Globalization has made getting along with countries we’ve never heard of more important, and the best way to do that is to beat the crap out of them in sports we’ve never heard of and then rub their faces in it. If we’re going to get along, we’re going to have to learn how to hate each other when it matters the least.
Time on The Olympics
24 August 2008
9 August 2008
I thought it was only rhetoric when I heard that the 21st would be the Chinese Century, just as Henry Luce called the 20th the American Century. It wasn’t rhetoric. Now I have a better idea what they were talking about. Their national leader is no longer the cartoonish Mao, but president Hu Jintao, who looked every inch a modern executive in his well-cut suit and quick smile. Did you see our president, tapping his little American flag idly against his knee?
Roger Ebert on China
7 July 2008
There is very little “benefit” in the grand scheme of things in putting a ball in a hoop, hitting a ball with a stick, kicking a ball, driving a car really fast, swinging from a bar, or balancing on a beam. But some of those skills you can make really really ungodly amounts of money doing! Something tells me that this young woman might get a medal, or bragging rights, etc… but when all is said and done, all she can claim is that she can balance on a stick much better than most people.
Thoughts of Cyen on The Olympics