I remember watching BJK back in the day. She's looking good.

one way or another. He's got better things to do.

riding bareback on his horse with no shirt on? maybe some of those other manly pictures of his physical prowess?

billie jean will be a great spokesperson for america.

and the subsequent desire to save face.

These gestures are better than a boycott.

Still, I'd love to see some athlete/s pull a Tommie Smith/John Carlos gesture on the podium.

There is no doubt that Putin isn't going to be shamed into changing his mind or doing something that America wants just because of the members of the delegation that Obama sends to Russia to attend these games.

world found their actions barbaric.

But it has little to do with the US as much as Russia's century old inferiority complex where they have always been characterized and felt like the disrespected cousins in Europe.

It isn't America's position but the shared position of all the rest of Western Civilization.

What this delegation does do, in real terms, is give standing and reinforcement to the reform voices that already exist in Russia, ammunition that they both need and know how to use.

There is, of course, no comparison between Putin who has helped foster a campaign of terror against Russian journalists who report against him or gangster capitalists:

That just happened today, and it doesn't have a thing to do with changing his mind about how he treats gay people.

has never been about Putin's opinion about gay people.

Putin, like all good authoritarian leaders, uses fear to create hegemony among the population and Gays are only the most recent canard.

Russians also crave to be accepted as full equals into their European neighborhood and Putin's campaign against gays has created a gap the size of the Grand Canyon. Russia will not be accepted as a respectable member of the group as long as they are going to the back to the middle ages with homophobia.

The use of high profile symbols to make the point to the Russian intelligentsia isn't aimed at Putin per se but in giving support for those that are determined to fight Putin within the country.

As for Putin's reversal on the Pussy Riot and Green Peace prosecution and imprisonment, the fact that it is happening weeks before the Winter Olympics proves exactly the point that Putin is very concerned in maintaining a level of respectability among his European neighbors.

But I don't really expect you to get it because you apparently thought that someone thought that Putin was going to do an immediate reversal because he was "going to be shamed into changing his mind or doing something that America wants just because of the members of the delegation that Obama sends to Russia to attend these games" having completely missed the point of why the President made the point it would be unfair to expect you to see the longer term strategy or how that strategy has in fact been successful on other human rights issues that the West holds Putin in contempt for.

awwww, not

Does anybody even remember Bobby Briggs, or whoever it was that challenged her to that infamous tennis match? Good to see her doing so well.

Bobby Riggs, yep I remember.

Although I'm not gay, many of my heroes are/were. Sally Ride, for instance. I realize some people say 'gay' applies only to males, but I rather prefer the term should include both sexes. Just my opinion. I like the word.

teh nontroversy would never end, no matter what they did once they left the ground (if not before).
and i just flat out would worry about his safety there.

eleven dimension chess