London 2012, Olympics

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Warbler, 

You are more than welcome to exit the thread you started, but amongst all the name-calling and animated gif walls, there are some interesting views expressed in here. As someone who watches the Olympics for the appreciation of the years of hard work and dedication it takes to get there, I plan on checking in on this discussion occasionally. However, I'm not going to try to click on a period to open it every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGiYEWRzTik

I wish the various countries that compete would donate some cash to build a permanent Olympic site in Greece and stop this awful vanity project building malarky.

As much as I'm bored by sport it does tarnish the ideals of the games to have people kicked out of their homes and denied freedom of expression in the name of corporate greed.

I wouldn't mind so much if the buildings were attractive and had long lasting use.

In this I'm Self (Will Self) loving.

Good luck USA.

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Loads of people had their homes and business property subject to compulsory purchase.

The area is a secured compound where untrained guards stop you from entering wearing t-shirts with logos of the sponsors competitors on them.

So if you have a freebee Pepsi shirt or a joke Burgher King shirt you can't go there.

It's a land grab.

London has the most expensive building land in Europe so it will be no surprise to me if all those underpriced compulsory purchase orders get turned into profitable rabbit hutch apartments for knobs once the useless stadia get pulled down or fall down (or blown up going by the security cock-ups).

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These guys say no.

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I thought this was a riot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qx3GP-l1Y_w

Leonardo said:

ferris209 said:

I thought this was a riot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qx3GP-l1Y_w

yeah, my dad and I were roaring with laughter every second of it! :D

Yeah, of course, I'm a big Rowan Atkinson fan. I've been watching Mr. Bean for dang near 20 years now and I really enjoy his Johnny English movies.

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My feeling is fuck the Olympics. I don't believe in nationalism, as it is essentially just a successful propaganda program in north america where our countries are as big as some continents. If there was city-state representation for North America, like there was in ancient Greece, I would be more interested. As it stands, Americans in New York have as much in common with Americans in Florida as Canadians in Ontario have with Canadians in Saskatchewan and Europeans in Germany have with Europeans in France. Politically and economically they may have ties, as is necessary being close neighbours because there is basically no choice. But if you are going to admit Germans and Frenchmen have distinct socio-cultural differences, then you have to admit that people in Quebec City and Vancouver, and Detroit and Dallas do as well. But it's basically just an illusion that we are all the same, just as it would be to have a "European Union" Olympic team. Even now it is a bit silly to have representation for the normal-sized nations of Europe, but it's ten times moreso living in North America.

So, for a North American, this not only is illogical in terms of geography, it just highlights the stupidity of nationalism in general. I'll celebrate when the Olympics are over. You know, people go on about the "history" of the Olympics, but I doubt they actually know the history. It was a late-19th centurty/ early-20th century invention, when nationalism was in full swing and we were all going to war with each other (see WWI and the WWII holocaust, the outcome of this), the actual ancient games had been dead for thousands of years before the birth of nation-states in the 19th century found a political vehicle under the guise of entertainment, so they resurrected a two thousand year old competition to excuse nationistic competition, and ultiumately eugenics. I know it's mostly just good fun, but seriously, who the fuck cares if Bulgarians can jump higher than Norweigans? It's a stupid, stupid appendege of a time when there was slavery, eugenics and nationalism. Also, when the Greeks competed it was at the city-state level, so it would be like Los Angeles versus Berlin, and not USA versus Germany, which would seem nonsensical and idiotic to the ancient Greeks.

So yeah, fuck the Olympics and fuck the Queen mother. Between her centennial and this, as a Canadian I'm looking forward to the day her and her (thankfully now symbolic) monarchy die away with the other vestiges of the long ago past.

Although I do admit, my mom was watching the opening ceremonies and we laughed our heads off at the Rowan Atkinson section. Great fun.

Too bad Paul McCartney has become such a sellout though. When he dies John Lennon is going to kick his ass.

Kudos for getting the Queen to parachute into the stadium though...I wouldn't have predicted that.

Thumbs down for Queeniepoo's dropping of protocol by calling Bond, Mr Bond instead of Commander Bond.

Was wondering why that interview was dropped in:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/london-2012-nbc-opening-ceremony?CMP=twt_gu

The US broadcaster NBC is facing growing criticism after editing their delayed coverage of the London 2012 opening ceremony to replace the "memorial wall" tribute section with a Ryan Seacrest interview with Michael Phelps.

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