Glenn Beck commenting on the state of the union address (just before it) started out by saying something to the effect that you know these things are basically useless. The speech excerpts are already released might as well just email everyone the copy and be done with it. He went on to talk about what the President should say and not what he is going to say. The President should be straight with the people and tell them the actual reason he had gone to war with Iraq (all very fine up to this point). And then the stunner: The U.S. went to war with Iraq to surround Iran on both sides encouraging the local population to overthrow the ayatollahs.
I am speechless.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Reforming The Olympics
The Olympics need to be reformed. There are many things wrong with it. Take a look at the number of events now in the Olympics(http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/index_uk.asp). Here are some suggestions to get things moving in the right direction (of course they will happen only if first the way the Olympics is run is reformed).
1) All the sports that have a substantial number of their own premiere tournaments do not need to be included here. Tennis is a prime example. Tennis has four grand slam tournaments every year and the ATP and WTA tours and the year ending championships. It also has the Davis cup, another dinosaur that needs to be laid to rest.
2) All sports where one country is so far superior to the rest that the competition is a joke need to be dropped (Actually these days if ICC implemented this policy Australia would be left playing by itself). Examples are baseball, basketball where the U.S. does not even bother to send its top players and softball where U.S. domination is a given.
3) Take out hybrids like pentathlon, triathlon, decathlon.
4) Swimming events need to be cut down by a lot. There does not need to be a medal for each kind of stroke that exists on the earth. Leading to absurdities like one guy winning seven medals for using seven different pedals.
5) Take out all sorts of relay events.
The Olympics need to slim down a lot and these are just the first few suggestions.
1) All the sports that have a substantial number of their own premiere tournaments do not need to be included here. Tennis is a prime example. Tennis has four grand slam tournaments every year and the ATP and WTA tours and the year ending championships. It also has the Davis cup, another dinosaur that needs to be laid to rest.
2) All sports where one country is so far superior to the rest that the competition is a joke need to be dropped (Actually these days if ICC implemented this policy Australia would be left playing by itself). Examples are baseball, basketball where the U.S. does not even bother to send its top players and softball where U.S. domination is a given.
3) Take out hybrids like pentathlon, triathlon, decathlon.
4) Swimming events need to be cut down by a lot. There does not need to be a medal for each kind of stroke that exists on the earth. Leading to absurdities like one guy winning seven medals for using seven different pedals.
5) Take out all sorts of relay events.
The Olympics need to slim down a lot and these are just the first few suggestions.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Keep Cricket Safe from the Olympics
The Olympics has become a Disney version of itself. Apart from the annoying pseudo-induced warmth it is a clumsy behemoth now almost devoid of anything real. Apart from all the sugar it is pompous and self important and more money hungry than any other event. The sad part is that ICC has been trying to emulate its money ways. There has been a push now for a while to include cricket in Olympics. Cricket can do better. It should steer as far away from the Olympics as possible.
My guess would be that the powers that be probably would like a Twenty20 format for the Olympics.
My guess would be that the powers that be probably would like a Twenty20 format for the Olympics.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Mother's Comments are Puzzling
Here is another one for the implementers of airline security to chew on (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/16/uk.terror.boy/index.html): A twelve year old gets on an international flight without any documents. However, more worrying were the mother's comments. She said, "My worry is that if you have terrorists in these airports they could be looking round for someone who is vulnerable, and get them to take things on the planes for them." Really? Is that what she needs to be focusing on?
Then Came Tigers
Bob Woolmer gets into the Asian obsession with tigershttp://content-usa.cricinfo.com/rsavpak/content/story/277453.html
I don't know where this obsession comes from but here is something I wrote on it a while back:
In the twilight of the sultans Tipu slayed a tiger with his sword. His emblem also had a tiger. Even though this event was fatal for this particular tiger, with the advent of the British killing off the sultans this is when tigers in the subcontinent started to rise to eminence, with mixed results.First there was General "Tiger" Niazi who lost Bangladesh. Did I say that right: I meant founded Bangladesh. Then there was Mansoor Ali Khan "Tiger" Pataudi who was also a pseudo sultan (Nawab, which in connotation is now no different from khalifa and shahzada which basically means someone useless). He married Sharmila Tiger... er I mean Tagore. Then came Tiger Khan and his crouching tigers ( and they had a lot of hidden dragons) to take the world cup who by the way was also a Niazi. Something about Khans and Niazis and Tigers and cricket. And now the Bangladesh cricket team is Bangla Tigers whose capitulations are not unlike those of the original Bangla Tiger, General Niazi.Cheetahs got a bad rap as in, "tu to cheeta hay (derisive as in my my aren't you the great one)".
I don't know where this obsession comes from but here is something I wrote on it a while back:
In the twilight of the sultans Tipu slayed a tiger with his sword. His emblem also had a tiger. Even though this event was fatal for this particular tiger, with the advent of the British killing off the sultans this is when tigers in the subcontinent started to rise to eminence, with mixed results.First there was General "Tiger" Niazi who lost Bangladesh. Did I say that right: I meant founded Bangladesh. Then there was Mansoor Ali Khan "Tiger" Pataudi who was also a pseudo sultan (Nawab, which in connotation is now no different from khalifa and shahzada which basically means someone useless). He married Sharmila Tiger... er I mean Tagore. Then came Tiger Khan and his crouching tigers ( and they had a lot of hidden dragons) to take the world cup who by the way was also a Niazi. Something about Khans and Niazis and Tigers and cricket. And now the Bangladesh cricket team is Bangla Tigers whose capitulations are not unlike those of the original Bangla Tiger, General Niazi.Cheetahs got a bad rap as in, "tu to cheeta hay (derisive as in my my aren't you the great one)".
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