Would LOve To Be In Vancouver This Week

[BoulderDawg]

Can't wait to how much coverage the Olympic Resistance Movement gets.....Can't wait to see if the cops start busting heads.

The whole world is watching. I'm hope those guys up there get the word out.

[Drake]

Now you advocate police brutality to further your agenda. Awesome.

Personally, I'd like to see a peaceful resolution, and not cops "busting heads". You get sicker and sicker by the day.

[BoulderDawg]

Caught most of the opening ceremonies. Was offended by the people who claimed to be indians that came out and danced a jig for all the people there. There was even some guy sitting sit to the IOC president that looked like something straight out of a cigar store. Do not these people have any pride what-so-ever?

The rest was just special effects and window dressing. I didn't quite get the fiddle/tap dance thing. I watched it with a professional dancer who just couldn't believe how bad those guys were.

Was laughing at the end when all of their technology went haywire and the torch looked all funky!:D

[Drake]

You were offended by people pretending to be Indians? Did you REAAAALLLLLY just say that?

They were natives, by the way. I guess if you think Ward Churchill is a native, then that speaks volumes about your ability to identify the real thing.

[Drake]

Here you go, folks... apparently the real natives didn't even realize the people were fake, and were celebrating the awesome opening ceremony... http://www.aptn.ca/

[Drake]

Awesome opening ceremony... much more intimate and down to Earth than the Chinese one. Almost made me move to Vancouver. May have to settle with Seattle...

[BoulderDawg]

A few people have asked me "Well there seemed to so much support from the indians". Truth is the vast, vast majority do not agree with the actions taken by those on stage last night dancing around and looking like something from an old Roy Rogers movie.

Here's a good explanation from www.no2010.com


FAQ: I thought Natives supported the Olympic Games?

It appears as if Natives support the Olympics due to the exploitation of Native culture, as well as the efforts of Native collaborators (such as the 4 Host First Nations, which is made up of Indian Act band councils). These Native artists, business & political groups are either ignorant about what the Olympics are really about, or just plain greedy. It should be remembered that the band councils were imposed by the government as a means to control & assimilate Native peoples. They lack popular support and only exist because of government funding.

My guess is greed. These people don't really give a dam about their brothers and sisters as long as their pockets are lined.

Also the Indians didn't create this counsel....the government did.

[1bad65]

You were offended by people pretending to be Indians? Did you REAAAALLLLLY just say that?

They were natives, by the way. I guess if you think Ward Churchill is a native, then that speaks volumes about your ability to identify the real thing.

It's just so funny to watch him continue to embarrass himself.

Were these guys in Vancouver wearing Billy Jack attire, getting spray-on tans, and running around barefoot like the fake Indian from Colorado? ;)

[1bad65]

My guess is greed. These people don't really give a dam about their brothers and sisters as long as their pockets are lined.

Sounds kinda familiar, huh? :D

Were the guys in Vancouver stealing real Indian art and claiming it was their own like the fake Indian from Colorado did?

[BoulderDawg]

To my brothers and sister in Vancouver check out the anti-military rally planned for tonight.


February 15th, 2010
DO YOU BELIEVE IN TORTURE, WAR, AND OCCUPATION? THEFT OF INDIGENOUS LAND? THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT DOES!

Come out and be part of an anti-war and anti-militarization moving spectacle. This event is a festive and creative demand for the Canadian government to respect and uphold human-rights, international law, the right to self-determination and civil rights. This event will also feature Gold Medal Award ceremonies for human rights violations, war mongering, and police brutality.

Meeting Point: Vancouver Art Gallery, Georgia side.

When: Monday February 15th, 2010
Gathering at 6:00pm and leaving at 6:30pm

Wish I could be there!

[BoulderDawg]

Just read an article where they say everything seems to be going wrong at these olympics........may that continue!

Seems like there may be a little cosmic justice in this world after all.

[solo1]

BD you consistantly provide antagonism, its your forte'. i get it. But do you have anything to say besides conspricy theories, your seething hatred for your country and blind support of Obama and his destructive policies? Your support of this pack of weirdos protesting at the Olympics, arent the Games supposed to represent all of us coming together? something the left should love. Even in the grecian era all parties agreed to put down their arms to participate in athletic events it was understood that you really defeat a man in athletic games rather then killing him. a very noble ideal. Isnt this the type of thing lefties and thier kumbaya singing be all for? then why support anarchist lunatics?

[BoulderDawg]

The ideal and spirit of the Olympic games are a far cry to what it has become.

Billions are being spent by Vancouver to host the games while homeless people go hungry. Games are being held on indigeous lands stolen from the rightful owners.

Also, as far as I know, not one participate has spoken out about these problems. Someone has to.

Wouldn't it be nice if this Olympics had heros like Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

[Drake]

The ideal and spirit of the Olympic games are a far cry to what it has become.

Billions are being spent by Vancouver to host the games while homeless people go hungry. Games are being held on indigeous lands stolen from the rightful owners.

Also, as far as I know, not one participate has spoken out about these problems. Someone has to.

Wouldn't it be nice if this Olympics had heros like Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

The native people who welcomed them to Vancouver? Yes, they looked very upset. Why, even their own native news was commending their performance. You tend to follow fake natives anyway, so you aren't exactly credible here.

As for the homeless... think for a single second. The money spent in Vancouver pales in comparison to the dollars brought in for local businesses, and probably gave one or more of those homeless people a job due to the massive influx of people. But you don't understand a single thing about the free market, so I'm not expecting you to understand this.

You can mail this one out too. Coward.

[1bad65]

The native people who welcomed them to Vancouver? Yes, they looked very upset. Why, even their own native news was commending their performance. You tend to follow fake natives anyway, so you aren't exactly credible here.

As for the homeless... think for a single second. The money spent in Vancouver pales in comparison to the dollars brought in for local businesses, and probably gave one or more of those homeless people a job due to the massive influx of people. But you don't understand a single thing about the free market, so I'm not expecting you to understand this.

Well put.

People tend to forget that when bussinesses do well, they expand and thus hire more workers. It's common sense, but sadly some people lack it.

[David Jamieson]

BD, you should just stick with "I wish I was there" instead of attempting any sort of observational commenting in regards to the OC.
It's clear you are garnering information in regards to Natives in BC from some skewed source.

All participants were members of various tribal groups as well as metis peoples from the prairies.

there were no" hollywood indians" there at all. :p

Instead of wishing, maybe you should come! Then you could learn a couple of things about or first nations peoples and what they do and don't do etc etc.

[kfson]

Vancouver is larger than I thought!
Isn't there a large Chinese population, a majority from Hong Kong?

http://polisnyc.files.wordpress.com/2006/09/vancouver.jpg

[BoulderDawg]

BD, you should just stick with "I wish I was there" instead of attempting any sort of observational commenting in regards to the OC.
It's clear you are garnering information in regards to Natives in BC from some skewed source.

All participants were members of various tribal groups as well as metis peoples from the prairies.

there were no" hollywood indians" there at all. :p

Instead of wishing, maybe you should come! Then you could learn a couple of things about or first nations peoples and what they do and don't do etc etc.

Since I've read dozens of books on the matter and actually know members of the various tribes I think I'm qualified to give an opinion.

Tell me how you came about your knowledge of the various indigeous people in BC?

I don't know what you mean by Hollywood indians but if you mean indians who paints there faces, puts on some colorful costume then dance for white people then you must have missed the opening ceremonies.:D

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/287572

[1bad65]

Maybe by Hollywood Indians he means someone who has a spray-on tan, runs around barefoot, and wears Billy Jack attire.

[BoulderDawg]

Worst sport in the world has to be men's figure skating.

If I want to see men dressed like that I'll go down to the local gay bar.

[BoulderDawg]

I'm sorry but the guy with roses on his head was just waaaaaay too much!:eek:

[Drake]

I don't care how they're dressed. They're in extremely good shape, and are tremendously talented. So, sure, make fun of them for being feminine, or, heaven forbid, possibly ****SEXUAL. They are still amazing athletes and are representing the absolute best of their field. You wouldn't understand. You know, about earning your way, trying hard to be the best, training every day with focus and furor. You really wouldn't understand.

Oh, and I guarantee the gold winner tonight would wipe the floor with any ignorant bar thugs. He's fast, stong, and in complete control of every muscle in his body. Yeah... have fun mocking that.

[BoulderDawg]

http://www.no2010.com/node/1360

Good article here.....


Canada Can't Conceal Conditions for Native Peoples
February 21, 2010 - 06:07 — no2010
Canada's Aboriginal Show and Tell
Olympics Can't Mask Country's Human Rights Record on Indigenous Peoples
By MARTIN LUKACS, February 17, 2010
http://www.counterpunch.org/luckas02172010.html

The opening ceremonies at the Vancouver Winter Olympiad were flush with aboriginal motifs: hundreds of costumed Indigenous dancers, giant illuminated totem poles, and the broad smiles of representatives from the "Four Host First Nations." It was a perfectly choreographed display of Canada's multicultural grace for an international audience. Ever-sensitive about their reputation as a land of the fair-minded, Canada's Olympic planners have gone to lengths to showcase the nation's respect for aboriginals. They made an Inuit design the official logo. They ran the torch-relay through scores of reservations. And they bought the support and participation of local First Nations with a few million in bonds, business ventures and gleaming buildings. An absolute bargain, if this aboriginal gilding can blind Canadians and the world to the country's secret shame: the true state of its Indigenous peoples.

The evidence is hard to dispute. Roads into most Indigenous reservations, some close to the celebrated Olympic slopes, are dirt. Nearly a hundred communities are on boil alerts, their tap-water undrinkable — this in the country with the world's most fresh water. There is no government strategy to deal with the toxic mold that creeps up walls of cheaply constructed houses; even by the government's own estimates, half require renovation. Aboriginals comprise 4 per cent of the Canadian population, and 20 per cent of the inmates of the country's prisons. One of the acknowledged suicide capitals of the world? A small reservation in northern Ontario, where a group of girls once signed a collective suicide pact. And as I write, I am recovering from a debilitating case of the mumps, a viral souvenir from a recent visit to a Quebec community seized by an outbreak. The mumps have been practically eradicated in developed countries. Not so in the third-world pockets that exist throughout Canada.

Canada's Minister of Indian Affairs Chuck Strahl regularly trumpets the amounts supposedly lavished on aboriginals. The myth that native peoples leech off the state serves to disguise the real scandal: that most money pays for a vast government bureaucracy which only perpetuates native's dependency and poverty. Billions have indeed been spent — not on paving roads or developing infrastructure and health-care in dilapidated and diseased communities, but on a legal war opposing aboriginal rights. In one case alone that ended in 2009, federal departments poured upwards of $100 million into a court battle against the Samson and Ermineskin Cree, who were struggling to recover oil and gas royalties mismanaged by the government.

I have it from an Indigenous friend that Canadian officials chuckle about their public relations campaigns in the halls of international diplomacy. In British Columbia, where most territory is legally unsurrendered, the government forces First Nations to sign away ninety-five percent of their lands as a precondition for discussions. Such agreements were once called land rights "extinguishment." Officials now coyly advertise it as "non-assertion." But aboriginals promising to not claim or "assert" land rights amounts to their being stripped of them. It was to defend such dismal policies that Canada joined Australia, the U.S., and New Zealand in opposing the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Australia has since reversed its vote, and the U.S. and New Zealand are reconsidering. Only Canada stands stubbornly by its position.

The government has reigned in any Indigenous communities that dared act in the spirit of the UN Declaration. Since 2008 the leaders of three — Big Trout Lake, Ardoch, and Barriere Lake — have been imprisoned for several months. Their crimes? Peacefully protesting clear-cut logging and mining that would have ravaged their lands. The government's sermonizing about such wild criminality is a cover for an undeclared agenda: one land grab after another, to satisfy Canadian companies and multinationals pining for the riches on Indigenous lands.

"The Olympic embrace of aboriginals is a cruel deception," says Indigenous activist Arthur Manuel, who marched the last few days in Vancouver under the "No Olympics on Stolen Native land" banner. "Canada wants us impoverished to justify seizing our lands. They can hint, how could Indigenous peoples possibly control their territories, when they are so uneducated and poor?"

The government feigns ignorance about the steps to eliminate such bleak conditions, but there have been no lack of commissions and inquests and scholarly reports. The exhaustive 5-volume Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in 1996 advocated major land restitution, aboriginal self-government on the level of the provinces and federal state, and swift compensation for many unfulfilled treaties. It has gathered dust on a bureaucrat's shelf. Instead the government promotes Indigenous voices who tell them what they'd prefer to hear. At industry conferences and in the media their message is praised: that natives need only pull themselves up by their bootstraps, like their entrepreneurial peers hawking traditional wares at the 21st Winter Olympiad.

The Olympic games may bring Canada the world's uncritical attention and adulation. It will last barely three weeks. The plight of Indigenous peoples will persist for those who care to look, as a blemish on Canada's enlightened and proud self-conception. Real self-respect will come when Canadians acknowledge Indigenous peoples' contributions to the country, recognize their land rights and give them a fair share of the resources of this abundant land. Not some business deals and a supporting role as cultural props during a short-lived sports party in the British Columbia mountains. But genuine justice. Only then will this society deserve the respect it seeks by other means.

Martin Lukacs is a writer and activist in Montreal, Canada, involved with defendersoftheland.org. He can be reached at: martonlukacs@gmail.com

[Drake]

Like Ward Churchill, they usually never bother to ask the natives themselves how they feel. It's a disgusting form of profiteering. That would be like me marching on how I feel the inner city kids aren't given a fair shake, despite the numerous successes coming out of inner cities by kids who simply gave a crap and got themselves out of there.

What's the official Native stance on the Olympics, BD? I don't care what non-natives think.

[Drake]

Funny how the Natives themselves seem to differ with the "White Guilt" mongering that goes on. Here's their website:

http://www.aptn.ca/

Not only do they have Olympics coverage, they also are asking for aid for Haiti.

[BoulderDawg]

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Aboriginal-leaders-Russian-ice-dancers-routine?urn=oly,221290


This year, the theme for the ice dancing original dance was folk dancing. The dance was supposed to represent the "flavor" of one country or another.

Some skating pairs, like Israelis Roman and Alexandra Zaretsky and Georgians Allison Reed and Otar Japaridze, chose folk dances that represented their own country. Others chose to honor other cultures. Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir did a flamenco, Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White did an Indian dance while Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin did an Aboriginal dance.

More accurately, they did a dance that was more likely their interpretation of how Aborigines danced. Though they claimed to have done research on Aboriginal dances, leaders in Australia found it to be offensive. Watching the dance last night, one can understand why.

At times, Shabalin led Domnina around by her ponytail. They mugged, stuck out their tongues and mimicked the hand over mouth gesture that was once associated with American Indians. (See it here and judge for yourself.) After the dance ended, the crowd gave the Russians what could generously be called a lukewarm reception.

After seeing the dance last night, an Aboriginal dancer wrote:

The dance is certainly unlike anything I've seen and other than a few complex lifts, the performance didn't really entertain me. It looked wrong on so many levels ... When creating a dance or theatre work, even as contemporary indigenous dancers, it is a part of our practice to follow cultural protocols and consult with traditional elders who understand the meaning behind the movement. It is respect for our traditional cultural laws, language groups and elders, for this information to be passed on correctly.

An Aboriginal leader continued:

"I am offended by the performance and so are our other councillors," Bev Manton, the chairwoman of the NSW Land Council said.

"Aboriginal people for very good reason are sensitive about their cultural objects and icons being co-opted by non-Aboriginal people - whether they are from Australia or Russia.

"It's important for people to tread carefully and respectfully when they are depicting somebody else's culture and I don't think this performance does."

Watching this dance was like watching an old movie, like seeing Mickey Rooney's offensive portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi in "Breakfast with Tiffany's, or seeing a period show like "Mad Men," where one of the main characters dressed in black face. The dance was anachronistic. Considering that the pair slipped from first to third, it was not a winning routine, either.

hmmmm......... Seems to me that the people who are doing the most complaining here are those indians who came out for the opening ceremony and danced a gig for everyone.

It's been showed, such as in the opening ceremonies, that you can disrespect a culture and not only get away with it but be praised for it, then of course, people are going to feel it's okay to get out on the ice dressed like Adam and Eve and makes fools of themselves.

Just in my opinion this is just another smokescreen to divert attention from the real problem in Vancouver.

[GeneChing]

Like I said on the 2012 thread (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54699), the winter games don't hold as much appeal for me because there's no real martial events beyond biathalon, but I still enjoy the spectacle.

After Skating, a Unique Olympic Event: Crying (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/sports/olympics/22kiss.html)
By JULIET MACUR
Published: February 21, 2010

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — For sheer spectacle, the Olympics offer the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony and dozens of medal ceremonies in between. For sheer awkwardness, they offer the kiss-and-cry area.

After performing, figure skaters retreat with their coaches to a spot just off the rink to wait for their scores, sometimes for several minutes. With cameras in their faces and microphones picking up every sound, a scene unfolds unlike any other in sports, often filled with anxiety, tears or exultation — or all three.

The raw emotion of the kiss-and-cry scene has become so compelling that it commands a level of stagecraft rarely seen off the field of play. Last week, viewers had a front seat for Evan Lysacek’s sob session after the men’s short program, in which he skated cleanly to set up his gold medal performance two days later.

“I kept wanting to say, ‘Stop it, just stop it,’ ” his coach, Frank Carroll, said. “I’m very stoic in a way, very disciplined, and I think, when the ski jumpers, when they win, they don’t start to cry. Let’s put it this way: I don’t like figure skaters to cry.”

But, in case one does, broadcasters like NBC, which will cover the ice dancing free skate Monday and the women’s final Thursday at the Winter Games, are happy to capture the moment. No doubt it has played a role in figure skating’s status as a ratings powerhouse for the Olympics.

“For the skaters, it could be a few minutes of torture,” said David Michaels, a senior producer for NBC’s Olympics coverage and the network’s director for figure skating. “It’s good for us.

“It’s such a big part of our coverage now. It’s gone from a blue curtain and a bucket of flowers on the side to plastic ice sculptures and crazy sets. It’s become a big design element that everyone works hard to figure out.”

Michaels said that the event organizers were in charge of designing the kiss-and-cry area, but that NBC reviewed those plans. The network often adjusts the lighting to make it look more realistic and less like a TV set, he said, adding that one of NBC’s cameras is attached to a small crane that swoops into the kiss-and-cry from above.

When the Olympics were first televised worldwide in the 1960s, the set was much simpler, with no formal place for skaters to wait for their scores. A reporter and a camera operator would often catch them as they stepped off the ice.

At the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y., the off-ice area was spruced up with foliage, producers said. By the 1984 Sarajevo Games, a formal area with a bench appeared. The 1988 Calgary Games unveiled a major set, with a designed backdrop and lights.

Though different producers have different recollections of the way the kiss-and-cry area got its name, the gist of it is that someone at a network said: ‘This is the place where the skaters kiss, this is the place where skaters cry. It’s the kiss-and-cry!” By the early ’90s, the name had stuck, said Doug Wilson, the longtime producer and director at ABC who orchestrated that network’s figure skating coverage for more than 40 years.

The opportunity to turn figure skating into theater was there for the taking, Wilson said.

“The value of the kiss-and-cry is basic: find out what the marks are,” he said. “But the real value is that you see these people with their guards down. It’s a very special time. Most people don’t think about it, but if you add up the total amount of airtime that the kiss-and-cry gets relative to the skating, it’s a large percentage.”

Clutching stuffed toys thrown to them from fans, some skaters look stunned. Some are deliriously happy, or at least pretend to be, as they wave awkwardly into the camera or say hello to people at home. Some use secret gestures to convey messages to friends and relatives. Others have learned to quietly grumble through clenched teeth, so they seem to be smiling.

Some talk to themselves. At the 1993 world championships in Prague, Nancy Kerrigan of the United States let her emotions loose after a poor free skate, saying she could not believe what happened — in a dozen different ways. She ended her soliloquy, “I want to die.”

At times, the situation becomes so tense that the coaches and athletes appear to be on a blind date gone bad. The performance does not end when the skater leaves the ice.

Carroll, 71, who has coached at 10 Olympics, said he tries to refrain from speaking to his skaters because microphones are everywhere.

“My friends at home say I’ve got to smile more, but what am I supposed to say? Oh, wonderful, she just lost her national championship. Great,” he said. “You want to talk about what is good and bad, but you end up saying things that have no meaning.”

Some national skating federations put their skaters through training for the kiss-and-cry. Mark Ladwig, who skates with Amanda Evora in pairs, said he had attended a U.S. Figure Skating training program in which skaters participated in a mock kiss-and-cry.

“The videos showed people fidgeting, playing with their mouth, and showed which girls were sitting here like this, very unladylike,” Ladwig said as he parted his knees. “For Amanda and I, we make sure that everything is crossed and that we look like proud Team USA members. We’re a very technical sport, but we’re a sport of aesthetics, too.”

Ladwig and other skaters say they are never told what to say — or what not to say — in the kiss-and-cry but are reminded that every moment is being watched. Perhaps no one knows that more than Jeremy Abbott, a two-time United States champion.

At the 2008 national championships, he saw his score and cursed. After his performance at nationals the next year, he proceeded to make shooting gestures, into the camera and into his head. Then he screamed, “I love kung fu!” because he had been inspired by the movie “Kung Fu Panda.”

“I was just being a cheesy guy, not trying to be disrespectful or anything,” Abbott said. “U.S. Figure Skating told me that they got complaints, so I had to tone it down.”

**** Button, a two-time Olympic champion and longtime skating commentator, said the kiss-and-cry was made for unscripted moments like those.

“It’s television, honey, come on,” Button said. “It’s what makes television.”

[BoulderDawg]

As far as the athletes themselves go most are fairly self centered and really could care less about anything other than winning their metal....the one group that I like that are a little different are the snow boarders.

These are the guys that always seem to be getting in trouble!:D Scott Lego was kicked out of Canada for wearing his medal in a bar and having a girl nibble on it. Hannah Teter actually gave her underwear to be sold for charity. Kazuhiro Kokubo got in trouble for not dressing correctly.........

Yet these are the athletes that are the most socially conscience of them all. Most are involved in liberal charities and causes and are all around really great guys and girls. Not to mention that the snowboarding girls are the hottest there!:p

[BoulderDawg]

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Lindsey-Vonn-will-appear-on-Jay-Leno-s-first-To?urn=oly,221566

Well looks like Lindsay Vonn's future is pretty well set. She'll milk this for about 5-6 years, make about 40-50 million and then disappear only to come out for the Olympics.

I bet Picabo Street is thinking "If only I had a tighter ass":D

[GeneChing]

Everything goes too late and they are spending more time talking about what's happened and what's coming up than actually covering what's happening. It's ****ing me off.

Nevertheless, I've been enjoying Ski Cross this year. That's an awesome event.

[BoulderDawg]

I like that because of the endurance nature. When those guys cross the finish line they simply collaspe!

[SnowDog]

BD,

I think you're confusing the Ski-Cross w/ the X-country ski event. The Ski-cross is where the 4 skiers go on the SSX course (with the jumps and turns) at the same time. Like the Snowboard Cross.

They go down pretty quick so it's not that much of an endurance event.

But, I must say I do love watching both the Ski and Snowboard cross.......Good Times!!!!

[BoulderDawg]

dam, there are so many of those sports it's hard to keep track.

I'll be dammed if I'm going to watch some chick throw a rock across a hockey rink and then someone else start chasing it with a broom!:D

[SnowDog]

LOL!!!!

I hear you.......I'm still not sure how that became an Olympic sport.

[BoulderDawg]

Well it looks like there is high anxiety at the Olympics! Seems the feather boas, eye makeup and sequins are flying!

The mens' figure skaters appear to be having a cat fight over who won!:D

[BoulderDawg]

I think I have a new favorite Olympian!

Check her out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsLHbak79P8

Hannah Teter! A beautiful girl that cares.....what a rarity!

[GeneChing]

Curling is actually one of my fav winter Olympic sports.

NBC's west coast coverage still sux. Last night, it was some prelims for the women's skating, then a whole mess of early bobsled runs, then I fell asleep. The finals are running too late (and we already know the results if we check the web or see the news).

[SnowDog]

Didn't mean to trash your sport Gene ....... But it is kind of like a giant shuffle board game to me. ;)

I guess being a skier/ snowboarder myself not much else interests me in the Winter games.