What is most amazing about the recent crackdown taking place in Beijing, China’s capital, is not the fact that the Chinese government is trying to make sure that foreign journalists will not talk to any disgruntled Chinese. No, what’s most surprising about the crackdown is that journalists and others actually seem to be surprised by the crackdowns. (more…)

Just days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Bejing, a small group of the city’s residents protested against their forced eviction from their homes. The Chinese government quickly broke up the protest, afraid that allowing it will result in even more negative attention. (more…)

The International Olympic Committee has responded to allegations that it has cut a deal with the Chinese government to censor the Internet during the Olympic Games in Bejing (which are about to start). According to the IOC’s chairman Jacques Rogge, no such deal has been agreed upon. (more…)

Christiano Ronaldo is one of the best players in the world today. He’s only 23 years old, but he’s already one of the faces of European football. He comes from and plays for Portugal, which automatically makes this Southern-European country a contender. The team he plays for is Manchester United, the team that won British football league this year and the Champions League (European Championship for club teams). (more…)

With a few hours from now, Switzerland will play the very first match of this year’s European Championship Football. It promises to be an entertaining championship, with lots of good teams competing. Most teams have players that play at Europe’s top football clubs, such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Bayern München, Chelsea, and many others. (more…)

The Boston Celtics - a legendary name - have beaten the Detroit Pistons in game six of the Eastern Conference Finals, resulting in them having a 4-2 lead in a best of 7 series. This means that Boston will, for the first time since 1987, appear in the NBA finals. (more…)

Michael Sokolove has a great article at the NY Times Magazine about sports injuries and the seldom-discussed fact that teenage girls are much, much more likely to both sustain major knee and head injuries than boys of the same age.  Despite the unfortunate title of "Uneven Playing Field", this article is highly recommended reading for parents and coaches of teen athletes of the female persuasion.

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The Times (of London) has an exclusive report up: ” Chinese paramilitary police killed eight people and wounded dozens more when they fired on a protest by several hundred Tibetan monks and villagers, The Times has been told.” (more…)

The New York Times reports about a protest that disrupted an Olympic Ceremony last Sunday (when Greek officials handed over the Olympic flame to organizers of the Beijing Summer Games), but it seems to me that this is what they should have expected. China has one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, and the communists have tried to completely destroy Tibetan culture. This is the opportunity for Tibetans to force the world to pay attention to its plight. (more…)

It’s utterly amazing, but a US Congressional Committee talked to Roger Clemens yesterday about whether or not he used performance enhancing drugs. (more…)

Tuesday and Wednesday were two big days for European soccer fans: the 1/8 finals of the Champions League were played. The champions of 2007, AC Milan, had to play against English team Arsenal (from London). Several other big teams were still in it as well, all hoping to qualify for the next round (the 1/4 finals); that’s important from a sportive perspective, but also from a financial one. If European teams want to be able compete in the coming years, they’ve got to earn a lot of money. If they want to earn a lot of money, they’ve got to do well internationally. (more…)

A great sadness has descended across much of the Midwest today. In Detroit, Minnesota, Chicago and especially the tiny town of Green Bay, Wisconsin, the news that Packer great Brett Favre is retiring was greeted with an indescribable feeling of loss that NFL Sundays would no longer feature perhaps the greatest quarterback ever to play the game.

A subjective statement to be sure. There will be those in Montana’s corner or those pushing Unitas or perhaps even Dan Marino as best ever. And if I had to live off the difference between any of those Hall of Famers, I wouldn’t get rich that’s for sure.
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“A Congressional committee has taken the first steps toward asking the Department of Justice to launch a criminal investigation into whether Roger Clemens committed perjury during testimony about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, according to three lawyers familiar with the matter,” the New York Times reports. (more…)

In yesterday’s NBA All Star Game the East has beaten the West with 134-128. The game was played at the New Orleans Arena. The almost MVP? Boston Celtics Guard Ray Allen. He saved the East after it blew a 16 point lead by scoring 14 of his game-high 28 points in the fourth, and decisive, quarter. The Most Valuable Player was LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Arlen Specter wants to hold the NFL accountable for destroying tapes related to the New England Patriots cheating scandal. No law, federal or local prohibits one team from filming the signals of another. Nor does any law prohibit the destruction of such tapes. And yet, Arlen Specter is brave enough to stand up to the oppressive regime known as the NFL and demand justice.

I, for one, am glad that members of congress are finally realizing that illegal drug use in Major League Baseball is not the only urgent matter facing this nation. We have major companies audaciously creating and enforcing their own rules as best they see fit. What’s next? Businesses firing employees for company theft without first having the matter reviewed by a member of congress? I mean, if companies are allowed to create and enforce their own rules within the context of the law but without explicit federal approval, our system will function far too smoothly and congress might have to address such dead-end issues as healthcare and the economy.

I shiver at such a thought. Thankfully, Arlen Specter is here to help our nation keep its eye on the ball.

One of the beautiful things about the Olympic Games is, in my opinion, that it’s not just about sports. It’s about more than winning or losing. It’s about humanity. It’s about what it is to be a human being, and to share this planet with billions of other people. It’s about being the best you can be, while respecting the other. Or not? (more…)

The WaPo reports:

Juashaunna Kelly, a Theodore Roosevelt High School senior who has the fastest mile and two-mile times of any girls’ runner in the District this winter, was disqualified from Saturday’s Montgomery Invitational indoor track and field meet after officials said her Muslim clothing violated national competition rules. (more…)

The New York Times reports that “[t]rack and field’s world governing body ruled on Monday that Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee sprinter from South Africa, is not be eligible to compete in Olympic qualifying events.”

Pistorius was born 21 years ago “without fibulas and had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old.” He got fake, prosthetic legs and learned to walk on them. However, he didn’t just learn to walk on them, he learned how to run with them. And fast too. He “has set Paralympic world records in the 100, 200 and 400 meters and it was his dream to compete in the Olympic Games,” something he should be able to do because he’s fast enough. (more…)

Patriots 38, Giants 35

It was a great, nail-biting game. As a transplanted Bostonian old enough to remember viewing the Miami Dolphins’ perfect 1972 season, I’m elated.

I love sports. There are good guys. There are bad guys. You always know who’s ahead and who wins. There’s a definitive ending. There’s no gray area — partisanship without qualms. It’s tribalism without the nasty consequences (except, perhaps, in the case of soccer fans — especially British soccer fans). It’s all so simple. If only the rest of life were like sports.

Here’s my tribute to quarterback Tom Brady — the sixth-round draft choice (!) made good great: (more…)

The IOC has stripped Marion Jones from all her medals and the Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada and Andy Pettitte reportedly used drugs. (more…)

Former - now former that is - NFL star Michael Vick has been sentenced to 23 months in jail. He was found guilty of organizing dogfights and illegal gambling practices.

Vick apologized for his crimes and said that he wants to take full responsibility. He can now do so.

In jail. (more…)

“China continues to evict 13,000 people each month in preparation for the Beijing Olympics, despite worldwide attention and increased scrutiny, a housing rights group said Wednesday.

“The Center on Housing Rights and Evictions said a recent trip to the Chinese capital confirmed an estimate it made earlier this year that 1.5 million people would be displaced by the time the 2008 Games are held.”

It’s well known that China is doing some house cleaning in preparation for the Olympics. That’s one of the reasons that I believe that China should never have been allowed to host them in 08.

The Royal Dutch Soccer Association (KNVB) has decided that the national Dutch team will not play any matches against Morocco for the coming five years. The reason: yesterday, the Young Dutch team played against Young Morocco. After the match, which was won by Morocco, Moroccan-Dutchmen ran onto the field and destroyed everything (and everyone) they could (as shown on the image above).

All of this gave Dutch politician Geert Wilders a novel idea: young Moroccan-Dutchmen should, for a period of five years, not be allowed to attend matches in which one of the teams is Moroccan (not as fans that is). He also refers to them as “streetterrorists.”

That is the title of this column by Sally Jenkins about Floyd Landis:

Former cyclist Greg LeMond’s revelation that he was sexually abused as a child was powerful, but it was irrelevant to the Floyd Landis case — until the misconduct of Landis’s manager made it relevant.

The hearing will continue, with lab technicians murmuring in French about carbon-isotope ratios, mass spectrometers and troubling time gaps, but one verdict is already in: Whether Landis is guilty of doping, he is a dumbbell who belongs in the same category of people who take chainsaws to tree limbs they’re standing on.

LeMond’s testimony was a dramatic moment in the Landis hearing, the only one likely in this tedious case. It seriously undermined Landis’s posture of innocence and possibly his entire defense against accusations that he doped in last year’s Tour de France. For this he can blame no one but himself and his pal Will Geoghegan.

Previously, the case revolved around arcane science. Now it revolves around the question of character. Was Geoghegan just making a drunken crank call to LeMond when he threatened to unveil his childhood trauma? Or did he and Landis try to coerce LeMond into not testifying?

She goes on to explain that, until LeMond’s testimony, “Landis’s lawyers had actually made some headway in his case.” Namely, they had “successfully framed the hearing as an inquiry into the science and testing methods used at the Chatenay-Malabry lab outside Paris. It wasn’t Landis on trial, but the lab technicians.”

After LeMond’s testimony all that has changed. Suddenly, at least to the public, Landis does not appear to be some innocent victim. They tried to make Landis appear to be the victim, after hearing LeMond’s testimony, however, many people believe that Landis isn’t as innocent as he likes to portray himself to be.

The tactic of Landis’ lawyers was to make this case about the lab: his lawyers were well on their way, or so it seemed, to argue that the lab results could not be trusted. However, LeMond’s testimony made it less about the lab and more about Landis’ character. Sally concludes:

What started as a needed hearing about the integrity and judgement of the Chatenay-Malabry lab has now become a hearing about Landis’s integrity and judgment. The case is supposed to be about pure science, but the arbitrators are human, and at some point, they may ask themselves, which is the more reliable and believable, the French lab results or Landis’s character?