Old Boy 2003 versus Old Boy 2013

A film review of two films, I will attempt to keep the spoilers to a minimum but be warned there will be a few. 2003 Old Boy Korean made cult hit 2013 Old Boy US Spike Lee film Both are based on source material which I am not familiar so when I read that 2013 is closer to the source material I don’t know if it is true or not. Let me start by saying, I am not opposed to remakes of films because they can retell a story in a way which will reach an audience who would not have bothered with the story at all. For example the films Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Let Me In are both Swedish Films which are very good however their remakes by the US are equally as good and retell the story in a way that is unique and still familiar to the original and in the case of Let Me In to the source material as well. I’m not familiar with The Girl with … source material. It is sometimes hard to see a film you like be remade and while I’m not a huge Spike Lee fan I don’t dislike all of his films and thought his version could be okay. He cast well known actors Josh Brolin and Samuel L. Jackson and amazing new comer Elizabeth Olson. So I had hope that this would be a good film despite the fact that a lot of the talk before the film was released was negative and condemned Lee for even attempting to remake such a good film. I will say that Brolin, Jackson and Olson all played their parts well but there was something lacking which I have to say is in the writing and the directing because all of the actors have the ability to really draw the audience into a story and believe they are the characters come to life. When that doesn’t happen with good actors it is the writing and the directing which have failed. The pace of the 2013 movies felt off and just did not have a believable flow that in part is due to my seeing the 2003 version but also in part in how Lee moves the story. Both films takes place over a 20 year period, which the 2003 version does a better job of conveying than the 2013 version. In 2003 it starts with little character introduction and then fills in that the protagonist isn’t a very nice guy. In the 2013 there is some build up that the protagonist is not a good guy and then pulls you in to the story. I prefer the 2003 version because it puts the audience in the same shoes as the protagonist. The character doesn’t understand what is happening to him or why and neither does the audience. The captivity portion of the film, the 2003 version really brings home how being isolated for 20 years from any meaningful human contact can extract a heavy toll on a person’s mental well being. I think Brolin is certainly able to deliver that kind of performance but he isn’t given the material or directed in a meaningful way to give that performance. So in the 2013 version after the 20 years there isn’t any sense that the character is really damaged by his imprisonment like there in the 2003 version. The release in 2013 is lack luster even when not compared to the 2003 version. This however it the one spot 2013 outshines 2003, which are dramatic fight scenes. The point of the first fight in the film shows the depth of what isolation can do to person and their restraint and interactions with others. However 2013 backs away from aspect of the film after the fight and in the 2003 version this is explored widely and in different settings and not always in fights. The introduction of the other characters is good in both films with the exception of the main antagonist in the 2013 film. In the 2013 version I wasn’t drawn in enough by the story to really form an opinion on the antagonist character but in the 2003 version I didn’t like the character before he is even on the screen. The 2003 version has a main fight scene which 2013 attempts to recreate. As before the 2013 version goes big the way US movies do in fight scenes which are okay if you haven’t seen 2003, but falls far short in comparison. It fails not in way of action but in the 2003 version there is the feel of the closeness of the combatants and the rage of the protagonist against his jailers and his lack of self preservation and he is an older guy now too. In 2013 the space used in the film was too big and didn’t give the same feel of tightness and close quarters combat and Brolin doesn’t seem to be as lost as his 2003 counterpart. Is it fair to compare the two scenes like this? I have to say yes because the 2013 could have done the fight a much different way but because Lee decides to try to recreate almost the same fight scene punch for punch I can say he failed to do justice to the scene as a part of the whole story but it is more action packed than 2003 version. As the story goes on 2013 drops the ball in the plot in a big way in that the protagonist isn’t even aware of why the antagonist hates him and doesn’t have that ah ha moment of oh that’s why this is happening that is there in 2003. Lee tells the same follow the clues type of story but there isn’t a personal connection between antagonist and protagonist like there is in the 2003 version. In 2003 the antagonist plan is revealed that he has made the protagonist unknowingly commit a greater social wrong and in the 2013 it is the same social wrong doing. Because of the lack of the personal connection and the reveal in the 2013 movie is telegraphed so far in advance of the reveal it is not a shock for the audience and again that may be that because I was familiar with the story line that I picked up on the foreshadowing. At the end I wasn’t sorry I had watched the 2013 version but it did not have the same gritty feel as the 2003 version. There was an emersion into the story in the 2003 version that the 2013 version never really captured. 2013 had better action sequences in that they are bigger, faster, and with bolder effects but that comes with a bigger budget and better effects departments but even that does not make up for the lack of grit and emotion through out the rest of film. If you haven’t seen the 2003 version the 2013 version may seem to be a better film overall and if you aren’t a fan of foreign films with smaller budgets you probably won’t like the 2003 version much at all. I prefer the 2003 version but that is just my opinion and maybe someday I’ll read the source material and have a completely different opinion. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

L'etat, c'est moi

I am me. What does that mean, really? That I or you in the case of you reading me, who am I? or you? Looking back from far enough are there truly any individuals out in the sea of humanity. Certainly a very vast majority of us are singular in our entity with the exception of the conjoined and those in mid coitus. The latter only a temporary condition and in some cases very temporary. Are we truly as individual as we proclaim when we say, I’ve gotta be me. In the vast soup that is the social worlds we are influenced by so much and we see all the groups we have identified in the world. Some of them are labeled offensively and others not so much offensively but as descriptive of how they act or interact with others. Let’s take hipsters for instance as they seem to be a group who loudly proclaims it is important to be me and to shun the main stream. I can get on board with that idea, going with the flock isn’t always the best way to do things, progress stagnates, we become comfortable and comply more easily to those who would lead us not because we agree but because it is easier. So I get the whole be the tenth man argument; if 9 people say go right, why not go left. Well because sometimes it can really be a mistake, like a lethal mistake but largely there is no reason not to go left when everyone else goes right. The larger group isn’t always the most correct just because they have tradition or history on their side. It does take effort to stand on the outside of it all though and it is easy to get sucked back in. My observation is if all these people just want to be this individual not corrupted by the main stream why are most of the hipsters, remember we’re picking on hipsters for the moment, so readily identifiable. It is almost if they aren’t individuals at all but in fairness with nearly 7 billion people on the planet you are not a unique snowflake, blah, blah, blah what ever that guy said in his fight book. Which really isn’t all that insightful or shocking but I digress Harder than it may seem to say I am me, a oneness in the vastness of the world. It is possible though and as we mark up our flesh with ink and metal or gouge holes in to it for a way to be apart from the whole. Adopt a clothing style or lack of one, what ever it is that we do to be something different from everyone else. We still cling to others because we are social. Very few people have the ability to live apart. I think it is less common today because it is harder to break away from others or the influence of others. How long can you go without any interaction with another person? No talking, no games, no text messages, nothing that lets another person know you exist. They can’t see you and you can’t see them. Depending on your currently living situation that may be very nearly impossible. To cut ties, uproot and be you apart from others. What is the longest period of time that you have been out of contact with any other people and been truly alone. I don’t mean metaphysical aloneness though that is a whole different thing which you can me in a stadium full of people and be alone. For most of us including me the most I’ve been apart from others is measured in hours not days or weeks or even months. How can anyone truly be completely individual with that much influence in your life the number of variables to consider is staggering as to what means more or less or nothing. How can you be different, completely and uniquely different, not ironically different or just to be different that is fake difference and nobody has time for phonies. Before you stare down your nose at the bearded dude in jeans drinking a nonfat latte made with all lava grown Peruvian beans sitting on his bike reading a tattered paperback just remember he may not be a hipster. He may just be a guy who has a bike and likes a beard because it is easier than shaving and ordered a coffee from the first place he came across and the book may be anything. We may be anything and in all the sameness that is this world aren’t we all just a little bit different or in some cases a lot a bit different. You know the cliché don’t judge a book by the cover or even the one if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck. Before you dismiss someone because of the category you have put them and defined them as being a certain type of person ask how different are you and how many times a day are you dismissed as being just another one of those people, and not even known it. We miss so much of the world because we see but close our eyes and we hear but don’t listen. (Also I know that title has nothing to do with anything I've said, it usually doesn't I just like the way it fits but doesn't fit) Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Neener, Neener, I may or may not be a 5 year old

While I’m not what most people would call a sports fan. I know how most of the games are played and the major rules of the games but would be hard pressed to name more than a handful of people who play professional sport. That said I do like things within the sporting world and one of the things which gives me joy is that Lebron James lost again in bid for a championship win. As I’ve said I’m not a fan so I should give a hill of beans about any of it and I really don’t. I did not watch a single minute of basketball this year to include the championship games. However when I read the headlines that San Antonio had won defeating Miami I took joy in the knowledge that Lebron had lost. I don’t really know that much about him other than he is good at the game not necessarily great but better than most, but for some reason though I can not stand this man. I really should be indifferent about his success or failure in it all but I don’t like him. I do however like Dennis Rodman, more for his ability on the court back when he played and also for his understanding of the politics of basketball in the modern day. Back to Labron, he may be a genuinely nice man which does make it hard to justify this dislike. However I don’t care and I’m not alone in this. Lots of people don’t like him and by a lot I mean easily a million people if not more. People say he is arrogant, cocky, out of touch, disrespectful, didn’t pay his dues, disloyal and on and on. To say a professional athlete is arrogant is to say the sky is blue but I think many people misconstrue confidence as arrogant. To get to the top level of a game where thousands fail takes real skill not made up bravado you have to at some point cut it or you are out. Yes he may appear to be arrogant but you don’t hang your head with self doubt and make it to the NBA, so I can’t really fault him if he comes across as arrogant. I don’t watch enough nor care enough to listen to him speak to know if he is cocky or not but I’ll give him a pass and say that he may not be any more cocky than the next ten guys in the league. Not paying his dues. Kobe entered out of high school and while he did get some ribbing about it, it doesn’t seem to be the same level as Lebron. The corruption of the NCAA doesn’t make going to college a strongly valid point to argue about paying your dues especially if your college is as corrupt as the mafia if anything skipping college is just saying hey I’m going to make money for four years while you all hope you don’t suffer a career ending injury while in college. As to the other critiques of disloyalty and disrespect all of Cleveland can hate the man if they want for leaving but seems to me most ball players don’t stay in the same town anyway those days have gone away. Overall I can’t really put a finger on why I don’t like Lebron James, I just don’t. Perhaps he is the embodiment of everything I don’t like about professional sport in the modern day and just has the bad luck of being that for a lot of people. Because it doesn’t matter how well he does more people want to hate Lebron than seem to want to love him. ESPN is the propaganda machine for the church of sport, the announcers and field reporters at the missionaries and priest of this cult. Pontificating every morning, noon and night they way of the church of sport. The fervor and reverence made in the name of sport is so akin to religion it is scary. Masses are held in the cathedrals of sport every day of the week. High holy days are spread throughout the year and for some mass migrations / pilgrimages are made for the faithful to pay homage to the sport of their faith Is Lebron any guiltier than anyone else in the system? No he is not but for some reason he is the one at whom they cast stones and I’m guilty too. I have no reason not to like him but I don’t and as shallow as it sounds I probably won’t. Does Lebron give a shit about me or hell all the haters? Not even a little bit mainly because he can buy and sell any of a hundred haters ten times over. The thing to consider too is that Lebron is a symptom of a machine we made or at least allowed to be made and he is the Frankenstein come to life. So to say you hate Lebron in part you are saying you don’t like yourself and in the spirit of full disclosure that is true in my case but I don’t hate myself as much as I don’t like him but it does bother me a little that I take joy in his failure to succeed. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Politics and religion make me cringe a bit

Recently I was reading an article titled 9 signs you may be an intellectually dishonest atheist, by Andy. I’m going to guess it is not the same Andy who knows Buzz and Woody but just a guy named Andy or maybe a woman. Either way no other information about Andy was available. Andy posted his essay of 9 reasons on the site Christian vision. Now those of you who know me are probably asking then how the hell did you find this article. Randomly. One link led to another and then I found it. I don’t have the link back to the original blog but I think the title should be enough to get you there if you are interested. The article beings with a take and a spoiler of a movie. I can relate to this, a lot of lessons in life are in art. I disagree with Andy’s view of the film as it isn’t the only way to look at things occurring in the story but his take on it is certainly valid and one way to explain the events. Essentially the short film review set up the points of the article which is that we delude ourselves or hide from the truth. Andy decided that this applied specifically to atheist because it is for him an opposite view point than his own. I’m landing on that assumption in that Andy is a guy not for any reason other than it will keep things easier in my writing and that he is not an atheist because of where he posted the article. However some of the things he says apply to any point of view and the idea of intellectual dishonesty is the bigger thing being discussed. I have a sneaky suspicion that this idea isn’t really Andy’s idea and he is breaking one of his own points by repeating others ideas, but expanding on a general idea of dishonesty and inserting atheist as the target. The first point is that the intellectually dishonest will only seek out information with which they agree. While I will agree that many people do this but to be cliché a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Anyone who only looks at only one point of view isn’t an intellectual. No matter what the belief hold such a narrow view is dangerous. Andy goes so far as to say if you avoid anything that is contradictory to your own beliefs you are being dishonest. Again I can agree to a point. One of the great things about the internet is that there is easy access to information about anything. One of the worst things about the internet is that there is easy access to information about anything. If you avoid things in your browsing of the internet a lot of the time it is to make it easier to find what you are looking for rather than sifting through an endless sea of stuff and most of which is only regurgitated from something else and doesn’t not add to understanding. Andy uses several of his points to say that if someone disagrees with you they are viewed as stupid, it makes you angry or you are afraid to confront an opposing view. Well Andy sometimes people say really stupid things. I have been known to utter a few. Should we be more gracious, sure however it doesn’t make the stupid thing any less stupid but perhaps the better way to say that is ignorant meaning not informed. Anger, gets a bad rap these days as an emotion, which is really all about how people choose to express their anger not so much anger being a bad thing. Anger serves a purpose which is to change the world. Lots of things make people angry and if you just passively accept things as they are nothing changes and the world stagnates and dies. By the world I mean ideas, logic, reason, intelligence, ect. We do need to learn better ways to express anger but becoming angry about something does not make the person’s point of view less authentic. The last few points that Andy makes in his article are attacking the person with the opposite point of view rather than the idea, and that people don’t really know why they believe what they believe. I agree we don’t know how to argue as a society, by that I mean we don’t know how to disagree without taking it personally. I think this is especially true in the US as opposed to other westernized nations but the rest of the world fails in being able to disagree. Because you disagree with me does not always mean that you are less of a person, less intelligent or less what ever it simply means you have a different idea about something. Like the movie. However Andy’s main target are the atheists and that they hold an opposite view from his own concerning god. However do the masses follow along without a full understanding the why of any idea. Sure, it is easier that way, have someone telling you what to do, what to think is great. The article’s title is really an attack on people who see things differently than Andy it is name calling or designed to belittle while it is a veiled insult it is an insult and was meant to be an insult. I would venture to say that most of what gets tossed around as belief about any topic not just religion / or the lack of religion most people are really only repeating what someone else has told them. In my work teaching there are concepts which I talked about and felt that I understood them and I did well enough to explain them. However, I have developed a deeper understanding of the concepts in the years of teaching and can pass that on to others. The point is intelligence is always growing and just because you are not as well versed as someone else does not preclude you from speaking your mind. However if you are at an impasse in a discussion hopefully you seek out more information from others rather than resort to name calling or attacking the person and not the idea. Sun Tzu and others have said, knowing the enemy (opposing view) is as important as knowing your own strength (own view). I have paraphrased others because Andy says it is not valid to rely on greater minds in making arguments. Usually these are included not because the person doesn’t understand what they are talking about but to show that it is an idea that has lasted and in the case of Sun Tzu for several thousand years. Not that longevity of an idea lends to validity but that there is proof in that idea. The article penned by Andy is built on this corner stone to seek out knowledge to better understand your position and defend it. The thing is that while Andy makes his case that the atheist is the intellectually dishonest person he never once own that the people who share his values are as guilty of the same points he ticks off in disputing the idea of atheism as valid. I would say there are closed minded people out in the world who do not want to see the world in any way but how they were told by other that it should be. One of the rules I try to live by is never discuss religion or politics unless you are paid to do it. You are not likely to change anyone’s mind about and you will only serve to frustrate yourself. We need to learn how to argue and how to disagree or more to the point re-learn these skills and to see that extremes or one way thinking about any belief are bad even for those within the group. Why do you think the major religions are so splintered with sects and all the differing faiths within a religion? There is more that one way to see the world and not everyone is going to agree with your way of thinking. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

My two cent or making it hail on the next Rocky and Bullwinkle

Look around your home, gather up all of the coins you have there, count them up. How much money do you have and what percentage of coins not the amount are pennies. When was the last time you actually spent a penny. How many pennies do you return to the economy or spend as currency compared to the number of other coinage you spend and receive. If you are like most people once you get that penny it is forever removed from the economy and serves no purpose at all. Look in fountains, rivers, streets and land fills and you will find pennies tossed away like so much rubbish. Turn to any DIY site and you will find pennies being used for flooring, lamp shades and various other surfacing material but not for the intended purpose for which they exist, which is to be used in the exchange of goods and services. No one knows exactly how many pennies actually are out in the world but the estimate is two hundred billion. TWO HUNDRED BILLION. The percentage of them used in actual commerce is so low that the US mint has to make millions of pennies to replace the ones that fall out of circulation every year. Millions of new pennies every year. The cost of production for a penny is estimated to be over twice what it is worth, while others will state that it is slightly less than twice. Either way it costs more to make them than they are worth. The division of our currency will always be down to the single cent, and in many cases percentages of a cent. However we don’t have half pennies any longer and as far as I have been able to determine the half penny is the smallest value coin made by our minting. You know why you don’t see half pennies, because we stopped making them. They outlived there function which the penny is well beyond a reasonable lifespan and should be put to rest. The penny is only around in day to day commerce out of nostalgia and serves no purpose. Don’t even say taxes. Our system of collecting taxes from the consumer and seller is misused. I am not saying that we should not pay taxes. We should they serve a valuable function to pay for infrastructure which makes living in a nation this vast workable. However tacking the tax on at the pay out point complicates things and is ultimately misleading leaning toward fraud. The taxes should be in the price that the consumer sees when making the purchase and any accounting to sort our revenue from taxes collected need to be done by the seller after the transaction. The accounting is done this way regardless if you price something with or without the tax in the price. I have work in businesses that have done this both ways. Prices including the taxes and with out the taxes included. Transactions moved much more speedily when the taxes were included. Less change had to be made and fewer errors occurred with taxes in the price than when compared to when taxes were not included in the price. The penny should be eliminated from day to day transactions but kept for bank transactions only. Most people do not even use cash at all but eliminating is not a viable option at this time either. There are studies by economist in the US that say the poor loose in the elimination of the penny however very little evidence in countries where the penny has been eliminate exist to support that claim. The rounding that is done works in the 1 and 2 cent transactions go down to 0 and 3 and 4 cent transactions go up to the 5 and the same for 6 and 7 down to 5 and 8 and 9 up to 0. Certainly there will be businesses who will price everything to be rounded up. However in a free market economy with competition in pricing those businesses will begin to see their customers moving to businesses which price fairly and do not attempt to gouge or bilk the customer. Any use of money serves the purpose to encourage commerce and spending which drive the economy. However it should also be governed in such a way that is economical and sound. Throwing away millions of dollars to produce a coins which are not used and on bills which have no viable life span is wasting money collected in taxes that could be better spent in other ways. Additional waste accumulated in the millions of dollars is the printing of one and five dollar bills. These bills have the least longevity in the economy and each one printed has to be replaced as unusable in less than 5 years. Coins however will remain usable in the economy for 30 years or longer. Replacing all one dollar and five dollar bills will save so much money that the printing of all currency may actually operate at even rates, that the money produced with worth what was spent to produce it. Of all the government offices which exist, this one should not operate at a loss or have as little loss as possible. To say that the use of one dollar and five dollar coins will not work is just a load of propaganda against change. Every other nation in the world with a workable coinage system use coins worth 1, 2 and 5 increments of their currency without difficulty. We say we are the greatest nation on earth yet we can’t figure out how to use coins? Come on it isn’t exactly tough stuff here. It even further speeds transactions and encourages small amount purchases. Having lived in Europe while serving in military I used coins for most of my purchases and paper money for easily less than a third of the transactions I made off the base. The use of coins just worked more easily. The US has attempted to adopt the dollar coins in less than enthusiastic ways in my life time. The Susan B Anthony dollar was too similar in size, weight and visual to the quarter it quickly fell out of favor and disuse. Other dollar coins were not distributed widely enough and even when asking for them in change often times. Businesses did not have any. Only the Post Office regularly had them available. We should be doing things that save us time and money rather than just sticking to the ways things have been done because that is the way that they are done. If things never changed you would still need an ox and a few chickens to buy stuff. Then there is the identity theft issue. How many times a day do you pull out a banking card to make a purchase for something that is under ten dollars, in a month. If you could cut those monthly transactions in half you would be cutting the risk of theft of your card info in half and also reducing the cost your bank spends on managing your accounts. If every person in the US cut their electronic transactions in half the time and money saved by every business would be substantial but they would still be making money. How many times have you had a bill that wouldn’t go into a vending machine because it wasn’t crisp, that problem is gone if you have a coin that works. Or how many times have you not even had a one dollar bill and only a 5 and not one has enough single or change. That isn’t a problem with a coin. Sure the stripper industry would take a hit because throwing dollar coins is more like making it hail than making it rain. That’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

When did trash talking become an Olympic event

In any sport there is going to be some division on what is good and what is great. Certainly there will always be those who are un happy about how things turn out from how the game is play, who play, and how things end. Now I am not so naïve to think that trash talking has not been a part of sport from the very first Olympic games in ancient Greece; You call that a tribute to Apollo that is not even worthy to feed to Cerberus. Remembering the Olympics from the past years that I’ve watched both summer and winter I can not say I recall the amount of negativity as is being expressed about these games in Sochi, Russia. Building an infrastructure is a very difficult thing and Russia isn’t the first to face such problems, Vancouver and Salt Lake both had issues, and for every negative thing being said I am sure there are a lot of positive things going on that are not getting as much attention and exposure in the media. Putting aside the flaws with the readiness or lack of readiness of the physical sites and even the lack of winter conditions is the troubling lack of sportsmanship in these games, especially on Team USA. Now before you start filling your glasses of hater-aid and calling me a long hair hippy commie let me explain and then by all means hate away. Team USA across that board regardless of sport or event have been talking shit about other athletes; they don’t deserve to be here, they are too old, too young, too exposed, too stuck up, no talent and on and on. Part of the problem may be that with social media and so much access to world wide publicity of statements which in the past would have remained in lockers or private journal to be never read again or if they were years later and not in the moments as the events are unfolding. Do not tweet when you are emotional. Additionally the mainstream media wants to keep as many people tuned into sporting events which do not have widely followed professional circuits so they find controversy to keep people watching. However, a bigger part of it too is un sportsmen like behavior or what ever the gender neutral term is for not having poise and dignity when things do not go your way as related to sport. Some of the most widely fed controversy is that of snowboarders blasting Shaun White. Now this was not just Team USA other teams including members of Team Canada were involved. Their complaints were all over the place that Shaun White is too old, a sell out, there is a judging bias in his favor. The trash talk went on and on. The first thing which is related to Shaun and other athletes is that he did not need to be on the team in the first place. Well that has little or nothing to do with any of the competitors desire to be on the team as it is up to Team USA and the US Olympic Committee and any governing body of a particular sport. Which may be part of the problem if the selection process is corrupt this isn’t really any one athletes fault as it is a symptom of a bigger problem. I offer that money is the problem. It costs a lot to travel, train, and televise the Olympics. The winter games are not widely followed sports when compared to other sports so selling advertising becomes an issue but if you can sell ads by having a well known competitor on the team as opposed to a slightly better athlete who is unknown it can make a difference. More work certainly could be done by the governing bodies to secure funding for their sport without the athletes tided to the sponsors. Even if the selection process is corrupt that does not excuse bad behavior and being poor sports. Shaun White has done more good for snowboarding and to erase all the bad that the legions of snowboarders in the world bring on themselves. Crashing into skiers, being rude and offensive around families and then being ruder when confronted about the bad behavior, in short many in the snowboarding world are their own worse enemies. Sorry if you are a boarder and are offended but if you are not that type of boarder you know there are a lot who are not considerate of other on the slopes. There are skiers who fall into this category as well but not in as large percentages. I do not speak as an outsider I worked for years as a profession ski instructor and have skied in Europe as well as North America. I’ve seen the poor behavior first hand. I will say there are fine and decent people who snowboard but the bad apples do get a lot of attention. Shaun did decide not to compete in one event he was selected to participate related to injuries. I can not fault any person for deciding not to go forward and compete if they are not feeling 100% healthy. Team USA has doctors those questions should have been asked and then teams selected based on this. It is not like Shaun White was injured privately and then did not disclose his injuries. These were known and the team made the choice to name him over others. In practice he fell aggravated the injury and dropped out. Why fault him for not taking an unnecessary risk with his body. He will have a life after his competitive days are over and would probably like them to be as pain free as possible. Snowboarding has a lot of injuries every year and some deaths. Again from personal experience with the people with whom I worked with in the skiing industry many of them have injuries which cause them pain and limit or adversely impact their mobility on and off the snow. Because Shaun did not finish well does not mean he did not earn his spot, most of the competing athletes do not finish well. Of the 15 different sports and 98 events and nearly 3000 competing athletes only 98 are going to win gold. Ok it is slightly more with the team sports but the point is that is close to only 5 percent of the athletes are winning. Lolo Jones is another getting a lot of guff about being there. If the Team USA picked her because she is well known that is on them not her. Lolo is driven to compete. She did have very fast push times in all of her runs. Her push times were as fast as any other teams. Her driver did not do so well. There were more bangs against the wall on any single run by her driver than some teams had in all four of their runs. And not to say she is a bad driver. She made mistakes. Mistakes on this level of competition when winning is decided by hundreds and thousands of a second, making the smallest misstep can mean you don’t win. Lolo and her driver still qualified for the finals in their event and a lot of teams did not. So for the men’s bobsleigh team to completely shun the women’s events because of Lolo being chosen to be on the Olympic team was petty and childish. The examples continue into most of the events and I’m left saddened and wondering why. The thing is that the Olympics are supposed to be the height of athletic competition, sport for the sake of sport, sport regardless of political, religious or other ideological beliefs, sport for the love of the game and the challenge of competition. Nothing exists in a vacuum and the Olympics are no exception. Athletes still compete under the flags of Nations and personal ideology shapes how they compete and how they behave. Perhaps I am too idealistic and believe that we can be better as people. It is understandable too that the investment that is preparing for the Olympics in training and time and then not making a team for a particular sport is a huge let down on a personal level. It certainly would be a hard pill to swallow especially if there is corruption in the selection process. Take that out on the selection committee and not the individual athletes. For any one person to say that they deserve to be on a team over someone else perhaps they should consider that there are tons of talented athletes that do not even get a chance to train or even be considered for the Olympics for a myriad of reason. I grew up with skiers who if they had the best coaches would have been world class competitors and possibly Olympians. They did not have access to these services. I know a swimmer who could have been on an Olympic team and most likely would have won medals but did not complete because as a minor his parents refused to allow him to put off school for a year to train. There are also those who simply choose not to compete but who are far and away better than those who show up for trials and make the teams. Because the Olympics are on the world stage does not mean that you are actually in competition against the very best athletes in a sport. It is a sampling of people who have had access and a desire to compete in the games. Perhaps the athletes on Team USA need to consider some humility and reflect on why the Olympic Games were revived. The other problems are not going to go away by attacking the athletes, the organizers and governing bodies need to be taken to task by the athletes who complete in the various sports. Maybe these people would also benefit from some reflective time about why the games exist. That’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Was that a bees nest?

Generally I try to avoid controversy just because I don’t like to respond to the backlash that tends to follow making a religious or political statement in my blog. However, as I think about it by not adding my voice I’m censoring myself or allowing those who may disagree with me to censor me. I’m reminded of the poem from world war two regarding the Nazi party taking various groups away and remaining silent and then when they came for me no one was left to speak out. I would include the poem but I think it’s better if you are interested to look it up on your own. I read it; I got something out of it and it has inspired me to speak up. Although I’m not without my voice I vote even in municipal elections when voter turn out is abysmal. However I don’t always speak up when the squeaky wheels are making noise and it is just nonsensical what they are saying. I think surely others realize that this is wrong. It doesn’t always appear that many others do know or if the do they aren’t saying anything either. So controversy shall from time to time enter my blog, feel free to disagree with me. I am okay with that however I am also free not to respond or delete any notes that I feel are inappropriate, vulgar or are not related to the topic. Here in Virginia a few years ago a popular election passed an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as a man and woman only. Virginia did this well in advance of North Carolina passing some similar piece of law. Unlike North Carolina, Virginia somehow avoided the national firestorm and controversy that plagued North Carolina following the laws passage. In my classes where I teach, I predicted that sometime soon someone would challenge this new piece of the VA legal world as being in violation of the US Constitution specifically the 14th amendment. The 14th amendment states that equal protection / due process applies to the states that does means you OHIO, and no state shall pass laws which make arbitrary distinctions between citizens and their rights. Sorry if you are in or from OHIO but you all really push the limits of what that means all of the time. This is fine because there is a thing called States right from the Bill of Rights (10th amendment) which says that those powers not specified to the federal government or prohibited to the states are reserved to the states. Not the point today So does defining who can marry who qualify as an arbitrary distinction between citizens. Well some would argue because the law does not say it is opposed to gay marriage. Gay being the key word it just says all men and all women can marry so long as they marry the opposite of their own gender. So every one is included… Not arbitrary However the semantics of that word play is that the spirit of the law is to prevent a specific kind of marriage, same gender marriages. I say same gender because sex is an act and a lot of marriages are void of sex. Gender refers to being male and female in the parts department not how you choose to use the parts when you play. With the intent or spirit of the law it certainly makes a distinction between the happiness of citizens and rights that come with the State recognizing a marriage. Differing tax rates, inclusion on employee benefits, insurance qualifications, inheritance and the list of rights goes on and on. One simple law closes the door on all of these other things in an arbitrary fashion. However this isn’t over because the first amendment also says that the government shall not pass any law that infringes upon the free exercise of religion. So the government can’t simply say your churches have to marry these people regardless of your beliefs in regard to this type of union. There is no way around this the churches are free to choose who they marry and who they won’t marry. Churches will refuse to marry some men and women to one another and they are allowed to do that too. It gets even trickier because there is some thing in the government which restricts the recognition of official churches. This has more to do with people declaring everything a church and defrauding the government and attempting to qualify for tax exempt status and other benefits of being a church as opposed to some other type of organization. The rub is that no matter who married you or how your religion sees your union to your spouse is a marriage or what ever you call it; as far as the government is concerned the ceremony that unionized you to your true love is a civil union. Sure they call it a marriage license but that is the semantics everyone is caught up on and no one is using common sense. Here is the argument that shows your what ever to whom ever is only a civil union in the eyes to the government not matter what you call it. Even when atheists marry one another it is called a marriage and there is not religious backing to these unions but they are the same thing. Most religions do not allow divorces and will not remarry anyone who has a divorce. However who ever joined the two of you in the “Holy State of Marriage” is undone in the eyes of the government if you go through the court process to dissolve that marriage in a divorce. The government doesn’t care what your church thinks then. 9th amendment your rights end where mine begin. It would be unconscionable to force men or women to remain in marriage if they were in danger or at risk of any sort of ruin with only the church to grant the divorce. Adultery gambling, domestic abuse, incompatibility, mental illness, lots of reasons that people get divorced and the state dissolves those civil unions and frees those people to live their lives apart again without a connection to the other person. Does your church have to recognize your divorce? Nope, not at all, not ever, it is still a legal divorce regardless. So restricting who can be in a civil union is an arbitrary distinction of rights and like it not businesses, other people, churches don’t really have a say in it at all. I include other people in that list of no matters because I’m sure lots of sons and daughters marry people other people wish they did not marry even this doesn’t make it any less valid. The language is merely semantics marriage or civil union it is the same thing. So we don’t have the right to restrict same gender marriages from happening. However if you are someone who wants to be in a same gender marriage you don’t have the right to make your church perform that ceremony or to recognize it as valid. However, businesses do have to recognize them and provide all the rights they would to any other couple who is married. Hopefully the court here is VA will strike down the marriage amendment and allow same gender couples to enter into these marriages. Marriage works for those who make it work and fail for those who don’t make it work. Going to church doesn’t give it some secret mojo to keep it from failing. Because it that were true our divorce rate wouldn’t be at over 50 percent for first marriages and over 80 percent of second and subsequent marriages. Like I said in the front you are free to disagree with me and if you base your objection in your religious faith that is fine I support your right and your church doctrine the right not to recognize it but I do not support the government’s right to deny it to citizens Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015