Between Asgard and the Western Paradise

As the old Tin Pan Alley song goes, “it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out…at the old ball game,” but it’s not striking out that nine-year old Jericho Scott, of New Haven, Connecticut is worried about.  Despite being one of the best pitchers in his league, he’s been banned from the game.  As if that weren’t enough, officials from the Youth Baseball League of New Haven has disbanded Scott’s team, and re-distributed the players among the other squads.

The reason: Jericho Scott is too good at pitching, with a fastball that tops about 40 miles per hour (64 kph).  Even though this is an average pitch for baseball players of that age group [1], the league claims that the hitters from the other teams just can’t keep up, and some people feel that it’s unfair.  In this case, that person happens to be one of the league’s administrators.  Jericho’s coach pointed out that Jericho had reportedly snubbed an invitation to join the defending league champion, which is sponsored by an employer of the said administrator.  Jericho’s own team was 8-0 and on its way to the playoffs when Jericho was banned from pitching.  Note that no effort was made to put Jericho into a higher league.

The league says that there are many beginners in the league, and that fast pitches may frighten or damage the self-esteem of other players.  Peter Noble, the league attorney said that “main purpose [of the league] is to promote sport.  Those two statements taken in conjunction, though are pure nonsense.  In sport, there are winners and losers, there is difference in ability, and competition gives people the ability to gauge progress.  However, people have allowed political correctness to interfere with a proper competition.  One might recall the Kurt Vonnegut short story Harrison Bergeron, in which excellence was banned by law.  This incident is fairly reminicent of that story.

Maybe the NBA needs to make jumping too high a foul.  Or, perhaps the FA in England should start giving Peter Crouch red cards for being too tall and kicking the ball too hard, so they can keep up with the Americans.  Or, more preferably, the Youth Baseball League of New Haven can allow Jericho to play ball again.

If the Olympics were in Israel — and note that I do say if, for obvious reasons, how would the media react?  Since Israel is considered an important strategic ally of the United States, I would not hesitate to say that the representation of different events would be much more positive.  Below, I’ve given a few examples, intended as satire and for entertainment purposes only, to illustrate how the a portion of the media might portray some of the so-called scandals thus far.

China: “Chinese government officials went through desperate measures and deliberately altered and falsefied the video of the fireworks in the opening ceremonies, misleading millions of unaware viewers across the world.”

Israel: “Israel’s computer engineers, graphic designers, and other artistic technicians were able to use advanced technology to re-create the impressive fireworks display during the Opening Ceremonies, thus allowing the world to partake in enjoying another aspect of Israeli creative ingenuity in the field of CGI technology. Dedicated experts used advanced CGI techniques to re-enhance the original footage, for a spectacular end product.”

China: “Communist Chinese officials stripped a young girl of the opportunity to sing, while forcing another to lip-sync to enhance the government’s reputation.”

Israel: “Israeli organizers decided to allow a more creative and artistic interpretation of last night’s singing of ‘Hava Nagila’. In a last minute decision, a compromise was reached by the Olympic Organizing Committee, which allowed Deborah Goldstein to stand in for the voice of Ilana Silverberg. Many news agencies around the world are praising this change, as it allowed both girls to be recognized for their immense talent.”

China: “Children were forced to dress in native minority costumes to legitimize China’s brutal repression in Tibet”

Israel: “Israel made further steps toward promoting world peace by featuring Orthodox Christians and Muslims in their opening performance. Actor Henry Rosenthal, who portrayed a Palestinian said, ‘This is a great opportunity to tell the world that there are no human rights problems in Israel.’ Commentators noted that authentic Orthodox Christians and Muslims could not be secured for the performance due to concerns over terrorism.

China: “Stands were filled with fake spectators because of the effectiveness of human rights activists to boycott the Games”

Israel: “The Bureau of Sports and Recreation, which helped the Israeli Government organize the Olympic Games, generously donated thousands of tickets to local Israeli Jews, including the children of Holocaust survivors, to allow them to come and glimpse a portion of one of the world’s greatest sporting events. Original ticket holders, unfortunately, could not attend because of the threat of Islamic terrorism, which the Israeli government is attempting to deal with.”

China: “China brutally cracked down on pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen square just hours before the Olympic Games, and threw out native Chinese activists in an effort to suppress dissent.”

Israel: “Israeli security forces peacefully removed potential terrorists waving Palestinian flags from the Olympic Complex. Also, because of security concerns, some anti-Israeli reactionary elements, including the so-called “Palestinians” were evacuated and strategically re-deployed to England and the United States for the duration of the games.  This move was made for their own safety.  Free speech will still be allowed, in designated “Public security zones” during the games, however, as long as it conforms with Israeli Law.

China: “Chinese government officials forged passports and issued them to underage children to illicitly gain more gold medals in the Olympic Games”

Israel: “Israel’s top sporting agency, in conjunction with the Israeli government, recently provided clear, updated, and unmistakable evidence that their gymnasts are not underaged.  Uriel Pollack, a representative of the sporting agency in Israel urged viewers of the Olympics that this was not an issue.  Abraham Foxman has also supported the Israel gymnasts, saying that further questioning of the Israeli competitor’s ages would constitute anti-semitism.”

Recently, those in the English-speaking world, particularly America, have been hearing about the supposed “aggression” of the Russians against the Ossetians in the Republic of Georgia.  In the opening hours of the Olympic Games, the controlled American media took no time to denounce both Russian P.M. Vladimir Putin and President Dimitriy Medvedev, saying that the Russian Federation has reverted to “Stalinist” tactics.

Ethnic conflict in the region goes back to the days of the Soviet Union, where the ad-hoc Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was created in 1918.  Despite the existence of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast, an enclave of ethnic Ossetians within the GSSR, tensions continued to rise.  South Ossetians increasingly felt sympathetic with their counterparts in North Ossetia, but the South Ossetians were not able to secede from Georgia after Georgia gained independence.  In November of 2006, South Ossetians voted in a referendum regarding the region’s independence from the Republic of Georgia.  An overwhelming majority of the region’s 70,000 people voted in favor of independence.  Many Ossetians took Russian citizenship as Georgia refused to recognize the referendum.

The American media, however, conveniently omits historical data.  Perhaps even more shocking, they also omitted stories of Georgian troops who destroyed Tskhinvali, a city of 100,000, killing over 2,000 Russian citizens.  In general, the American media has been overwhelmingly and unquestioningly pro-Georgian, not even questioning the Georgian government’s censorship of “pro-Russian” sources.  At a time when the same media coverage criticizes China over lack of media transparency, they hypocritcally defend Georgian media censorship.  When Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006 severely damageing Lebanese civil infrastructure, and displacing approximately one million Lebanese, the media cited this as an internal affair of Israel, and claimed the act was in self-defense, and perhaps rightly so, as the Lebanese were said to have fired the first shots.  When comparing these two incidents, the hypocrisy comes through even with the media’s attempts to portray the Georgians as the victims.

The media was very sympathetic to the secessionists in the Serbian region of Kosovo, and currently displays deep affections for the Tibetan secessionist movement in China.  While this is a legitimate concern, one can easily apply the same logic to the case of Ossetia and their sympathies for Russia.  But, Ossetia, a tiny region in the Caucasus, virtually unknown in the English-speaking world until very recently, does not have the same appeal as does Kosovo or Tibet.  People may remember that the left-wing Clinton regime, in their loathing of Serbia, not only bombed the country, but devoted much airtime to vilify Slobodan Milošević.  That hate and false sense of sympathy towards Kosovo lingered until the time when the US recognized Kosovo’s independence.  Meanwhile, Tibet, as I alluded to before, is predominantly a non-Christian nation with “dark-skinned indegenous people” fighting a “light-skinned” super power.  The Ossetians have none of this.

However, the main interest for the media and American government more than likely likes in Russia’s business partnership with Iran, which Israel sees as a threat.

If the truth could be told, Russia deployed troops into South Ossetia, an autonomous territory populated with Russians.  It is the Georgians who have gone on the offensive against Russia, and Russia which is protecting their own citizens, as an eyewitness interviewed on American news reported (before being cut off by the host).  This is not a conflict between Georgia and Russia, but rather between Ossetians and Georgians.  The Georgians are not victims, nor are the Russians the aggressors.

This entry used information from: A Free Press? Not This Time

The Games of the XXIX Olympiad opened in Beijing yesterday.  The ceremonies were attended by over eighty dignitaries and royalty from around the world, including George W. Bush, Kevin Rudd, and King Juan Carlos of Spain. Over 11,000 competitors are to compete in over 200 events.  The Opening Ceremony, directed by Zhang Yimou, consisted of cultural performances as well as the traditional raising of the Olympic Flag and lighting of the Olympic Flame.  Performers included Liu Huan, Sarah Brightman, and pianist Lang Lang.  Neighboring Nepal gave the Opening ceremonies a good review, according to an Indian newspaper, The Hindu.  The Nepali official newspaper The Rising Nepal in an editorial Sunday hailed the success of the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, calling it a “big triumph” not only for China but also for its friendly neighbors.  The Vancouver Sun stated, ” China produced a show that blended modern technology and ancient arts to dazzle, intrigue, delight and astound” [1]. 

 Despite the threats of protests and a boycott, the Olympic stadium, dubbed the ‘Bird’s Nest’ for its unique appearance, was filled to capacity.

With the recent attacks on the Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, liberal fundamentalists have yet again used other people’s personal tradgedies in order to perpetrate their political agendas and launch new attacks on the more traditionalist worldviews of some Americans.  Some groups have used this incident to call for stricter gun control, and others have suggested that Jim Adkisson, 58, a former United States veteran, be charged as a terrorist.  Such people claim, that since he held a contempt for liberal ideologies, and acted on those impulses, that the crime was out of the ordinary, and thus worthy of being labeled a terrorist attack.

The mislabeling of this event as terrorism is based on on the idea that terrorism consists of simply using violence or intimidation against the government or civilian population in order to make a poltical statement.  The act of carrying a gun and shooting people is considered to be violent by American law, and it is clear that he had his own political beliefs.  However, this in itself is a very broad definition.  For example, “intimidation” could possibly be extended in the future to include mere verbal assault against someone with differing political beliefs.  This definition might also be applied to the mobs, who during the Olympic Torch relay in Paris, assaulted the wheelchair-bound athelete in an effort to “intimidate” the world community into cancelling the Olympic Games.  Of course, this latter incident is conveniently glossed over by such liberal fundamentalists.  By extending the definition to include anything, the liberal fundamentalists are seeking to label any action perpetrated by those they do not agree with as a terrorist action.

This incident neither should be viewed as a instance of religious victimization.  Unitarian Universalism is a cult, comparable to the Baha’i cult, which has already been discussed in a previous entry.  The specifics of Unitarian Universlalism will be discussed in another entry.