Olympix

I confess. when I was younger I wrote glowingly of events such as the Olympics & the Oscars. that was before I was willing to admit that they are all abt money.

I began watching the opening ceremonies the other nite but had to turn it off long before the computer-generatd fireworks. I'm not sure which was scarier: the host smiles (orchestratd by the architects of the Tiananmen Square massacre) or NBC's too-frequent shots of the carrion that occupies the Oval Office. all I cd think of was Leni Riefenstahl.

during the cold war the unwritten story of the Olympics was governmental use of competitors as spies. I'm not sure that story has completely been told yet. now it appears to be abt illegal drug use. but then doping is to athletes what lying is to politicians. we really shdn't be surprisd. yet we continue to make role models of Olympians even when winners scream & carry on as if they'd just won "American Idol." I still don't understand how we can fill teams with professional athletes (even those with criminal records).

& did you know that the US government gives its citizens who win gold medals $25K per medal? I wonder what the funding source of that is. I presume most of our tax dollars are dumpd down the Iraq hole (while that government banks its oil revenues).

so -- let the games go on. & the commercials.