Aug 11, 2008

Awkward

So I actually did watch a lot more of the Olympics than I wanted to this past weekend. Mostly because Gia is into it, and I'm into her. A squared plus B squared equals me folding like a lawn chair, if ya know what I mean.

We were having dinner last night in front of the boob tube, watching the qualifiers for Women's Gymnastics, trying to figure out how China expects us to believe that these 12-year old girls are actually 16 or older when a truly surreal moment occurred.

Bob Costas had President Bush in studio for an interview.

Lots of rah-rah crap bout Team America and a whole bunch of references to religion and how he would like to see the Chinese government sanction some of the underground Churches in the nation. Ugh. I'm all for freedom of religion, but I'm also for the strict separation of church and state. This guy doesn't seem to see mind crossing the line for the latter argument, at least.

But when Costas asked the Prez about the conflict between Russia and Georgia, he said he expressed his "grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia" to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the Russian President.

How does this guy sleep at night? A disproportionate response? But the war he started in Iraq seems reasonable to him. I'm not going to pretend to know all about the current conflict near South Ossetia, but I know that the Georgian government has close ties with the U.S. and that they want to join NATO. Russia claims that they initially sent troops to the disputed area to secure Georgia's retreat and that there were no plans for invasion. I don't know. But Bush continued on about being envoys for peace and stability in the region, and he hoped that Russia would follow suit.

All I do know is that when President Bush uses language like this about another country, an ally supposedly, it sounds a lot like the kettle calling the pot black. I'm sure the impromptu interview was vetted thoroughly, but I would have loved for Costas (a liberal who once called Bush's presidency a tragic failure) to have been a bit tougher on the man.

How many more months until Obama takes office?


The Prez getting down and dirty with Misty May-Treanor. Source: Deadspin


Random Wiki: Alexander Van der Bellen is an Austrian economist, politician and a damn fine looking man. He's also a big fan of Scrooge McDuck comics. Boy, they will let anyone update a Wiki page, won't they?

11 comments:

RW said...

Didn't see the interview but my take is it's the Olympics and Costas is a SPORTScaster. Unless you are Jim McKay and have a tragedy forced on the games like in Munich and you HAVE to turn on-the-scene reporter let's keep the focus on the kids on our team and the events and give me a freaking break on the news already. Not that I don't like President Bush put on the spot - he deserves all the crap he'd get - but keep the politics and the news out of the way of whoever that beautiful girl is on the right who looks like a freaking oh my God 10...

Verdant Earl said...

RW - I actually would have had no problem if Bush responed with "Well, Bobby...let's just focus on the Games right now". But he opened his mouth and stupid stuff came out, as usual. And Costas has actually garnered Emmys for his late-night serious talk show that has nothing to do with sports. So he is more than JUST a sportscaster. He's also kind of a douche.

Kerri Walsh, by the way, on the right. She's about 6'6" or some ungodly number. Tall drink of water, she is.

Anonymous said...

Worst president ever. I once read how they judge the quality of a presidency. They look at how bad things were when he took office and how much improvement he caused. Lincoln, they say is the winner. I think Obama might have a shot at considering how bad things are now and how much room for improvement there is.

Slyde said...

i didnt see the interview, but my god that volleyball player in the white is the most scrumptious woman i have ever seen in my life...

Verdant Earl said...

MikeB - It's funny, I went to a small college in upstate NY and they founded a research institute about 30 years ago that conducts opinion polls specifically on this topic. Best and Worst Presidents, among other things. So maybe you read about it from them.

Slyde - I think Misty May (crouching) is a lot more attractive than Kerri Walsh, even if she is thicker around the middle. Walsh is just too damn tall.

Avitable said...

Too damn tall? Is there such a thing?

Verdant Earl said...

Avi - "Take me to your ladder", eh?

Mrs. Hall said...

About the girls--I believe they are sixteen. I can tell you why. It is true that they are bit smaller genetically. But, the regime most gymnasts go through includes about 8-10 hours a day of training and very specific diets.

Most likely, these girls have been doing this type of training since they were little. As a result, they are suppressing the hormonal activity that allows women to blossom. Blossom in terms of overall growth and womanly characteristics.

This can also happen to women who are over-exercises. They have no body fat, their periods stop, etc . . They sort of regress in terms of hormonal function.

But again, these girls never started. So they that is why the look a little older than nine.

Luckily the body is an amazing machine. Once they train less, eat more balanced diet, their hormonal balance will come to the forefront, as it were.

I do worry about these girls though, the pain on their faces as they compete... oy!

Anywho--how do you do that cool thing were you have create a hyperlink with one word instead of the actual address? Like the link that brought me to the article on the girls.

:)

Mrs. Hall

Verdant Earl said...

Mrs. Hall - In either the HTML or COMPOSE box for editing new posts, you will see an icon that looks like, well, a link. Highlight the word that you want the link to be attached to, hit this icon and paste in the url of the page you want. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. ;)

I agree with what you are saying about delayed development on these girsl, but there is talk that they were listed with different ages in earlier competitions over the last few years. And China has a history of age-cheating. Sometimes 1 and 1 equals 2.

Bruce Johnson said...

Great minds think a-like. I was thinking the exact same thing this weekend, when the Prez was doing his little Hypocritical act. Invading Iraq under false pretenses and killing thousands is Okie Dokie, but invading a boarding country the size of Rhode Island to nationalist reasons isn't....How does this man sleep at night? Obviously, he has no soul.

Verdant Earl said...

Lotus - you can see it in his eyes. No soul.