01-27-2002, 01:30 PM
How far down did I sink? One weekend ago I was in Las Vegas playing poker next to Vince. This weekend I had to go to a couple political functions in Boise. Needless to say I hang with conservatives. Idaho conservatives. Poker at Bellagio is more fun as many of you might speculate. We got up there and went to dinner. During the week I decided I had to reform my sit at a desk and eat buffet ways, so I started working out again. Of course I became an instant cripple and could barely walk after tweaking something that made everything hurt from my back to my hamstring. I began treating this debilitating condition with a miracle arthritis elixir they are making in Kentucky now. It is called Maker's Mark for those of you in need of this amazing cure-all. It also can improve your outlook at boring political speeches. After this cure I was limping more effectively and was in a slightly better mood.
We got back to the hotel and got ready to go to the political thing. There was a huge Olympic thing going on. The torch was in town and we could look on the festivities from our hotel room. The hotel has an arena, and was advertising an exhibition game between the US women's hockey team and the ChiComs set to go Saturday. I'm not much for the Olympics and don't fully understand the hype about the torch, but I do understand beating the commies. Nothing will ever compare to the men's team in 1980 beating the Soviets, but any hockey team defeating any commies is OK with me. Finally something about the Olympics I could appreciate.
Since it was the night before the game there were hockey players milling about. A couple of the US players rode up on the elevator with us. I asked if they were on the team and wished them luck. On the way down, a couple ChiCom players rode with us. It was time to test how committed I was to their freedom. I was very tempted to ask if they wanted to defect to see how they would react. Tell them Americans don't torture their athletes and have a lot of freedom and material stuff. But I didn't know if our government would even treat them as people seeking asylum since we want "normal" relations with their regime. I also pictured their families being tortured and killed if they defected. And they're 20 year old girls. So what do you do?
As it turns out, they don't make enough of the arthritis elixir to get me to ask if they want to defect. Or even ask if they wanted to come meet some American politicians we voted for in free elections. Just as well I think. Yesterday I saw a group of the ChiCom athletes coming back from either a store or some function. They had bags full of junk food and crap that was probably made in their own country but that they can only get here. I figured staying in the hotel they were and eating our food and watching our TV and seeing how rich a podunk city like Boise is would send a better political message than some blowhard lunatic conservative pestering them.
And our women beat them badly on the ice last night and might just win the gold medal again. /images/smile.gif
We got back to the hotel and got ready to go to the political thing. There was a huge Olympic thing going on. The torch was in town and we could look on the festivities from our hotel room. The hotel has an arena, and was advertising an exhibition game between the US women's hockey team and the ChiComs set to go Saturday. I'm not much for the Olympics and don't fully understand the hype about the torch, but I do understand beating the commies. Nothing will ever compare to the men's team in 1980 beating the Soviets, but any hockey team defeating any commies is OK with me. Finally something about the Olympics I could appreciate.
Since it was the night before the game there were hockey players milling about. A couple of the US players rode up on the elevator with us. I asked if they were on the team and wished them luck. On the way down, a couple ChiCom players rode with us. It was time to test how committed I was to their freedom. I was very tempted to ask if they wanted to defect to see how they would react. Tell them Americans don't torture their athletes and have a lot of freedom and material stuff. But I didn't know if our government would even treat them as people seeking asylum since we want "normal" relations with their regime. I also pictured their families being tortured and killed if they defected. And they're 20 year old girls. So what do you do?
As it turns out, they don't make enough of the arthritis elixir to get me to ask if they want to defect. Or even ask if they wanted to come meet some American politicians we voted for in free elections. Just as well I think. Yesterday I saw a group of the ChiCom athletes coming back from either a store or some function. They had bags full of junk food and crap that was probably made in their own country but that they can only get here. I figured staying in the hotel they were and eating our food and watching our TV and seeing how rich a podunk city like Boise is would send a better political message than some blowhard lunatic conservative pestering them.
And our women beat them badly on the ice last night and might just win the gold medal again. /images/smile.gif