting list of facts about the 1980 semifinal.

    Apparently, he left one out, that very few people remember: it wasn’t the semi-final. In those days, the medal round was round robin, and counted the game you played against the other team in your group in the first round. Sweden and the US tied in the Blue Division of the preliminaries. The Soviets got the silver, Sweden the bronze, and Finland finished fourth.

    Had the Finns beat the US in last game of the tournament, The Soviets would have won the gold and the Finns the silver.

  161. 161.

    J. Michael Neal

    I love the implication that Jennifer Botterill’s father being a sports psychologist has helped her out. If so, she’s different from her brother Jason. He played at the University of Michigan. Their parents came down from Edmonton one weekend each year to see him. He got into a fight and tossed out in the Friday night game every year, thus missing the Saturday game.

    You think there might have been some father/son issues there?

  162. 162.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Steeplejack:

    I test.
    Last line of “regular” text above blockquote.

    Paragraph 1
    __
    Paragraph 2
    __
    Paragraph 3, etc.

    Resume normal text.

    But the question remains… can I edit after submit?

    ETA: Firefox 3.5.8 upgrade on XP-SP3 seems to be behaving better this morning.

  164. 164.

    Macha Maguire

    @ 64 Mike Kay

    His doctors are evaluating the situation, and Cheney, 69, is resting comfortably at George Washington University Hospital, the staff said in a statement.

    They’re trying to locate a wooden stake and Buffy.

    Yay! First time I’ve spat my tea across the keyboard in weeks….

    thank you!

  165. 165.

    vanya

    Judging by my brother-in-law, who seems to have recently embraced full wingnut, the correct conservative response to the Olympics is to be dismissive, claim you’re bored by the whole thing and then act smug about how bored you are. Since most of the top American athletes are from blue states, I don’t think wingnuts feel much of a patriotic connection to our team. Ironically most wingnuts would probably be happier with the Canadian athletes from Saskatchewan and Alberta – there are some real bible thumpers in that group.

  166. 166.

    Persia

    @r€nato: During the men’s program I saw a guy from Kaghistan who was part of the country’s ethnic Korean minority. That was pretty cool.

  167. 167.

    Persia

    @Keith G: I fucking love him. And I love all the people pretending figure skating was *oh so straight* before Johnny Weir. Yeah, I remember the tribute to figure skaters who died of HIV/AIDS back in the early nineties. Scotty Hamilton wouldn’t play that shit, and neither should anyone else.

  169. 169.

    twiffer

    i haven’t really paid much attention to the olympics cause, well, dragon age, mostly. but i was, um, in a rather mellow state last night and found myself watching ice dancing, which is apparently a sport for people who are neither good enough to figure skate or dance. then i somehow got absorbed in curling.

    one thing i will say: olympic commentators all sound like bullshitters, coasting on the hope that no one watching knows enough to call them on whatever idiotic thing is spewed from their mouths.

  170. 170.

    Steaming Pile

    @Triumph – you sort of beat me to it. I was going to say, “because, unlike the Super Bowl, nobody watches the Olympics,” but I’ll accept that. If it were the summer Games, you’d hear a lot more from the wingnuts about it.

    Still, you don’t get as much opportunity to express a lack of patriotism at, say, the World Series, because that particular contest is strictly a North American affair. Now, if there was another Series involving MLB, the Far East leagues, the Latin American leagues, etc., it would matter a lot more whether Kosuke Fukudome (should the Rapture ever happen and the Cubs win another Pennant) sang along with the Japanese anthem during the Baseball World Cup quarterfinals at Wrigley Field.

  171. 171.

    canuckistani

    @SRW1:

    There are not many swarthy people winning this medal things at Winter Olympics.

    Have you seen the Korean speed skaters?
    On the whole, though, you are right. Is it racist for white people to come from countries with cold climates?

  172. 172.

    4jkb4ia

    An above commenter got me to watch Torvill and Dean’s Bolero thanks to the magic of the YouTube. It was very awesome. Torvill and Dean were in perfect unison and perfect harmony. I think Virtue and Moir are doing a different sport and trying to do a different sport from everybody else. You can see this in the very creative lifts which no one else is doing and pairs skaters may not be allowed to perform, I don’t know.

  173. 173.

    Panurge

    This!

    The proverbial thousand times this.

    The list can, in fact, grow (or shrink) over the years; younger (!) conservatives can be OK with ’70s arena-rock, for example, even if this makes hippies dangerously close to OK. (Unfortunately this gives it cooties in the eyes of the post-punk hip consensus, somewhat unhip to the prospect of something cutting across social lines, it seems.) Lots of cons have responded by throwing off everything else having to do with the ’70s; apparently DFHs made all the cool music which was supposedly the bedrock of the pop culture of the time, but somehow they still thuck.

    Oh, and sometimes I think I should’ve figure-skated. I would’ve used Arthur Honegger’s “Pacific 231” or the second movement of Bela Bartok’s Music For Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, though. (And what is it with gay men doing the femme thing, but not growing their hair out? Gay men seem to have a chip on their shoulder about masculinity that lesbians don’t about femininity.)

  174. 174.

    Darkrose

    @mr. whipple:

    Bah. He did an easier routine.

    He also didn’t fall on his ass, which everyone but Lysecek and Plushenko did.

    More to the point, though, he scored well on the technical. It was in presentation and interpretation where he got low marks. It’s hard for me to see that as anything other than “20 point deduction for being too obviously gay.”

    Some folks were mocking on my crush Julia Mancuso for wearing a tiara.

    Not me. I love her and her tiara. I think it’s absolutely awesome. She also comes across as someone who understands that this is supposed to be fun.

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