Dispatches from the City of Angels
I'm a writer and humorist living in and writing about Los Angeles. You can catch my novel LOSING CLEMENTINE out March 6 from William Morrow. In the meantime, feel free to poke around. Over at my website you can find even more blog entries than I could fit here, as well as a few other ramblings. Enjoy and come back often.
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"Taint what a horse looks like, it’s what a horse be." - A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
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2008 Olympics: Just when you thought it couldn't get worse
Dear International Olympic Committee,
You are, undeniably, the dumbest bunch of bastards that have ever sucked air.
Best,
Ashley
p.s. Please send swag.
I love the Olympics. The summer Olympics, in particular. I will spend hours watching tiny people dive off impossibly high platforms. I live to see world-class swimmers do whip lash-inducing flip turns on the underwater camera. And I will watch track and field until my eyeballs fall out of my head. I cannot get enough. But for a moment, even I had to consider whether or not it was ethical to watch any at all.
China.
Fuck.
The fact that Chinese officials are now admitting that they have no plans to allow journalists unfettered access to the internet is so predictable and so petty compared to everything else that's happened, that I - a former journalist myself - can't even manage to get more than moderately annoyed about it.
Really, what's blocking the Amnesty International webpage when you've already been so busy:
- Increasing surveillance and jailing dissidents
- Barring performances from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwanese performers who "harm the nation's sovereignty"
- Stamping down on parents grieving after the horrific school collapses
- Refusing visa renewals and deporting foreigners
And, of course -
- Killing at least 18 monks, including a 12-year-old boy, during nationalist protests in Tibet
Never mind the fact that the air is so polluted around Beijing that the U.S. is issuing athletes breathing masks.
My favorite moment - if one can have such a thing in the face of this utter debacle - was when a member of the IOC told a Norwegian newspaper that "...we have discovered that [working with China] is more difficult than we originally thought."
Really? Seriously? I must know. What the hell DID you originally think? At what point did working with a notoriously oppressive regime seem like a good idea? Tibet. Taiwan. Tiananmen Square. A little rhythm gymnastics was going to make that all better? Tell me, dear IOC, I'm dying to know.
You are, undeniably, the dumbest bunch of bastards that have ever sucked air.
Best,
Ashley
p.s. Please send swag.
I love the Olympics. The summer Olympics, in particular. I will spend hours watching tiny people dive off impossibly high platforms. I live to see world-class swimmers do whip lash-inducing flip turns on the underwater camera. And I will watch track and field until my eyeballs fall out of my head. I cannot get enough. But for a moment, even I had to consider whether or not it was ethical to watch any at all.
China.
Fuck.
The fact that Chinese officials are now admitting that they have no plans to allow journalists unfettered access to the internet is so predictable and so petty compared to everything else that's happened, that I - a former journalist myself - can't even manage to get more than moderately annoyed about it.
Really, what's blocking the Amnesty International webpage when you've already been so busy:
- Increasing surveillance and jailing dissidents
- Barring performances from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwanese performers who "harm the nation's sovereignty"
- Stamping down on parents grieving after the horrific school collapses
- Refusing visa renewals and deporting foreigners
And, of course -
- Killing at least 18 monks, including a 12-year-old boy, during nationalist protests in Tibet
Never mind the fact that the air is so polluted around Beijing that the U.S. is issuing athletes breathing masks.
My favorite moment - if one can have such a thing in the face of this utter debacle - was when a member of the IOC told a Norwegian newspaper that "...we have discovered that [working with China] is more difficult than we originally thought."
Really? Seriously? I must know. What the hell DID you originally think? At what point did working with a notoriously oppressive regime seem like a good idea? Tibet. Taiwan. Tiananmen Square. A little rhythm gymnastics was going to make that all better? Tell me, dear IOC, I'm dying to know.
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