Monday, February 24, 2014

The No Fun League ...

... (as the National Football League is known over here) and its Commissioner, have decided that in pursuit of a better image players will now be penalised for racial and homophobic slurs in the game. Now given that a large number of players are black, and within the culture "nigga" (or variations of) are regularly used as a term of endearment (and disrespect) and in music, how the hell is a referee/umpire to decide. Obviously if a non-black player uses the term it can only be disrespectful.
Now as laudable as this move is, it only directed at the players and coaches - how about the team owners?   The team in the nation's capital has a nickname that is arguably the oldest racial slur in the US and the 2015 Super Bowl is due to be played in Arizona where the Governor has a bill before her that makes it legal for businesses to deny service to the LGBT community!!
Oh, wait a minute, the Commissioner is appointed by the owners - and just to add insult to injury the NFL is a "tax-exempt" body!! 

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Same as it ever was!

The Ice Hockey scores have been shown in lights on the roof of the Bolshoi Ice Dome - and then the Federation lost and the score wasn't shown - such good sports Mr. Putin.

A transgender "woman" (born male, dresses as a woman), dressed in a "rainbow" clothing walked among the visitors in the Olympic park and tried to enter the ice hockey arena with a valid ticket - "she" was arrested and "she's" a foreign national (an ex-member of the Italian parliament).
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/sports/olympics/transgender-former-member-of-italian-parliament-detained-in-sochi.html

After all the fanfare of pre-Olympic amnesty and the release of members of the group Pussy Riot (what a great name!) they were arrested today (18th.) on the trumped up charge of stealing a woman's handbag.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/feb/18/pussy-riot-members-arrested-sochi-winter-olympics