UN chief denounces attacks on LGBT people

[No Elephants]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OLY_SOCHI_UN_LEADER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-06-01-43-00

Great. I am all for it.


There are, and always have been, Arab countries in which being gay is still reason to be put to death. And, with no small amounto of help from US conservatives, that attitude has been spreading to Africa for some time now. I hope all leaders will speak out against all of that.

Otherwise, it's starting to look like something funny is going on with regard to Sochi.

First Richard Engels is shocked, shocked, that his cell phone and computer got hacked. An American reporter. Has he read any papers since it came to light that the D of J had done the same to an AP reporter, and it came to light what they do to ALL of us, including Engel and Angela Merkel? What about how the Brits treated Greenwald's partner? Did Engels speak out about all of that?

Then, Olberman is shocked that stray dogs are killed in Russia. How many animals that we consider pets are put down, by one method or another, in every country, including this one, every day? Or does he think every abandoned or unwanted dog is at that farm upstate Colbert always talks about? You know, the one where his parents sent his dog when he was a kid--the dog he still gets notes from every now and again.

I can't say Putin doesn't deserve it, but my guess is that something bad went on in every nation that has hosted the Olympics, including this one. Maybe none will match Hitler's but we had de jure apartheid in a large portion of the nation when we hosted the Olympics in 1960 and in the 1930s. We still have a great dealt de facto. The federal government went out of its way to outlaw gay marriage, as far it could (further many say) not all that long ago and we began integrating our military as to gays about five minutes ago. Until then, they had to be deceitful and be deemed unfit to die for their country.

We're sending athletes there and some of them are very young. If this stuff is as off tone as it is starting to seem to me, what kind of welcome will they receive?


Can anyone recall a host nation (apart from Nazi Germany) getting this kind of treatment at the start of an Olympics event? This is not a rhetorical or sarcastic question: I honestly don't know.

[Enthusiast]

1. I could be way off, but I feel

Russia wishes they could start all over again and back off on the anti-gay emphasis. They are in the process of trying to sort of moderate this stance aren't they?

[No Elephants]

2. I don't know if all this is about their gay stance. or their Pussy Riot arrests.

I don't know what it is about--if anything. It just seems very odd to me so far.

Today, I saw a video US reporter asking a Russian who was working for the stray dog killing company if he didn't feel bad putting down the dogs instead of sterilizing them. Really?

[Enthusiast]

3. Did you see members of Pussy Riot on John Stewart?

It was good.