Here, take MY opinion while I eat YOURS for breakfast

No matter what you think of the Olympics i don't think things are a matter of you should or shouldn't watch it because of this or that.

Firstly, the Olympics are cool to look at. Damn, that opening ceremony was effing hellacious. I've never seen so much money outputted so spectacularly. 2008 over and over. So many people coordinated. So impressively pulled off with out a hitch.

(oh, i'm not totally ignorant--I know about the Russian attack on Georgia, the question is-who cares???THE OLYMPICS ARE ON!!!)

Its no secret that I don't dislike trite television drama. and it seems the announcers have been fully briefed on all the athletic drama. Suspense is heightened by strategically prurient information about certain athletes.

Cheers to the US Men's Relay Champions. Damn, that was a tight race. Sorry French boys.

Sure, there are lots of things I DON'T like about how the Chinese do things, but there are things I don't like about how the US does things either. I'm not out pointing fingers and spouting my opinion about this or that. For all the righteous arguments people spout and bumpersticker about, there are always things besides the points that people don't take into account. You can talk Tibet but you probably won't talk about lots of other situations like Tibet going on that country, other countries, or even the USA which would undermine--render moot your point-whatever it is.

Course, observing the fallout of Olympicnessness that occurred 12 years ago here in Atlanta, I tremor with gritted teeth to imagine the restructuring of Beijing: the up-rooting of undesirable people among some concerns there. The scale of the Opening Ceremonies made me feel sorry for anyone who might have stood in the way of the Olympic Committees Gaze. We stuck homeless people on one-way buses to Birmingham, Alabama. Where did all the Chinese Hobos go?

But thats the nature of THE Olympics to begin with. Its not China's fault per se, but I've heard a lot of indignation at expressed by people in general to China in general.

But compelling and inspiring, none the less, is the expression of peace and goodwill. (ok, i make a concession here: an attempt at expressing peace and goodwill while strengthening patriotism, a male bred aggressive disease) But its still rockin' seeing Teams from various countries, some politically not on good terms, be mates side by side, shaking hands. Its still amazing to see so much human advancement in 4 years. The men's swimmers are shattering world records with seconds to spare. Its just soul food to see the strongest examples of human potential, almost all suspiciously good looking. It makes for great entertainment though.

China is a strong and wonderful country whose history is underestimated and whose people are commonly misunderstood. (by we westerners) !

Brushing aside the entire Olympics and the attitude that by boycotting them you are behaving enlightened is bullshit that you are allowed to do but please don't rub it in. There are things I don't like, like zealous patriotism, and hearing the national anthem of any country turns on the suspicious light in my noggin that warns me of brainwashing waves in my vicinity. But don't you doubt that nearly every time I hear the Star Spangled Banner, the light goes off after a moment, and I allow loving feelings for this country to wash over me and through me, very often ending in squeezing a few drops of seawater from my eyes.

It does suck having to listen to the American Anthem like 3 times in a night watching the Olympics on TV, but it IS kinda cool hearing anthems of obscure countries you've never heard before.

Yes, the Olympics are a sell out. They are a distraction. They are spectacle of the Roman Colosseum magnified and evolved through time to make a lot of money for some people, and to arouse nationalistic feelings of loyalty in people that might be counter-productive if you think that in the future we'll have to get over our affinity to draw borders around everything. Thats a man invention too, by the way.

But they are also going to go on with or without you. We have other things to fry. Like how we treat people on our day to day lives, and how informed we are about our local governments and how THEY are run. The Olympics were a joy for me to watch growing up. I wasn't a sporty kid, but I loved watching them none-the-less. It upholds fairness and honest-to-goodness human funness. I find it way better to watch than most of the violent silly stuff on television.

i gotta stop typing and go to bed now.
It was real. Hi Pete.

Crofteepoo