From the Headlines - 8/22/04

Khorkina says ‘judges robbed me’
Russian ridicules judges, Patterson claiming ‘sport needs changes’

“I’m just furious,” Khorkina, who had been the favorite for the coveted title, was quoted as saying in the daily Izvestia. “I knew well in advance, even before I stepped on the stage for my first event, that I was going to lose.”

“Everything was decided in advance. I had no illusions about this when the judges gave me 9.462 for the vault after conferring with one another at length.

“I practically did everything right, still they just set me up and fleeced me,” she said in the interview published on Saturday.

Asked why she felt she was marked down by the judges, Khorkina said: “You better ask them. I think it’s because I’m from Russia, not from America!”
- MSNBC >> Full Article

-- It sounds like yet another Athlete over in Greece needs to have their diaper changed. This sounds a bit like what some Americans did earlier in the week, whining and complaining. 1. Either they are real sore losers, 2. The Judging is fixed in certain areas, or 3. Both (I wouldn't be surprised if its really number 3 behind the scenes there).

Iraqi athletes object to Bush campaign ad
Soccer players say president shouldn't exploit their success

ATHENS, Greece - Iraqi soccer players reacted angrily Friday after being told that their nation's Olympic participation was mentioned in TV commercial by the re-election campaign for President Bush.

The players called on Bush to stop using them to win votes in the United States.
“Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign,” midfielder Salih Sadir was quoted as saying. “He can find another way to advertise himself.”
...

The flags of Iraq and Afghanistan appear in the Bush commercial ahead of the Republican National Convention, to be held in September.

A narrator says: “At this Olympics there will be two more free nations—and two fewer terrorist regimes.”
Another Iraqi player asked: “How will (Bush) meet his God having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes.”

-- I seriously laughed when I saw this mentioned in last nights Countdown. Why? Because of them calling Bush on the exploitation going on (which all politicians are and always will be guilty of), and at how they seem to naively think that this realistically valid election campaign propoganda will be effected by that. Don't like being exploited? Tough, you're exploited all the time whether you realize it or not. You're not going to cause things to change.

But Clark insisted journalists were wrong to take advantage of the athletes.
“It is a little naughty,” he said. “The players are not very sophisticated politically; they are a little naive. Whoever posed these questions knew that the reaction would be negative.
- MSNBC >> Full Article

Naive, yes, when it comes to trying to stop the exploitation (Along with Freedom of Speech there is the Freedom to Exploit). But, they live in Iraq, for one. Which still has a government struggling to stay upright because of a religious nutbag with delusions of grandier holed up in a religious monument that we are to scared to even put a scratch on.

Girl with digestive disease denied Communion
8-year-old cannot consume wheat wafers

BRIELLE, N.J. - An 8-year-old girl who suffers from a serious digestive disorder and cannot eat wheat has had her first Holy Communion declared invalid because the wafer contained no wheat, violating Roman Catholic doctrine.

Now, Haley Waldman’s mother is pushing the Diocese of Trenton and the Vatican to make an exception, saying the girl’s condition should not exclude her from the sacrament, which commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ before his crucifixion. The mother believes a rice Communion wafer would suffice.

“It’s just not a viable option. How does it corrupt the tradition of the Last Supper? It’s just rice versus wheat,” said Elizabeth Pelly-Waldman.

Church doctrine holds that Communion wafers, like the bread served at the Last Supper, must have at least some unleavened wheat. Church leaders are reluctant to change anything about the sacrament.

“This is not an issue to be determined at the diocesan or parish level, but has already been decided for the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world by Vatican authority,” Trenton Bishop John M. Smith said in a statement last week.

Genetic intolerance
Haley was diagnosed with celiac sprue disease when she was 5. The disorder occurs in people with a genetic intolerance of gluten, a food protein contained in wheat and other grains.

When consumed by celiac sufferers, gluten (pronounced GLOO’-ten) damages the lining of the small intestine, blocking nutrient absorption and leading to vitamin deficiencies, bone-thinning and sometimes gastrointestinal cancer.

The diocese has told Haley’s mother that the girl can receive a low-gluten wafer, or just drink wine at Communion, but that anything without gluten does not qualify. Pelly-Waldman rejected the offer, saying her child could be harmed by even a small amount of the substance.

-- Just because there is no wheat. When my dad saw that he went "Can you believe that?" Heh, "Yes I can, actually" I replied. I doubt the church has much regard for diseases. And it's all over a very minute technically that the church created itself -- not anyone at the last supper. The little wafers were to symbolically represent "Jesus' body" and the wine "his blood", whether there is wheat inside or not is a ridiculous thing to harp a girl about who'll get sick if she eats anything with wheat.

Pelly-Waldman is seeking help from the Pope and has written to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, challenging the church’s policy.

“This is a church rule, not God’s will, and it can easily be adjusted to meet the needs of the people, while staying true to the traditions of our faith,” Pelly-Waldman wrote in the letter.
- MSNBC >> Full Article

U.S. not winning favor in Muslim world
Diplomacy efforts lack funds, follow-through

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is facing growing criticism from both inside and outside its ranks that it has failed to move aggressively enough in the war of ideas against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups over the three years since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Sept. 11 commission last month called for a vigorous strategy for promoting image and democratic values of the United States around the world, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the administration is working hard on those efforts.

But Middle East experts -- and some frustrated U.S. officials -- complain that the administration has provided only limited new direction in dealing with anti-American anger among the world's 1.2 billion Muslims and is spending far too little on such efforts, particularly in contrast with the billions spent on other pressing needs, such as homeland security and intelligence.
...

It's worse than failing. Failing means you tried and didn't get better. But at this point, three years after September 11, you can say there wasn't even much of an attempt, and today Arab and Muslim attitudes toward the U.S. and the degree of distrust in the U.S. are far worse than they were three years ago. Bin Laden is winning by default," said Shibley Telhami, a member of a White House-appointed advisory group on public diplomacy and Brookings Institution scholar.

Fucking duh. That's been painfully obvious since last year at the least.

'Dangerously underfunded'That thinking tracks recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, which besides calling for reorganization of U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism urged a diplomatic offensive: "If the United States does not act aggressively to define itself in the Islamic world, the extremists will gladly do the job for us."
- MSNBC >> Full Article