“The Hammer” stars Adam Carolla and comes out on DVD June 24th. Basically Adam Carolla plays a lame forty-something who has been unemployed for like twenty years or something. He used to be an amateur boxer and is making his return to competitive boxing. He goes on a quest for Olympic gold and gets his ass beat. I think any Carolla fan will enjoy watching him get knocked out after that ridiculous stint on Dancing With The Stars. What was he thinking?! Loveline, The Man Show.. Dancing With The Stars??! This movie better be funny or I just might lose all respect for the man.

A short history of Olympic Protesting from the Times:

— Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalists in the 200 metres, gave the Black Power salute during the American National Anthem in Mexico, 1968, to demonstrate against racial discrimination in their home country. They were expelled from the Games

— The silver medallist in the 200 metres, Peter Norman of Australia, who was white, wore an “Olympic Project for Human Rights” badge in support of Smith and Carlos’s protest. When he died, in 2006, Smith and Carlos were his lead pallbearers

— Irish athletes boycotted the 1908 Olympic Games in London in protest against Britain’s refusal to give Ireland its independence. The American team also refused to dip its flag to Edward VII during the opening ceremony

— In 1932 Italian gold medallist Luigi Beccali gave a fascist salute on the podium at the Los Angeles Games

— The Nazis’ appropriation of the 1936 Berlin Games for the purposes of propaganda included the introduction of a grand torch relay to the Games – the very same that is causing trouble today. Boycott efforts by Britain and the US were short-lived, but many Jewish athletes refused to participate

— At the Munich Games of 1972, gunmen from the Palestinian Black September group broke into the compound occupied by Israeli athletes and killed 11 of them

— In 1980 62 countries – the biggest number in history – boycotted the Moscow Games in protest against the intervention of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan

— An Eastern bloc boycott was organised in retaliation at the next games in Los Angeles

— Two-time world judo champion Arash Miresmaeili was eliminated from the 2004 Olympics, officially after failing weight criteria. It seems more likely his exit was because he was drawn against an Israeli. Iran’s National Olympic Committee later said it was “general policy” for Iranian athletes to avoid competing against Israelies

Admittedly, when I first saw the words “Speedo LZR,” I thought it was an abbreviation for “speedo loser.” As it turns out, in the world of competitive swimming, this space-aged suit is the polar opposite. (And yes, I just used the term “space age” without a hint of irony. Boner).

According to the Science of Sport blog, on its first professional outing, the swimmer with the Speedo LZR broke the world record…by two entire body lengths. Then the Women’s Dutch 4 x 200m relay team, equipped with the Speedo LZR, beat the world record (set 6 years back by China) by 8 seconds. I don’t know jack about professional competitive swimming, but even I know that’s kind of a big deal.

This brings to mind the whole juicing in sports argument: these people train every day for their profession; to be the best athlete, using all the technology available to get every ounce of power…so why not use drugs to further this concept? The problem is that unless everyone is doing the same drugs and has access to the same equipment and training, the competition would be unfair. Plus, you can’t make athletes who are ethically opposed to juicing use the stuff. We’re not living in a Brave new World just yet.

So in the case of the Speedo LZR, it might give the athlete an unfair technological advantage….unless every athlete was using them.

But on the other side of the coin, maybe to make it REALLY fair, they all should just swim naked, original Roman-Greko Olympics style. That would sure make the Women’s backstroke more interesting for me.

As the Tibet riots and protests continue AP is reporting that Chinese officials are placing virtual ‘Wanted’ posters for 21 rioters in Tibet on the several major Chinese web portals - a link to one is here.
The Chinese are cranking down hard on the region in attempt to manage the situation that’s been brewing since 1949. Plus with it being the year the Chinese are hosting the Olympics I’m sure they’re more than slightly freaking out.

From AP:

China might bar live television broadcasts from Tiananmen Square during the Beijing Olympics, apparently unnerved by the recent outburst of unrest among Tibetans and fearful of protests in the heart of the Chinese capital.

A ban on live broadcasts would wreck the plans of NBC and other major international networks, who have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast the Aug. 8-24 games and are counting on eye-pleasing live shots from the iconic square.

The rethinking of Beijing’s earlier promise to broadcasters comes as the government has poured troops into Tibetan areas wracked by anti- government protests this month and stepped up security in cities, airports and entertainment venues far from the unrest.

In another sign of the government’s unease, 400 American Boy Scouts who had been promised they could onto the field following a March 15 exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres were prevented from doing so by police.

“It was never specifically mentioned to me it was because of Tibet that there were extra controls, but there were all these changes at the last minute,” said a person involved in the Major League Baseball event who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The communist government’s resorting to heavy-handed measures runs the risk of undermining Beijing’s pledge to the International Olympic Committee that the games would promote greater openness in what a generation ago was still an isolated China. If still in place by the games, they could alienate the half-million foreigners expected at the games.

Like the Olympics, live broadcasts from Tiananmen Square were meant to showcase a friendly, confident China—one that had put behind it the deadly 1989 military assault on democracy demonstrators in the vast plaza that remains a defining image for many foreigners.

“Tiananmen is the face of China, the face of Beijing so many broadcasters would like to do live or recorded coverage of the square,” said Yosuke Fujiwara, the head of broadcast relations for the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co., or BOB, a joint-venture between Beijing Olympic organizers and an IOC subsidiary. BOB coordinates and provides technical services for the TV networks with rights to broadcast the Olympics, such as NBC.

Earlier this week, however, officials with the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, or BOCOG, told executives at BOB that the live shots were canceled, according to three people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

“We learned that standup positions would be canceled,” one of these people said. “No explanation was given for the change.”

Sun Weijia, the BOCOG official in charge of dealing with BOB, declined comment, referring the matter to press officers, three of whom also declined to comment. IOC offices were closed Friday for the Easter holiday; two spokeswomen did not immediately return e-mails and phone calls seeking comment.

The decision by BOCOG may not be final. The change was relayed verbally, one person said. All three hoped that IOC President Jacques Rogge and other leading IOC officials, expected in Beijing next month for regularly scheduled meetings, may be able to prevail on BOCOG to change its mind.

If the decision stands, it would be a blow to the TV networks whose money to buy the right to broadcast the games accounts for more than half the IOC’s revenues. The biggest spender is NBC. It paid $2.3 billion for the rights for three Olympics from 2004 to 2008—Athens, Turin and Beijing.

NBC planned to use Tiananmen as the site of its morning “Today” show.

Officials at NBC did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

The unrest—which broke out March 10 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and has since spread across western China—and the government’s harsh response underscores the communist leaders’ unease as the Olympics approach.

Take some action

I guess since they’re not throwing them off of cliffs no one in the internet land will really care all that much, but the Chinese Government is rounding up cats by the thousands and shipping them off to “death camps” in attempt to clean up Beijing for the upcoming Olympics:

Cat owners, terrified by the disease warning, are dumping their pets in the streets to be picked up by special collection teams. Welfare groups estimate that tens of thousands have been collected in the past few months.

Paranoia is so intense that six stray cats -including two pregnant females - were beaten to death with sticks by teachers at a Beijing kindergarten, who feared they might pass illnesses to the children.

Don’t let them get away with this!!!!!!!!1111 In America we never kill animals for any reason at all, especially not dogs and cats! We treat our animals with the utmost dignity and humanity at all times! Write them hate mail at:

Chinese People
China
Across the Ocean, Asia

After that man lets hit KFC for some wings bro!

Wednesday evening, roughly 10,000 nationalistically devoted Chinese citizens gathered in Tiananmen Square to celebrate the one-year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Celebrations included detaining journalists, shutting down Web sites, and running over protesting students with tanks.

Some of the outside events from the 2008 games will likely be postponed or relocated to other areas because of air pollution. Meanwhile, the government still arrests people who proclaim Tibetan Independence, executes political prisoners, and says fuck you to human rights. Sweet.

Here’s a fun game: Look at anything you have that’s plastic - does it say “Made In China” on it? How about your shoes? YOU WIN!

The Olympics were started in Greece. So was the concept of democracy. Fuck China’s government in the face.