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Hosting the Olympics has a way of exposing a country's problems. When Beijing hosted them in 2012, for example, the whole world became familiar with China's industrial smog.
Well, Russia is hosting the Winter Olympics in 2014 and, in case you didn't know, Russia still doesn't have free speech.
It's true. Russia doesn't have free speech.
The specific kind of speech Russia is trying to save its people from hearing is anything related to gay rights or, as the Russians call it, "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations."
The Russians have a law against that and, according to president Vladimir Putin, they plan on enforcing it during the Olympics. Basically, they fine you or put you in jail for expressing homosexual propaganda at a public rally, on the Internet, in the news media, etc.
If anybody knows anything about propaganda, it's Russia.
Luckily, I live in a place where I can, within reason, speak my mind without fear of retribution from my government. Americans haven't always been so open-minded about gay rights, but we're evolving. And at least we’re allowed to talk it out.
Naturally, people are looking for ways to protest this Russian law without breaking it. According to the Associated Press, some are calling for a ban on Russian vodka in North America, an idea so idiotic it’s difficult to believe someone actually said it out loud. You can’t defeat draconianism with more draconianism.
Boycotts are not the most effective protest device, but a boycott does seem like a more sensible and realistic means of personal expression that won’t break a law against personal expression. But the real brass ring here is that in 2014, with the Internet, Russian citizens are going to get an earful about this from around the world, whether Putin wants them to or not.
LINK ME:
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• Matt Harvey: pwn3d.
• Here’s a story about Rick Pitino’s son, Richard Pitino, trying to swoop in and grab a player who just de-committed from his father.
• John Wall just signed an $80 million contract, and he plans to make it rain on some Washington, D.C.-area charities, giving away $1 million of his new max contract.
• That’s so much money you can wipe your face with a $50 bill:
• Perfect Human honored.
• Shane Battier threw out the first pitch at a Detroit Tigers game. It wasn’t a great pitch, but there was just something about it that seemed like a winner.
• Chicago is the great baseball city where the teams don’t love you back. The Chicago baseball teams are a combined 36 games under .500 at the moment, with the dreadful White Sox accounting for most of the losing.
• One of our great American traditions is football coaches bringing longshot gimmick players into training camp. The Indianapolis Colts are doing their part to keep this tradition alive by inviting an African rugby player to try to make the squad.
• Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star talked to George Brett about why he’s been so loyal.
• A Tennessee hunter who unlawfully killed a deer is going to jail.
