Looking Back at the 2004 Olympics

For the time being since the Universal Tattletale sight is no longer available I thought I'd post a few of the things that were posted on the Olympics by myself in 2004.


Terrorism and the Olympic Games

Terrorism and the Olympic Games. Sadly the two have become a pair, one seldom seen without the other. The Munich Olympics, the Atlanta Bomber and of course all those incidents which could have been terrorist acts, but we will never know the truth about them. Thomas Homer Dixon in his article The Rise of Complex Terrorism discusses how the rise of advanced Western nations has amplified the destructive power of terrorists and the psychological/ financial damage they can inflict.

August 24, 2004

A few days ago two airliners went down in Buchalki, Russia. Already these incidents have basically been recognized as terrorism although the presses immediate reaction was to deny them as terrorist acts.. The timing of two planes and a total of 89 people made this one a little harder to sweep under the rug.

July 17, 1996

Another plane went down in New York on July 17, 1996. This crash to was riddled with rumors of a conspiracy to cover up the evidence. Jack Cashill Article: “ Silenced: Flight 800 and The Subversion of Justice describes the eyewitnesses and accounts which were so conveniently overlooked to support the ruptured fuel tank theory. In fact more than one eyewitness would be silenced for there candor. (see article)Was a missile fired to prevent a disaster of even larger magnitude? Since September 11, 2001 we could now expect this type of response.

Other Possible Terrorist Acts

April 3, 1996

The air force plane a T-43, a military version of the Boeing 737, carrying Ron Brown and many from his Department of Commerce staff, CEO’s from 12 different companies and the flight crew crashed killing all aboard. Brown’s mission was to visit Bosnia and Croatia with US executives hoping to get contracts in the rebuilding of the war-ravaged former Yugoslav republics. The investigation and media reported that this crash was due to inclement weather. This evidence and statement is controversial in itself according to the article “Ron Brown May Be Victim of Foul Play”

November 12, 2001

American Airlines jet crashes into Queens on November 12, 2001. Device size of a shoe bomb used to blow off wing. Claim made the Farouk the Tunisian or Abderraouf Jdey was responsible. US Transportation Safety Board says there is no evidence that there was any kind of event in the cabin of the plane at the time of the event. See article

These are a few well acknowledged events, but there is certainly many more.

Deferentially, but very insistently, the media, government and intelligence departments make their preferred assumptions about events the accepted norm. Evidence in so many conspiracy laden events is scrambled, abused and denied to prevent the outcomes from having the intended results the culprits would want the American public to see and believe.

Therefore, it is plausible to question and seek out the logical truth even though those in power and position may deny the relevance of normally accepted truthful information.

Lighter Side

(Letterman’s Top Ten Olympics)

Top Ten Signs Athens Isn't Ready For The Olympics

10. Organizers lobbying for new event: Yelling at contractor to hurry the hell up

9. Committee still hasn't selected really gay theme for opening ceremonies

8. Makeshift Olympic symbol made of five interlocking poppy seed bagels

7. Yesterday, Athens' mayor said, "Wait, we're hosting the Olympics?"

6. Thanks to mailroom blunder, all the steroids were shipped to Crete

5. Builders brought only one hammer and a box of wood screws

4. Olympic visitors center to be ready in early 2006

3. The athletes have to share a gyro

2. All the "Greece" signs have a photo of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John

1. "Olympic Stadium" just a bunch of lawn chairs in an Applebee's parking lot.

2004 Olympic Statistics Medals Per Person by Country

					2003 Population	Medals Per 10 million people	Ranking

United States	35	39	29	103	290,342,554	2.818	31
Russia	27	27	38	92	144,526,278	6.365	19
China	32	17	14	63	1,286,975,468	.4890	44
Australia	17	16	16	49	19,731,984	24.832	1
Germany	14	16	18	48	82,398,326	5.825	23
Japan	15	10	12	37	127,214,499	2.908	30
France	11	9	13	33	60,180,529	5.483	25
Italy	10	11	11	32	57,998,353	5.517	24
United Kingdom	9	9	12	30	60,094,648	4.992	26
South Korea	9	12	9	30	48,289,037	6.212	22
Cuba	9	7	11	27	11,263,429	23.972	2
Ukraine	9	5	9	23	48,289,037	4.762	27
Netherlands	4	9	9	22	16,150,511	13.622	10
Romania	8	5	6	19	22,271,839	8.53	16
Spain	3	11	5	19	40,217,413	4.724	28
Hungary	8	6	3	17	10,045,407	16.757	4
Greece	6	6	4	16	10,665,989	15	7
Belarus	2	5	8	15	10,322,151	14.532	9
Canada	3	6	3	12	32,207,113	3.725	29
Bulgaria	2	1	9	12	7,537,929	15.921	5
Poland	3	2	5	10	38,622,660	2.589	32
Brazil	4	3	3	10	182,032,604	.54	43
Turkey	3	3	4	10	68,109,469	1.468	41
Thailand	3	1	4	8	64,265,276	1.244	42
Denmark	2	0	6	8	5,384,384	14.858	8
Kazakhstan	1	4	3	8	16,763,795	7.4	18
Czech Republic	1	3	4	8	10,249,216	7.805	18
Sweden	4	1	2	7	8,878,085	7.884	17
Austria	2	4	1	7	8,188,207	8.549	15
Ethiopia	2	3	2	7	66,557,553	10.51	14
Kenya	1	4	2	7	31,639,091	2.212	34
Norway	5	0	1	6	4,546,123	13.198	11
Iran	2	2	2	6	69,018,924	1.44	39
Slovakia	2	2	2	6	5,430,033	11.05	13
Argentina	2	0	4	6	38,740,807	1.548	37
South Africa	1	3	2	6	42,768,678	1.402	40
New Zealand	3	2	0	5	3,951,307	12.655	12
Taiwan	2	2	1	5	22,603,001	2.212	34
Jamaica	2	1	2	5	2,695,867	18.545	3
Uzbekistan	2	1	2	5	26,410,416	1.893	36
Switzerland	1	1	3	5	7,318,638	6.831	20
Azerbaijan	1	0	4	5	7,830,764	6.384	21
North Korea	0	4	1	5	22,466,481	2.225	33
Georgia	2	2	0	4	4,934,413	8.107
Indonesia	1	1	2	4	234,893,453	.17
Egypt	1	0	3	4	76,117,421	.525
Latvia	0	4	0	4	2,306,306	4.336
Mexico	0	3	1	4	104,959,594	.381
Croatia	0	2	2	5	4,422,248	11.307
Slovenia	0	1	3	4	1,935,677	20.661
Morocco	2	1	0	3	31,689,265	.946
Chile	2	0	1	3	12,576,742	2.385
Lithuania	1	2	0	3	3,592,561	8.349
Zimbabwe	1	1	1	3	12,671,860	2.367
Belgium	1	0	2	3	10,348,276	2.899
Portugal	0	2	1	3	10,524,125	2.85
Estonia	0	1	2	3	1,341,664	22.354
Bahamas	1	0	1	2	299,697	66.889
Israel	1	0	1	2	6,199,008	3.226
Finland	0	2	0	2	5,214,512	3.835
Colombia	0	0	1	1	42,310,775
Nigeria	0	0	2	2	137,253,133
Cameroon	1	0	0	1	16,063,178
Dominican Republic	1	0	0	1	8,833,634
Ireland	1	0	0	1	3,969,558
United Arab Emirates	1	0	0	1	2,523,915
Hong Kong	0	1	0	1	6,855,125
India	0	1	0	1	1,049,700,118
Paraguay	0	1	0	1	6,191,368
Serbia and Montenegro	0	1	0	1	10,655,774
Eritrea	0	0	1	1	4,362,254
Mongolia	0	0	1	1	2,712,315
Syria	0	0	1	1	18,016,874
Trinidad and Tobago	0	0	1	1	1,104,209
Venezuela	0	0	2	2	24,654,694

Sheryl Crow on Today Show

Not much has changed Reprint from 06 Lack of Virtue

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

United States Plagued by Lack of Virtue

The lack of virtue allows politicians and the media to accept and use information they otherwise would question. One of the major difficulties with employment opportunities for many prospective students (young or old) in the United States today is recognizing what to learn which will be regarded enough to provide ample economic opportunity. This is not a new problem but one which has existed for hundreds of years. In H.W. Brands book, “The First American” he quotes Ben Franklin from his book “The Art of Virtue”

Many people lead bad lives that would gladly lead good ones, but know not how to make the change. They frequently resolved and endeavored it; but in vain, because their endeavors have not been properly conducted. To exhort people to be good, to be just, to be temperate &c. without shewing them how they shall become so, seems like the ineffectual charity mentioned by the Apostle, which consisted in saying to the hungry, the cold, and the naked, be ye fed, be ye warmed, be ye clothed, without shewing them how they should get food, fire, or clothing.

Today, politicians including President Bush, economists and reporters have displayed their lack of virtue when understanding trends in the United States. They tend to view education as a means in itself to employment. The rhetoric about all the new jobs relies heavily on people actually understanding how to accomplish these new tasks put before them. It also ignores economic realities that exist for many people who work for much less money. Many of the jobs now provided to illegal immigrants or sent to Mexico require less knowledge, but are still being taken away from Americans who in turn have little to offer that provides adequate income. We raise interest rates when we could raise taxes on the rich which would promote more competition. The rich and powerful must give to promote the cycle of opportunity to others. Virtue must be a part of the repertoire of the powerful and the rich or we continue to take from the have nots to give to the haves. In the words of Franklin:

It is as properly an art as painting, navigation, or architecture. If a man would become a painter, navigator, or architect, it is not enough that he is advised to be one, that he is convinced by the arguments of his advisor that it would be for his advantage to be one, and that he resolves to be one; but he must also be taught the principles of the art, be shewn all the methods of working, and how to acquire the habits of using properly all the instruments. And thus regularly and gradually he arrives by practice at some perfection in the art.

This lack of sharing or virtue is not an intentional consequence of actions of the past administrations, but the result of a continual pattern of abuse of debt instruments, media conglomerates and corporate excesses through lobbyist in congress and greed at the expense of the masses in the United States. Currently the 8 trillion dollar deficit is the elusive creature that allows all this excess to go unnoticed. The new policies adopted for bankruptcy are just a precursor to bigger problems that are arising concerning individual rights. More power to fewer and larger banks who lend money with less risk to people with less freedom and ability to repay the higher interest loans. More drugs, more casinos, more mafia mean more prisons and jails are needed to maintain and protect this new found wealth of the elite bankers, drug lords, politicians and large corporate owners as they continue this ongoing policy of abuse which Franklin described as “LACK OF VIRTUE”

(Please note in 30 months the deficit has risen to close to 10 trillion dollars)

In Memory of Terry Hoeppner

"Don't Quit" -- Hep's Poem

IU football coach Terry Hoeppner passed away June 19, 2007.

Coach "Hep" always displayed a wonderfully optimistic attitude. This attitude is reflected in Hep's favorite poem, "Don't Quit."


Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow --
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out --
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit --
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.
(author unknown)

Poem and Info From RT Blog
ESPN Obituary

Sheryl Crow--Brandi Carlisle--KT Tunstall

This was done by me for a banner contest--rather difficult to understand and quickly done but with unique artistic flavor.

Indianapolis Sheryl Crow Concert Pics / Brandi Carlisle/ KT Tunstall
Category: Music

Link to Pictures From Redwine Lover (Kay) and the Sheryl Fan Forum

Tickets Photo Link
..

The concerts were excellent. The Whitelawns venue and weather cooperated for a great evening of music.

Fortunately, I was able to attend both the Sheryl Crow/ Brandi Carlisle concert and the KT Tunstall concert recently.

Every couple of years there seems to be major disasters all around the world. If you would like to give to help victims in Myramar or China here are a few well known organizations. Below are a few links to go directly to these reviewed home sites of organizations. Please remember to specify the general area where you would like your donation to go.

This is a short list, but these are reputable organizations.

Operation Christmas Child

Donate Now! -- American Red Cross

World Vision www.worldvision.org

Unicef The Giving Gift

Salvation Army www.salvationarmy.org/

United Way www.unitedway.org

Directory of Reviewed Christmas Charities

Backstreet Missions www.backstreet.org

FAME Partnering in Medical Evangelism

Catholic Charities USA

Chinese Proverb: When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one and a lilly with the other.