Olympics, I Wish I Knew How To Quit You

by liberal japonicus

Yeah, talking to you Rio Olympics. I was so totally disgusted by the stories, the graft, you know. But it comes on TV and WHAM, I'm watching Ai Fukuhara and Kazumi Ishikawa and Mima Ito against Aryan Germans named Shan and Han, and I'm screaming at the TV. 

So a thread for the Olympics. Two interesting articles to mull over

https://www.inverse.com/article/19649-2016-rio-olympics-table-tennis-ball-problems

Despite the growing pains, the switch to non-celluloid balls was practically a necessity because of the severe fire hazard posed by celluloid balls. “We can now have a large quantity of balls come by air quickly, and we couldn’t have done that before,” points out Brasfield; previously, containers of celluloid balls had to be delivered by hazmat trucks with flammable solid warnings plastered all over them.

and http://regressing.deadspin.com/this-is-why-there-are-so-many-ties-in-swimming-1785234795 (via a slart like on FB I think)

In a 50 meter Olympic pool, at the current men’s world record 50m pace, a thousandth-of-a-second constitutes 2.39 millimeters of travel. FINA pool dimension regulations allow a tolerance of 3 centimeters in each lane, more than ten times that amount. Could you time swimmers to a thousandth-of-a-second? Sure, but you couldn’t guarantee the winning swimmer didn’t have a thousandth-of-a-second-shorter course to swim.

have at it.

Comments

[Ugh]

"Despite the growing pains, the switch to non-celluloid balls was practically a necessity because of the severe fire hazard posed by celluloid balls."

There's a Trump joke in there somewhere.

[cleek]

that swimming thing is good to know. we've been puzzling over that at Chez Cleek.

[Countme-In]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rudy-giuliani-forgets-sept-11-donald-trump

I remember when the Wall Street Journal editorial page and all so-called conservatives hated Ghouliani for prosecuting Michael Milken.

The former must be on Putin's payroll now.

The latter funds cancer research.

It's the grift that keeps grifting, conservative-wise.

You can bet Ghouliani has been promised the Attorney General job in a Trump Administration, although that's a little like Bill Clinton promising and then demurring from cumming in Monica Lewinsky's mouth (she thought it a lack of commitment on his part, which she requested it, the dear woman, next time they met, after he talked to his attorneys; in Trump's case, it'll be after he consulted his spontaneous demons.)

Yeah, I know that's too much detail. Here's a little more ... conservatives were so excited about it that they literally ejaculated $100 dollar bills into fundamentalist collection plates, in front of their devout children, who were faking it, just thinking about it.

I can bet you any amount of money that ISIS terrorist attacks escalate in America after Guiliani is sending Americans to Quantanamo, because it suits the authoritarian script.

[Countme-In]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rudy-giuliani-forgets-sept-11-donald-trump

I remember when the Wall Street Journal editorial page and all so-called conservatives hated Ghouliani for prosecuting Michael Milken.

The former must be on Putin's payroll now.

The latter funds cancer research.

It's the grift that keeps grifting, conservative-wise.

You can bet Ghouliani has been promised the Attorney General job in a Trump Administration, although that's a little like Bill Clinton promising and then demurring from cumming in Monica Lewinsky's mouth (she thought it a lack of commitment on his part, which she requested it, the dear woman, next time they met, after he talked to his attorneys; in Trump's case, it'll be after he consulted his spontaneous demons.)

Yeah, I know that's too much detail. Here's a little more ... conservatives were so excited about it that they literally ejaculated $100 dollar bills into fundamentalist collection plates, in front of their devout children, who were faking it, just thinking about it.

I can bet you any amount of money that ISIS terrorist attacks escalate in America after Guiliani is sending Americans to Quantanamo, because it suits the authoritarian script.

[sapient]

Hey, Count-me-in, please give the Clinton / Lewinsky relationship a rest. It's not your f'ing business to joke about, and it never was. Talk about your own sex life that way.

[Countme-In]

Why, it's public record?

She admitted that in an interview.

I hold none of it against either of them.

It's normal human sexual behavior, which conservatives practice but can't handle when other human beings seek it, unless it's to exploit it politically.

I'm not going to be politically correct.

[Countme-In]

I'll admit that posting it twice was beyond the call of duty.

[Countme-In]

Some good news regarding American sensibilities, and for Clinton:

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/08/white-working-class-men-are-less-racist-you-think

[Countme-In]

http://juanitajean.com/well-duh-4/

Yeah, one reason is that conservative Texan males, with the usual exceptions, regard blowjobs in the truck as birth control and apparently Texan women want the real item sex-wise and die because the aforesaid Texan men want to shut down birth control and Planned Parenthood.

[sapient]

I hold none of it against either of them.

Good for you, but they thought that what they were doing was private. The witch hunt happened. She talked to a friend, and then to an army of prosecutors. She was very young. Her name was turned into an epithet. We don't need to perpetuate that. Thanks.

[Countme-In]

All true, every word, and thank you.

[Countme-In]

I'll bet the victim Frank would rather have been blown by the cops.

"They sliced his thigh, beat on his groin, punched, kicked, and stomped him from head to toe, and then the leader of this police gang ordered a young cop, new to the force, to take his fountain pen and stab it into Frank's ear. When the officer hesitated, he was ordered to execute the torture, and when the rookie cop didn't do it with enough hate and force, his superior showed him how, until Frank bled from both ears. That's when Frank thought he would die. And while some of the cops involved were later prosecuted by the Feds, the damage was already done and the city was fractured as badly as the bones of Frank's face."

That's Milwaukee the other day.

Outrage the Republican House of Authoritarians would have displayed. We can't tolerate oral sex between public servant and citizen, they would howl.

Torture by authoritarian cops? Yeah, what's the problem, exactly?

Pfitt.

We are one f*cked up country.

[Countme-In]

There are great crowds of sadistic conservative vermin, many in governmental positions of pigfucking responsibility, who are ecstatic about the suffering this will cause to the now once again uninsured, not to mention the nigger in the White House:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/aetna-one-countrys-largest-health-011014428.html

Now, if Aetna had also announced that their employees would be dispatched to perform oral sex on all of their now formerly insured customers, in lieu of healthcare insurance, numerous committee hearings would be convened in the subhuman Republican Houses of Congress to decry the humanity, oh the humanity.

Pigshit. Eminently killable.

[Marty]

There is nothing more "just wrong" than trying to make the President having sex with an intern in the WH as "their sex life". It is wrong on several levels, and a firable offense for any CEO in America.

[cleek]

the President isn't a CEO.

and, IIRC, the GOP did try to fire him. they failed. miserably.

[McKinneyTexas]

the President isn't a CEO.

and, IIRC, the GOP did try to fire him. they failed. miserably.

Not the point, Cleek. It's the double standard.

[Tony P.]

"I love my cigar too, but I take it out of my mouth occasionally."
--Groucho Marx

The Count can probably explain the story behind Groucho's remark. I mention it only because I find an obsession with sex to be a bit comical in any context.

--TP

[Hartmut]

Unfortunately, neither party has any right to claim the moral highground on sexual issues anymore. Even convicted rapists find defenders on their side and in some case even accomplices for the cover-up. At least the Dems spare us the "the devil made me do it and G#d forgave me already" defense but that seems to me about the only difference. The "dead girl or alive boy" times are in the past.

[Countme-In]

Bill and Monica shouldn't have done it .... period.

He, being the dominant one in terms of power, position, and age, should have said "No thank you, young lady," to the pizza and benefits and not exploited her vulnerabilities, despite evidence that she was on a mission of some kind.

Failing that, they should have gotten a room.

He shouldn't then have lied about it and treated Ms Lewinsky as he did.

Yes, if he had been a CEO, he would have been sacked, though probably with a substantial golden parachute. But again, the political government is not a business. It is not a family around the kitchen table. It is not a blueberry cobbler.

But spare me any tenderness that most of the Republican Party ... its politicians, its operators, its media .... were anything but thrilled with the gotcha with little concern for the morality, the exploitation, the behavior in the hallowed halls of the White House, or the incident's damage to the country.

Most of them spat out their own cigars to exclaim their glee. An obsession with Healthcare schmealthcare for the uninsured with preexisting conditions? Evil, can't be done, sorry we haven't the time or money!

But investigate the stain on the blue dress and impeach some oral sex?

Clear the decks and the calendar! That's what THEY call governing.

Further, former Nixon operative and worldly procurer, Lucianne Goldberg, didn't exploit Monica Lewinsky? Lucianne Vince Foster-was-murdered-fanatic Goldberg, that one?

Jonah Goldberg can get down on his knees next to Ms Lewinsky and thank Bill Clinton for jumping his career, such as it is, into life.

Heck, he's still peddling tawdry bullshit in Dinesh D'Souza's new Hillamentary.

The entire episode was the face that launched a thousand shits.

Groucho's cigar line might be in this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQee1i2ZW0A

Or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03IVs77Zr0s

A bonus clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ9J4M5xN3k

I think I'll spend some time watching those instead of blogging any further today.

Have fun.

[Countme-In]

Also, until Monica Lewinsky delivered the pizza to Bill Clinton, there had never been any illicit sex
in Washington D. C.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/mr-magoosolini-made-mistake.html

I'll take whatever tawdry crap the Clintons can dish out over batsh*t lying insanity any day.

[Countme-In]

I just figured out that I brought this up on the wrong thread.

Sorry.

[Hartmut]

To go back to topic, is it still true that professional athletes are expected to abstain from sex for a certain period before important sporting events based on the belief that it would weaken them?

[liberal japonicus]

I think not...

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/shortcuts/2016/jul/18/rio-2016-42-condoms-per-athlete-olympic-village-sex

[Marty]

I think...

Times are faster now because they can't wait to get to the village.

[Girl from the North Country]

Now I don't even know which thread to put this in, but thought some of you who hadn't already read it might find it interesting about the development of conservatism in America:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/aug/16/secret-history-trumpism-donald-trump

[CharlesWT]

Usain Bolt and the Fastest Men in the World Since 1896 – on the Same Track

[liberal japonicus]

GftNC, I thought that site was a parody site, given that the acronym was JAG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagoff

[Girl from the North Country]

LJ, you and David Frum both, apparently. Unclear whether it was or it wasn't, but put in context (the rest of the article) I thought it was pretty interesting about the possible, post-Trump future.

[cleek]

good link, GftNC.

[cleek]

good link, GftNC

[Countme-In]

"Jagoff" is the go-to insult in Pittsburgh. It's a tough town. Jagoffs usually end up having the crap beat out of them physically if the jagoffery persists.

Growing up there, I didn't swear much and had little use for the term when young. But, the contemporary virulent infestation of jagoffs in our country in recent decades has enlarged my vocabulary .. no kidding.

In fact, the first American English noun all immigrants should be forced to learn is "jagoff", so they can accurately address the current crop of Republican conservative filth who want to beat on them.

To wit:

https://www.balloon-juice.com/2016/08/17/aetna-cynicism-and-pennsylvania/

I just took a look at the Value Line page on Aetna. It's profitability is expanding year over year. The stock is up eight- or nine- fold since the 2008 crash:

https://research.valueline.com.ezproxy.denverlibrary.org/secure/api/report?documentID=2185-VL_20160610_VLIS_AET_485_01-0PIHMTEB3EHH120VNO78MMBS3M&symbol=AET

Their management and shareholders have now chosen to be the living embodiment of Death Palin's death panels, unelected.

When in need of jagoffs, there is no shortage to be had among the deep conservative bench of cold-blooded murderous jagoffs.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-hires-breitbart-chief-campaign-shakeup

To wit:

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/15/1560552/-Chilling-Trump-proposes-the-same-type-of-propaganda-ministry-that-Nazi-Germany-had

D'jou like fascism? Hanh?

To wit:

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/08/real-americans-hate-obamacare

Good luck doctor. These jagoffs don't even get the basic concept of health insurance pools, and even if they did, their total lack of empathy for those sick people who can't afford medical care is the basic definition of jagoff, otherwise know as the real death panels in America.

Apparently the sick are too expensive to insure. Can't make a profit. Only the healthy can be insured. Please go to the left, little mother. The rest of you who can work, continue to the right.

Here's hoping the children of Aetna's management come down with something f*cking chronic, expensive, and deeply painful.

Something treatable with an expensive orphan drug Aetna can't afford to pay for.

I don't want them to die. I want them to suffer in the physical and financial Hell they believe is the sadistic, tormenting American way for those without resources.

Their torment is my business decision.

[Slartibartfast]

Re: timing only to 0.01 seconds: I just figured that the touch pad system wasn't any more accurate than that. Still, that answers a niggling question for me that I hadn't even realized was niggling me.

My time for the 100 yd breaststroke must now be truncated from 1:01.734 to a less-impressive 1:01.73. It makes me sad.

There's a Trump joke in there somewhere.

Although not always true; it's true often enough that you can bank on it.

[Countme-In]

Nationalize them:

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/08/why-aetna-pulling-out-nice-profitable-pennsylvania

[Slartibartfast]

Unexpectedly:

Cleaning out my contacts list on my phone, I came across Andrew Olmsted's email address.

It hurt, somewhere, deleting that.

[Ugh]

8 years in January? Doesn't seem so long ago.