2012 - Summer Olympics
- London
The Spirit
behind the Olympics.
The Staging Ground for
the Coming Police State?
"It’s what the Romans used to refer to as 'bread and circuses'—the
idea that the key to controlling the masses is by satiating their
carnal appetites and entertaining them with mindless distraction.
Thus, while the world loses itself in the pomp and circumstance of a
thoroughly British Olympics...a more sinister drama will be
unfolding....
"Under
cover of the glitz and glamour of these time-honored Games, a
chilling military operation is underway, masterminded by a
merger of the corporate, military and security industrial complexes
and staffed by more than 40,000 civilian police, British
military and security personnel, as well as FBI, CIA, and TSA
agents, and private security contractors. Appropriately enough,
this year’s Olympic mascot, Wenlock—a strange, futuristic blob with
an all-seeing eye to 'record everything' in the games—is
being sold in Olympic stores dressed in a policeman’s uniform.
"'As a metaphor for the
London Olympics, it could hardly be more stark,' writes Stephen
Graham for the Guardian. 'For £10.25 you, too, can own the ultimate
symbol of the Games: a member of by far the biggest and most
expensive security operation in recent British history packaged
as tourist commodity.'...There’s even a security patrol tasked with
making sure that local businesses observe the government ban on
symbols and words relating to the Olympics lest they cause economic
harm to the 'official' corporate sponsors.... These purple-capped
government officials....can impose fines up to 20,000 pounds
($31,000). Included on the banned list are such words as
games, 2012, gold, silver, bronze, summer, sponsors, and London.
....An old lady got
tagged for sewing the five rings onto a mini doll sweater.'....
"Unfortunately
for the people of London and beyond, the UK’s willingness to host
the 2012 Summer Olympics has turned this exercise in solidarity,
teamwork and nationalism into a $17 billion exercise in militarism,
corporatism, surveillance and oppression."
2008 - Summer Olympics
- China
House Churches Ready
to Welcome Brother Bush; Deeply Disappointed in his Visit to the
TSPM: "When
the news came that President Bush will visit Kuanjie Protestant
Church of the TSPM that serves the Chinese government, it caused
widespread concern among the house churches. They believe that the
Chinese rulers have been consistently cheating and ridiculing their
guests from overseas by winning popularity through misleading
the public and by mixing the false with the genuine.
Through these means,
they intensify their persecution on the house churches. President
Bush’s visit to the TSPM’s Kuanjie Protestant Church will certainly
be utilized by the Chinese Communists.
"...one
of the Christian leaders... in Beijing, said with much disappointment:
'One of the most important means with which the Chinese Communists
persecute the churches in China is strengthening the TSPM churches
that it establishes and controls. Bush’s visit to the TSPM will
surely give out a wrong signal that President Bush endorses the
TSPM churches.'”
See
Persecution
CHINA - Increase in
pre-Olympic repression:
"...at least 80 foreign journalists have been obstructed in the
course of their work.... The terrible earthquake in
Sichuan has not helped to reduce the repression either.
Journalist Qi Chonghuai was sentenced to four years in prison
the day after the quake. And Huang Qi, a well-known activist who
has a human rights website, was arrested on 10 June for
reporting the arrest of a person..."
See
The Greek Olympics
Bush to attend China
Olympics opening ceremonies:
"Human rights activists have been calling for world leaders to boycott
the opening ceremonies to protest China's record on civil rights.
...'The president and Mrs. Bush will attend the Opening Ceremonies
of the Summer Olympic Games on Aug. 8.... He believes he's going
to China to support first and foremost our athletes....' Bush will
discuss human rights and religious freedoms with Chinese President
Hu Jintao when they meet in China in August..."
See
Olympic spirits and
global illusions
CHINA - Increase in
pre-Olympic repression:
"...at least 80 foreign journalists have been obstructed in the
course of their work.... The terrible earthquake in
Sichuan has not helped to reduce the repression either.
Journalist Qi Chonghuai was sentenced to four years in prison
the day after the quake. And Huang Qi, a well-known activist who
has a human rights website, was arrested on 10 June for
reporting the arrest of a person..."
See
The Greek Olympics
US support for the OLYMPICS.
High-noise device
for Olympics reviewed:
"When does an electronic noisemaker go from being an obnoxious bullhorn to
an instrument of police repression or a military-grade weapon? The question
is part of a larger debate within the Bush administration, which has already
approved the export of sensitive technology and expertise to China to help
secure the Summer Olympics from terrorist attacks. .....The U.S.-made
Long-Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) is a vehicle-mounted, circular dish that
sends out concentrated, high-energy acoustic waves that can be painfully
loud -- louder than the loudest rock concerts or a jet engine in close
proximity."
See next link:
Government Control.
What is the Long
Range Acoustic Device (LRAD)?:
"This device can be used as a combatant deterrent weapon or
crowd-control device by emitting sounds that are painful to the
ears. ... The range of the LRAD is 300 to 500 meters and, at
maximum volume, it can emit sound 50 times greater than the
human threshold for pain so it can cause permanent damage....
The loud sounds the LRAD emits may cause permanent hearing
damage to those within its range. The LRAD sound wave can be
cancelled altogether through the use of common earplugs."
See
National & Global
Security Councils
UK Olympic body reverses move to
gag Beijing competitors:
"Britain's sports authorities have backed away from a plan to prohibit athletes
representing the United Kingdom in the Beijing Olympic Games [BOA] from
making any comments critical of China's human rights record. Reports on
the plan... caused an uproar, and the British Olympic Association (BOA) agreed
to revisit language in the official contract athletes must sign ahead of competing
this summer. ...the contract included a new clause saying that athletes 'are
not to comment on politically sensitive issues.' The clause cited a section
of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Charter, which states that 'no
kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted
in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.'...
"'The silence
of the IOC is striking,' said Jan Ruml, former Czech dissident and senator and
chairman of the Prague-based Olympic Watch. 'Human rights abuses are
clearly continuing if not worsening
in China, even directly related to the Games....
"...the
Chinese government has stepped up its reaction to the criticism. ....the BOA's
move drew strong criticism Sunday, with some recalling the propaganda value
derived by the Nazis by hosting the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.""
See
Olympic Spirits and Global Illusions
2004 - Summer Olympics
- Greece
Revisiting the Pagan Olympic Games:
"In the August 9, 2004 issue of U.S. News & World Report, journalist Betsy Carpenter
offered some penetrating insights... into the ancient Olympics.... She writes,
'Almost every dewy-eyed notion about the ancient games is shriveling in the
light of the revisionist scholarship.' The idea that the Olympics gave amateurs
a chance at glory is assuredly a romantic one. First of all, Carpenter notes,
the original Olympians were professionals—in the sense that they trained and
competed virtually full time. Top athletes shuttled around other prestigious
sporting events, much as they do today. And victors profited royally from their
wins, snatching front-row seats at the Games, huge cash prizes, pensions, and
even slaves.
"But at
least the Greeks prized the noble virtues of 'agility, speed, and coordination,'
right? Certainly some of the events—particularly the races—suggest this. But
one of the most popular events at the ancient games was the four-horse chariot
race, Carpenter writes, which often ended in gory pileups....
"We begin to understand
more of why the Roman emperor Theodosius (A.D. 346-395), intent upon not only
tolerating Christians—as Constantine had—but also making Christianity the state
religion, would do away with the Olympics."
From mythical dreams to
sobering realities
Olympic Myths: "According
to the ancient Greeks, Greek heroes and gods
were the ones who held the very first Games. Many depictions of these
mythical figures and races can be found at the 5th century pediment and metopes
of the Zeus temple in Olympia."
See
Solidarity Versus Christianity
Ancient Olympic Games:
"According to historic records, the first ancient Olympic Games can be traced
back to 776 BC. They were dedicated to the Olympian
Gods and were staged on the ancient plains of Olympia, famous for its
magnificent temples of the gods Zeus and Hera. They initially had a religious
character and combined a number of ancient sporting events, many of which were
based on ancient Greek myths." See
The
Olympic Dream: A Renaissance of Unholy Oneness
Ancient Olympics were a mix of sacred,
profane: "The
setting for the earliest Olympic Games some 3,000 years ago was both a sanctuary
of soaring marble temples and a foul, drunken shantytown plagued by water shortages,
campfire smoke and sewage. The athletes, glistening from olive oil, competed
naked. Gymnasiums were restricted to keep the sex trade from overrunning events
on the field....
"While
the Olympics' 3,000-year history is dotted with the heroic champions... they
also were plagued by cheating, scandal, gambling and outsize egos. 'The ancient
Greeks were not as idealistic as we represent them to be,' said David Gilman
Romano...
"Sport,
they believed, was a high tribute to the gods.... Before the games, athletes
pledged their piety as they were paraded past a row of statues of gods and former
champions that were paid for from the fines of disgraced cheaters. At the feet
of a 40-foot statue of Zeus -- one of the Seven Wonders of the World -- they
sacrificed oxen and boar and roasted hunks of the flesh in a sacred flame. Then
the games would begin....
"The athletes
would consult fortunetellers and magicians for victory charms and potions...
as well as curses on their opponents to fail."
See
The
Olympic Dream: A Renaissance of Unholy Oneness
Ethics drown in oil:
"As you probably noticed right from the opening ceremony, there's a couple of
countries in Athens that play by different rules. The Saudi Arabian team turned
up without a single female athlete, repeating a feat that it, and seven other
Muslim nations, pulled at the Sydney Games. Perhaps that's not surprising, given
Saudi Arabia bans women from all sports and even physical education in schools....
In 1964, South Africa's apartheid
regime was thrown out of the Olympics -- not to be readmitted for 28 years --
for enforcing apartheid and refusing to pick black athletes. Such discrimination
horrified the IOC, and all decent people. Yet when Muslim countries refuse to
pick female athletes, the IOC gives this sexual apartheid a pass....
"Anti-Semitic Iran has a ban on
all contact with Israel, a country it won't recognise, and Miresmaeili announced
he'd actually "refused to play against an Israeli rival to sympathise with the
oppressed Palestinian people". ... And the IOC's response to this apartheid?
I've heard nothing yet, but I can't hear bats squeak, either. Still, refusing
to play with Jews hardly counts as unacceptable behaviour any more, does it?
Not like refusing to play with blacks. So when is racism not racism?
2002 - Winter Olympics
- Salt Lake City
The dirt on ice dancing:
"Follow the ice-dancing votes. That should be the buzz phrase of Skategate,
the engulfing scandal of the 2002 Winter Olympics. ... After the 1993 world
championships, six of the nine judges were suspended for scoring based on dancers'
reputations rather than how they performed in the competition. All six came
back to judging. Three of them made it to Lillehammer to judge at the 1994 Winter
Games...
"The panel in Salt Lake City
includes Ukraine's Yuri Balkov, who was suspended after the '98 Olympics. A
Canadian judge, Jean Senft, tape-recorded a phone call in which Balkov told
her that he and other European judges had predetermined the outcome of the dance.
Senft was suspended after the episode, too, for national bias. Unlike Balkov,
she did not make an Olympic comeback. ... In this quasi-sport, everything hangs
loose except the women's costumes. The couples swap lovers more scandalously
than the judges trade votes."
See
Olympic spirits and tempting illusions
and
John 2:24-25
Olympic Farce:
"...Communism is predicated on this phony ethos built around equality, worker
solidarity, and cooperation. Communists were not allowed to acknowledge any
ethos that celebrated and thus regulated individual striving and accomplishment.
So when Communist officials found themselves competing with the rest of the
world, they cheated on a massive scale, pumping their athletes full of
steroids, lying to their own athletes....They had no moral system that
had anything to do with reality...."
Romans 1:22-32
Olympics.
Canadian Skating Pair Swap Silver
for Gold; Judge Suspended for Misconduct:
"The Canadian skaters whose loss to a Russian duo set off the biggest judging
scandal in Winter Olympics history got their gold medal after all Friday, and
the judge at the center of the furor was suspended. ... 'We're happy that justice
was done,' Pelletier said. Under the agreement, Russians Elena Berezhnaya and
Anton Sikharulidze get to keep their gold medal. ...
"The head of the Russian
Figure Skating Federation criticized the move. 'This is an unprecedented decision
that turned out to be a result of pressure by the North American press, and
turned out in favor of the fanatically loyal' fans, Valentin Piseyev told Russia's
NTV television. 'You have seen how the public reacts to even the tiniest mistakes
of our athletes, and how they absolutely don't notice when the Canadians fall
or when the Americans fall.'"
See
Olympic spirits and global illusions
Judges's sobbing outburst propelled
medal review
:
"The nine judges and two referees sitting with her around a board table were
unprepared for the revelation that she
blurted out, according to lead referee Ron Pfenning.
'You don't understand! You don't understand!' Pfenning quoted Le Gougne yesterday
as saying. 'The pressure is enormous! There is so much pressure that my federation,
that the president Didier (Gailhaguet), put on me to put the Russians first!
You've got to help! You've got to help!'"
Olympic Farce:
"...there has been an attempt over the past few years to hijack the Olympic
spirit, to minimize national pride and turn the events into a UNICEF-style celebration
of global harmony and cooperation.... The whole thing is designed to spread
the message that we are all just one great big loving human family. This is
true on an abstract level--we do all share a common humanity--but in practice
it's just sentimental goo... because it is the kind of effortless emotion that
is completely detached from real life situations and difficulties.
"
What
is happening to the Olympics globally is a large scale version of what happened
to the Olympics in the Communist world during the Cold War.
Communism is predicated on this phony ethos built
around equality, worker solidarity, and cooperation. Communists were not allowed
to acknowledge any ethos that celebrated and thus regulated individual striving
and accomplishment. So when Communist
officials found themselves competing with the rest of the world, they cheated
on a massive scale, pumping their athletes full of steroids, lying to their
own athletes....They had no moral system that had anything to do with
reality...."
Romans 1:22-32
Sources say Russian and French judges
made deal: "The Canadian
Olympic delegation on Tuesday requested an investigation into why Russians Elena
Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the gold medal when many observers feel
that Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were more worthy. Brennan, one
of the world's leading authorities on figure skating, says that reliable sources
within the ISU told her that a collaboration between the French and Russian
judges did happen. 'When (figure skating officials) investigate, I think they're
going to find out that the French judge worked a deal with the Russians,'
said Brennan, one of the world's leading authorities on figure skating. "There's
absolutely no doubt that the Canadians should have won. Their 'Love Story' program
was just marvelous. The performance was perfect. "The Russian pair made small
errors including a small mistake on one jump."
See
Olympic spirits and global illusions
Utah goes on to war footing for
Winter Games
(London Times):
"This is not the first time that a country at war has hosted an Olympics; the
Soviet Union staged summer Games in 1980 when it, too, was in Afghanistan, prompting
a US boycott. But never before has a host nation been on such a high state of
domestic alert. 'It’s interesting to note that the largest theatre for the United
States is not Afghanistan today,' Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, said.
'It is in fact Salt Lake City and the environs. We have more people in the area
around Salt Lake City for the Olympics than we do in Afghanistan.”...
"The Administration rejected
the traditional request by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for a ceasefire
during the Games, reasoning that such a deal was unlikely to be observed by
terrorists." Contrary
to contemporary Olympic myth and its spirit of unity, violence as well as politics,
bribery and financial gain were natural to the original Greek games. In 364
BC, the games were invaded by soldiers from Arcadia.
(Wall Street Journal, 2-8)
See
Jeremiah 6:13-15
Pro-lifers protest Olympic condoms:
"A plan to provide free condoms to Olympic athletes at the 2002 Winter Olympics
is facing passionate protests from various pro-family groups. 'I thought it
was absolutely appalling that the Salt Lake Organizing committee, in the name
of public safety, would push condoms on the athletes,' said 25-year-old Brandi
Swindell, leader of Generation Life, a Boise, Idaho-based pro-life group. 'We
all know that condoms are not safe. We have had the safe sex campaign for the
past 25 years and what is the result?' she asked. 'This is very, very serious;
the International Olympic Committee is playing Russian roulette with people's
lives....
Recreational sex is not an Olympic
sport... The Olympics are not some type of frat party with condoms being passed
around."
"Vuk Radjenovic, 18, a member of Yugoslavia's bobsled team, endorsed the condom
policy, said the Herald. 'It's a very good idea, a very, very good idea. Today
is a very nasty time for diseases, and there will be a lot of parties in the
Olympic Village, I suppose. It's a natural thing, sex, but you must be careful.'''
Galatians 5:19-26
and [the solution]
Rom 6:6-14
Olympics budget nearly $2 billion:
"The Salt Lake City
Olympics will be the most expensive Winter Games ever, costing nearly $2 billion
-- or $791,667 per athlete -- to stage 17 days of skiing and skating. Nearly
$1 of every $5 will be picked up by U.S. taxpayers. ... Millions of dollars
from ticket sales and other funds will be used to wine and dine Olympic dignitaries
and their guests, making sure they have cars and drivers to get them to all
events and prime seats....
"All the millions, though, weren't enough to
spruce up Salt Lake City the way Olympic organizers had envisioned - or to pay
for a proper cauldron for the Olympic flame. Organizers had to scramble for
a late $8 million donation just so they could have a cauldron and opening ceremony
that would make the city proud...."
See
The Olympic Dream: A Renaissance
of Unholy Oneness
Carrying the torch:
"The Olympic flame will begin its two-day procession through the Bay Area tomorrow,
carried by a parade of everyday heroes who may not win a gold medal in Salt
Lake City next month, but whose guts and fortitude have inspired people closer
to home. Their triumphs range from great to small, personal to communal, mostly
accomplished below the media radar.
"...the
flame, carried in two-tenths of a mile increments by 11,500 similar inspirational
figures, will continue its nationwide journey before arriving in Salt Lake City
on Feb. 8 for the the Winter Games.
See
The
Olympic Dream: A Renaissance of Unholy Oneness
The Olympics Torch: "For each
Olympics,
a new flame is started in the ancient Olympic stadium in Olympia, Elis, Greece,
using a parabolic mirror to focus the rays of the Sun. This flame begins its
Olympic Torch Relay by touring Greece. The flame is then taken to the country
where the games will be held (usually by airplane). The flame is then carried
around the country where the games are to be held, using a series of torches
carried by people running, walking, riding horses and camels, scuba diving,
and using other means of human conveyance. The last runner uses a torch to light
the large Olympic torch which burns throughout the games. The flame is extinguished
during the closing ceremony....
"The tradition of the Olympic flame began during
the ancient Olympic Games, over 2700 years ago in Greece. A flame was lit for
each Olympics, every four years, and burned throughout the games. The flame
symbolized the death and rebirth of Greek heroes."
2 Tim 4:3-4
Cauldron carries the torch: "Like proud
parents showing off a newborn, Olympic officials unveiled yesterday the towering
glass cauldron that will hold the Olympic flame and immediately declared it
a masterpiece. The soaring structure, which will stand
130 feet tall,
is said to be the first Olympic cauldron
assembled entirely of glass and steel,
and officials expect it to be among the most recognizable icons of the Winter
Games when it is lit during opening ceremonies Feb. 8.
"'The
Olympic cauldron will inspire every athlete, every volunteer and every spectator
at the Salt Lake 2002 Games,' said Mitt
Romney, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, which is organizing
the games. 'The 24- foot flame will be seen across the valley and will remind
us all of the spirit of the athletes competing.'
"An army of craftsmen spent 5,000 hours cutting the
736 bluish-green glass panels that comprise the three interlocking spires that
climb more than 100 feet into the sky. The spires are topped by the 12-foot
diameter glass bowl -- actually, an inverted
pyramid -- that will contain the Olympic flame."
Olympic Torch Relay: Symbol of Games has come
a long way since it burned before altar of
Zeus:
"The Greek gods would be proud of how things have evolved. During the ancient
Olympic Games in Greece, a sacred flame burned at the altar of Zeus, in whose
honor the Games were held. Its lighting signaled the opening of the Games and
its extinguishing signaled the end....
"The Olympic Flame first became a tradition
of the modern Olympics at the 1928 Amsterdam Games.... Eight years later, Dr.
Carl Diem of Germany, inspired by ancient Greek drawings, created the first
Olympic Torch Relay. The flame traveled from Olympia to Berlin as part of the
1936 Opening Ceremony....
[an important part of Hitler's
propaganda machine]
"A torch relay has been held,
in one form or another, at every Olympics since. The flame is first lighted
during a ceremony at the site of the ancient Olympic stadium in Olympia. Women
dressed in robes similar to those worn by the ancient Greeks use a curved mirror
to light the torch naturally with the sun’s rays. Of course, weather doesn’t
always cooperate and a backup plan is necessary, as was the case for the lighting
of the Salt Lake flame. The high priestess then presents the torch to the first
relay runner." See
Olympic Myths and Earthy Magic
Salt
Lake Flame Headed To United States For 2002 Winter Games:
"The torch that will burn at the Salt Lake Games began its journey to the United
States on after a ceremony Monday at the stadium where the Olympics were reborn
more than a century ago. The Salt Lake flame was lit by Thanassis Tsailas, a
17-year-old Greek skier, who dipped the silver metal and glass torch into a
fiery cauldron located inside the Panathenian stadium, where the ancient Olympic
Games were revived in 1896. The flame was lit last month in Ancient Olympia,
where the games were born nearly 3,000 years ago. It was brought to Athens and
has burned for two weeks."
Torch
completes NYC journey: "The Olympic torch paused for a solemn ceremony in
front of the Statue of Liberty last night before Mayor Rudolph Giuliani carried
it on the final leg in New York. ... Thousands crowded Rockefeller Center to
watch as Giuliani, wearing a New York Police Department coat and Fire Department
of New York hat, used the torch to light a cauldron under a large statue
of the Greek god Prometheus. "The cauldron will keep the flame burning until
Wednesday, when the torch will head for Connecticut and Rhode Island on its
65-day, 13,500-mile journey to the Feb. 8-24 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City."
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