- The
world’s athletes know that as the best of them gather in Brazil this summer,
some among their number will be looking to pill, ‘roid or otherwise cheat their
way to a gold medal. Most would like the Olympics to be clean, but the cheaters
will always be one step ahead of those trying to stop them and so the would-be
clean majority is left to rally behind the likes of Canadian
cross-country skier and Olympic gold medalist Beckie Scott, who is a Winter
Olympics athlete but nonetheless delivered a speech this week directed at the
leaders of the World Anti-Doping Agency, who are the ones charged with keeping
the Games clean. Scott, whose gold-medal celebration came years after the race
because a doper beat her, addressed foundation board and told them that
athletes want the agency to use its influence to ensure Russia won't compete at
the upcoming Olympics if there's no guarantee they're clean. Scott and her
fellow athletes say they want an expanded investigation into Russian sports,
beyond track and field, and they want to know that when they line up in Brazil
later this year, they'll be competing against clean athletes. “We put this call
out in November, and were deeply disappointed with the lack of decisive action
and follow-up,'' Scott said. She’s the chair of the WADA athletes committee and
she pointed out that athletes are well aware of the “utter, complete implausibility
of (Russia's doping system) being in place to just service track and field.''
Well-said, B. “That the doping was so widespread and nothing was done is almost
incomprehensible to the athletes' community,'' she added. WADA has already
promised to investigate allegations, delivered by whistleblowers Vitaly and
Yulia Stepanov, that four gold medalists from the Sochi Olympics used steroids,
but Russia continues to push back against the claims and this fight is only
going to get nastier from here…….
- Unlike
the bulls who step into the rings around Spain each year, the fight to protect
these raging beasts may actually have a chance to succeed. España is gearing up
for the annual sight of matadors facing half-ton
bulls this month during Madrid's most important annual series of bullfights and
the running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona next month, the
drama is intensifying ‘twixt anti-bullfighting forces and the traditions'
defenders, who have launched Spain's first pro-bullfight lobbying group. This
group feels it’s needed because at least 17 Spanish cities and towns have
slashed municipal funding for bullfights and bull runs or passed measures
condemning or banning them in the year since the new leftist Podemos party won
its first seats in local and regional elections. A third-place finish in an
inconclusive December election was enough to splinter the country's traditional
two-party system into four and is expected to happen again next month when
Podemos could overtake the No. 2 center-left Socialists. In the midst of this
chaos, bull spectacles are expected to be banned this summer on the
Mediterranean island of Mallorca by the regional Balearic Islands parliament
ruled by a coalition including Podemos. Six years ago, the Barcelona-anchored northeastern
region of Catalonia prohibited bullfights but enshrined as cultural heritage
bull runs and events featuring bulls running around with flaming balls of wax
or fireworks affixed to their horns. The continued lament from animal rights kooks
is that bull fights are among the planet's most blatant forms of animal cruelty
because the bulls are intentionally wounded before fights and are then stabbed
through the heart in combat. It’s this tradition that the new Fighting Bull
Foundation of breeders, matadors, ring workers and aficionados are fighting for
behind a prominent Madrid law firm. As always, it’s going to come down to who
has the best money, best lawyers and most clout………
- Oh,
the creative integrity of martyr/director Gareth Edwards. This self-sacrificer has
stepped down from directing duties on the Godzilla sequel, “Godzilla 2,” and
his reasoning for doing so is worthy of a sappy, dramatic montage of slow
claps, orchestra music and a slow-motion walk off the set. Edwards directed the
terrible 2014 revival of the sci-fi franchise, but has said he wants to
concentrate on smaller projects after his stint directing the upcoming “Rogue
One: A Star Wars Story.” Yes, his creative integrity simply will not allow him
to helm another massive movie with a nine-figure budget and more CGI effects
than the human mind can comprehend. Production company Legendary Pictures
recently gave “Godzilla 2” a March 2019 release date, delaying it nearly a year
from its original June 2018, which makes a lot more sense now that we know the
easily replaceable guy who was supposed to sit in the director’s chair was on
his way out the door. Despite losing Edwards and delaying the movie, the studio
reportedly remains committed to the franchise and is also committed to a
monster vs. monster project in the form of “Godzilla vs. King Kong,” slated for
release in 2020. Before then, “Godzilla 2” is set to feature the return of
three classic movie monsters - Rodan, Mothra and Ghidorah. Against this
effects-heavy, high pressure and big-dollar backdrop, the bold Edwards recently
addressed film students at the Beijing Film Academy prior to the Chinese
premiere of his take on “Godzilla.” He tried to paint himself as something of a
sympathetic character who hadn't made millions of dollars directing bloated
films with budgets larger than Third World nations. "If I was in the
audience at film school, looking at me now, I would hate me. I never could have
predicted it this way,” Edwards said during his speech. Here’s hoping that
speech came with a movie soundtrack-quality string section in the corner, playing
the most mournful violins possible to properly score this somber message………
- That’s
certainly one way to break the resistance when union workers are striking
outside your facility and trying to use their picket lines to disrupt your
supply lines. The scene was Massachusetts and the setting was the picket line
outside a Verizon facility where about 80 striking workers were walking the
picket line early in the morning in their quest for all the things angry
workers demand in a strike, i.e. better pay, better benefits and better working
conditions. According to police, a liquored-up
replacement worker accelerated and struck striking worker Joseph Rooney with
his pickup truck, then continued driving with Rooney on his hood before
stopping on an on-ramp to state Route 9 West, tossing the injured employee off
the vehicle. After running Rooney down on the picket line around 8:20 a.m.,
when officers were assisting replacement workers in driving through the picket
line of about 80 protesters, it wasn’t too difficult to identify or apprehend
the suspect. Nor was it difficult to get justice, as
no-longer-a-replacement-worker George Pulling pleaded not guilty in Westborough
District Court to two counts of assault and battery by means of a dangerous
weapon, driving under the influence of alcohol and operating without a license.
Clearly, standards for fill-ins at Verizon aren't too high and here’s hoping
this doesn’t give companies any ideas when it comes to trying to bust strikes
in the future. Stick to firing strikers, pelting them with rotten tomatoes and
playing Black Eyed Peas music as a means of torturing them back onto the
assembly line and leave vehicular assault as a last-resort, plan-B type of
strategy for ending prolonged work stoppages………
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