Runner Nick Symmonds tests Russia’s anti-gay resolve

ThinkProgress: A top American distance runner dedicated the silver medal he won at the track and field World Championships in Moscow to his gay and lesbian friends, becoming the first athlete to openly defy Russia’s new anti-gay law that outlaws “homosexual propaganda.” Nick Symmonds won the silver medal in the 800-meters Tuesday, then broke a previous pledge to not speak out against the law while at the championships by telling a Russian news outlet that he had no choice but to say something.

“As much as I can speak out about it, I believe that all humans deserve equality as however God made them,” Symmonds told Russia’s R-Sport. “Whether you’re gay, straight, black, white, we all deserve the same rights. If there’s anything I can do to champion the cause and further it, I will, shy of getting arrested.”

“I respect Russians’ ability to govern their people,” he added. “I disagree with their laws. I do have respect for this nation. I disagree with their rules.”

According to the report, “Other athletes have pledged to speak out against the law during the Winter Olympics, which open in Sochi in February. Openly gay American figure skater Johnny Weir has said he is willing to get arrested during the Games in Russia, while gay speed skater Blake Skjellerup, who is from New Zealand, has pledged to wear a rainbow pin during competition in Sochi. The IOC said this week that it may punish athletes who speak out against the law during the Olympics for violating its rule against political statements.”

I thought that an international incident was inevitable and Symmonds is proving me right. If Russia ignores his “gay propaganda.” then that practically guarantees further high profile protests — i.e., the “gayest Olympics ever.” If they bust him, they’ll endure international condemnation. They really are in a no-win situation here.

No matter what happens, getting the Winter Olympics seems more of a headache than a victory for Russia, since a biggest benefit of being the host country is usually free advertising and boosterism. The image Russia (and any protests) will be broadcasting to the world will not be positive and, in the end, will do them more harm than good. Any company looking to avoid bad PR would be well-advised to have as little to do with Russia as possible,

[photo by JARRIN]

A perfect demonstration of the inability of many conservatives to see racism

The Washington Redskins have been playing football for over 80 years and their name is no more derogatory to Native Americans than the New York Giants is to vertically challenged people.
—Aaron Goldstein, of the conservative American Spectator.

You see, as a non-Native American, Goldstein believes he’s in the perfect position to dictate to Native Americans what they can and can’t find offensive. He doesn’t seem capable of understanding that if the Redskins name has been around for 80 years, it only means we’ve tolerated this kind of racism for 80 years.

You have to imagine that Little Black Sambo had defenders like this; “It’s not racist — why, Sambo is a beloved children’s character! How can it be racism when we don’t hate Sambo?”

And there’s rightwing racism in a nutshell — so deeply ingrained in their entire worldview that they have no clue that they’re even doing it. Goldstein has no idea that his statement is in itself racist.

And I’m willing to bet he’s not interested in learning any different.

Detroit Tigers lose the series, conservatives blame Obama

No, really.

Griper Blade: A Potemkin Olympic Village

China is evil. Freakin' evil. Of that, there should be no doubt. We all remember Tiananmen Square and the brutal way a student protest was put down there in 1989. Prior to the Olympics, China also put down unrest in Tibet. As the Olympics are happening, China fights Uighur separatists in the western province of Xinjiang -- although there's very little coverage of that.

How should we respond to the oppression in China? President Bush, who never misses an opportunity to kiss the religious right's butt, cast China's entire human rights record as merely religious oppression -- as if China were guilty only of shutting churches.

Of course, part of the problem is that Bush -- who's used his term as president to spend money like a drunken sailor in a strip club -- has basically sold the US to nations like China. It's one thing to embarrass them slightly, it's another to call a criminal regime a criminal regime. Being part of a criminal regime all his own doesn't help Bush's position any, either...

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Griper Blade: A Beautiful Disaster

Like anyone who appreciates film and, especially, photography in film, I have a love/hate relationship with documentary filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. A visionary fimmaker, Riefenstahl created what many consider to be the best documentary of all time -- Triumph of the Will.

Unfortunately, Triumph of the Will was also a masterpiece of nazi propaganda. This was the genius of the nazi movement -- they understood that the most successful propaganda had to either be really, really scary or really, really cool and they went with cool. Riefenstahl helped build the nazi movement into a national campaign and later claimed she didn't know about all of the horrific crimes the party committed. Her access to the highest levels of the party makes this claim hard to believe. When Riefenstahl died at the age of 101 in 2003, I thought it proved the old saying -- only the good die young.

Another great documentary by Riefenstahl is Olympia, a film about the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Like Triumph, Olympia was pro-nazi, using the Olympics to showcase Hitler's vision of a physically perfect people and casting the nazis as the direct descendants of the ancient greeks who were seen as the creators of western civilization. Nazi design looked Roman for a reason -- you were supposed to see a direct line from Athens to Rome to Berlin. The propaganda had it that Germany was the last, proud stand of the civilization that the Greeks began. Nazi supermen were the next step in the evolution of western civilization.

There may be two kinds of propaganda. There's the N. Korea "Everyone on Earth wants to kill you" model and the nazi/soviet "Trust this government, we're the best thing that's ever happened to humanity" model. Some governments, like the Bush administration, use a little of both -- although, in Bush's case, it's mostly the former.

All of which brings us to the Olympic torch relay. That's all Hitler. He turned the 1936 Olympiad into a "best thing that's ever happened to humanity"-style propaganda outlet. Olympia's breakthroughs in film technology, like mobile tracking cameras on pulleys and cables (which are still used in filming sports today), were meant to show the genius of the Master Race. And the torch relay was meant to symbolize the passing on of the torch of civilization from the ancient Greeks to the modern nazis, not the passing on of the Olympic ideal. Ignited by a parabolic mirror using "the rays of Apollo," the torch supposedly carried the light of civilization through benighted Europe to its new home in Berlin.

In other words, the torch relay has jack to do with the Olympics. It was born as propaganda and continues as propaganda's twin sister, marketing. The Greeks never did anything remotely like this.

So, I wouldn't lose any sleep of the politicization over the torch relay on its way to Beijing. It's nothing but an ad for the 2008 Olympics and a marketing campaign for China. It's meant as spectacle, so kick back and enjoy the spectacle. Adding to the fun is that this spectacle isn't the one that Chinese propagandists had planned for it to be...

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