…who will not be charged with anything, however deserving.
- In a frustrating condescension that should surprise precisely no one, the IOC followed in the footsteps of Avery Brundage. Who was, after all, the IOC's
dictator and president for lifedesignated leader in 1972. It's not that the incidents are all that comparable, it's that an organization that establishes that competition will be by national teams had bloody well better expect that the real world of international conflict is going to find its way into the Games. And as usual, fear of upsetting sponsors is looming in the background — because even if the Duchy of Muscovy isn't at these games, (a) there's talk of reinstating it for the LA summer games in 2028, (b) the IOC really wants to reopen the sponsorship money, and (c) oligarchs gonna oligarch (and I don't just mean the Russian ones; the history of how one achieves a position of power in the Olympic movement isn't the epitome of advancement on merit).<SARCASM> Bravo! Nothing demonstrates the unifying power of athletic competition like refusing a tasteful, nonintrusive personal memorial to slain athletes, some of whom were acquaintances of the athlete you disqualified! </SARCASM>
- Well, it looks like one of the major communication channels for hackers, cyberterrorists, and sleazebuckets even more dubious than politicians is going to require age verification in March. What could possibly go wrong?
I suppose it could be worse than imposing an "age-verification" requirement on precisely the audience most likely to find ways around it (and then use that very service to publicize the method). Like, say, a space-oriented firm purchasing an "AI" firm (well, not really, it's an illusory transaction all under the same financial umbrella). Just a moment. Just a moment. I've just picked up a fault in the AE-35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure within 72 hours. Even I will be concerned if the next major lift vehicle is the Discovery series, or if the next model from Tesla is the Daisy.
- Tasty Spanish ham has a disquieting history, similar to roasted chicken in Iberia (which was frequently stuffed with bacon, making it unacceptable to The Usual Undesireables). At least the Spanish prime minister is — somewhat quietly, but still pointedly — standing up against antiimmigrant fervor.
At least Francisco Franco is still dead.
- It's not much of a surprise that young writers (as a group) lean slightly left; their own experiences, and those that they're seeing around them, are more likely to concern economic disadvantage. Like, say, working two jobs — the obvious downside of relying on "market forces" as the sole support for those in the arts (which almost by definition must include a lot of individual-instance failures).