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The Current Crisis
Vindication!
My Olympic boycott has done the trick.
WASHINGTON — Back in the 1990s David Brooks, then an editor at the Wall Street Journal, called me and asked me if I would like to “gloat” on the newspaper’s op-ed page. What inspired him to encourage such ungentlemanly behavior was the publication of a book, First in His Class, by David Maraniss, that vindicated my claims of the prior year that Bill Clinton was a rampant philanderer, widely recognized as such throughout Arkansas where he had apparently maintained a harem. The American Spectator had published two pieces based on interviews with Arkansas state troopers that irrefragably revealed Clinton as the kind of hound dog that would…well, that would do what the historically minded now know he did do with a White House intern of unhappy memory. I was lambasted for publishing such wild charges. Michael Kinsley called me “dishonest.” Joe Klein was equally defamatory, though he had covered Clinton in the 1992 campaign and knew all about Clinton’s libidinous proclivities as he demonstrated in his book, Primary Colors, disingenuously authored by “Anonymous.”
I told Brooks that I would not stoop to gloat, but I did write a piece that was considered by my critics to be in shockingly bad taste. I quoted them from the year before. One of them, Klein, was particularly indignant. At a reception just after the Journal’s piece appeared he told me I had acted very dishonorably. He accused me of assailing him with a “low blow.” My response was, “But, Joe, all I did was quote you.” Around our office we amusedly coined a new journalistic offense, “Tyrrellism, blackening a person’s reputation by quoting him.” I wonder if it is taught in journalism schools.
Vindication is sweet, but we must never gloat. A surprise decision made by the governing board of world swimming, FINA, last week has vindicated those of us who as voices in the wilderness complained during the 2008 Olympics that the high-tech swimming suits introduced in that Olympiad were an adulteration of the sport that threatened to distract from the athletes. No longer would attention fasten on the great feats of the swimmers. Soon the sport would be entoiled with questions of swimsuit construction, legal wrangles, corporate promotions, and other controversies that have no legitimate place in competitive swimming.
I devoted two columns to the controversy. We critics of the high-tech swimsuits were ignored or branded as Luddites opposed to progress. Our prospects of returning the sport to the athletes and delivering it from the brainy scientists who were designing the high-tech adulterations of the athletes’ equipage looked grim. But now at last week’s world championships in Rome we were vindicated beyond our dreams. World champions such as Michael Phelps complained that they were beaten not by better swimmers but by technological innovations in their rivals’ high-tech swimsuits. A huge number of world records were broken and attributed not to the athletes’ superior performance but to which swimsuit an athlete was wearing. In an absurdity that we critics had warned about, it appeared that fat swimmers were getting an advantage from the suits that better conditioned swimmers could not get. As we predicted, technology that was irrelevant to athleticism was diminishing the athletes.
FINA has answered to right reason and announced a ban on the suits beginning next year. The turnaround came rapidly after our National Collegiate Athletic Association banned the suits from American collegiate competition, recognizing that they were a burden to strained athletic budgets (they cost hundreds of dollars more than the $30 or $50 textile suits that men and women usually wear), wore out after a dozen or so races, and, as we critics had said, were adventitious to the sport. Now a fellow veteran of this War of the Swimsuits, Bob Groseth, is advising the NCAA rules committee on the standards for next year’s non-tech suits. He will be executive director beginning this autumn of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America, and he says the standards will establish which materials can be used in the suits (textile of some sort) and the amount of the athletes’ anatomy to be covered. The high-tech suits could sheath the athletes from shoulders to ankles.
You will note that as with other vindications I have enjoyed over the years I do not gloat. I shall, however, express my gratitude and respect. The world of competitive swimming has protected the integrity of the sport. Once again my belief that sports is often a more honest endeavor than politics has been rewarded.
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (51) | Leave a comment
More Articles by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
More Articles From The Current Crisis
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/08/06/vindication
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Locomotive Breath| 8.6.09 @ 7:02AM
Let 'em swim naked. Interest in the sport will be at an all time high.
Kitty| 8.6.09 @ 7:08AM
Only RET could combine Joe "Anonymous" Klein with high-tech swimming suits in one column without causing nausea.
Btw, are these the same suits that split during competitions thereby disqualifying the swimmers?
...
Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 8.6.09 @ 7:36AM
Locomotive Breath, you may be on to something. As I recall at the original Olympics the athletes wore nothing. Would add a new dimension to wrestling, don’t you think? And balance beam? Ouch!
Nittany| 8.6.09 @ 8:46AM
RET-
now please turn your attention to golf equipment.
Maximumrandb| 8.6.09 @ 9:23AM
Locomtive Breath, Gill O'Teen:
Not a bad idea, but I'd only want to watch the chicks.
TennesseeVolunteer| 8.6.09 @ 10:03AM
Please turn your attention to aluminum bats, they cause needless injuries. A laminated wood bat is available that will not break and is reasonably priced. The NCAA has turned a blind eye to the safety of the athletes (I am a former NCAA school athletic director) so the big schools who have shortened their outfield fences can feast on home runs at the peril of their players and opponents.
TennesseeVolunteer| 8.6.09 @ 10:04AM
Please turn your attention to aluminum bats, they cause needless injuries. A laminated wood bat is available that will not break and is reasonably priced. The NCAA has turned a blind eye to the safety of the athletes (I am a former NCAA school athletic director) so the big schools who have shortened their outfield fences can feast on home runs at the peril of their players and opponents.
Danny| 8.6.09 @ 10:08AM
Ditto Nittany's coments re: golf equipment. 350- to 400 yard drives are insane. Players hitting 9 irons 180-190, balls that act like superballs, really, this is getting preposterous.
I blame it on Tiger.
Alice Moore| 8.6.09 @ 10:13AM
Many sports at the elite level limit technical innovation for the sake of the sport. Major League Baseball uses wooden bats and not aluminum bats. There would be many more home runs but lots of boredom.
Pro Tennis, like swimming, is mistaken in allowing players the use of monster sized racquets. There's far less strategy.
Rightfromthestart| 8.6.09 @ 10:48AM
Ann Coulter said it:
'Always quote the liberals accurately, they HATE that.'
Michael L. Hauschild| 8.6.09 @ 11:01AM
If anyone has shot a DCM "leg" match they know the advantage of custom tailored ammo which gave the richest shooters an advantage was overcome and the playing field leveled by issuing the same ammo to everyone (the standard military rounds so successful in dispatching bad guys). Do the same with the suits, open up "bids" from the companies that manufacture suits and the winner gets the advertising rights in exchange for the competitors using their suits. This way Emmett will once again be able to resume his "spectator" role.
An unbiased Louisvillian| 8.6.09 @ 4:46PM
Absolutely use wooden bats instead of aluminum ones. And make sure they're wooden Louisville Slugger bats. Please. And thanks.
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Pingback| 8.7.09 @ 2:58PM
Indicative of Socialism | The Secret To Wellness.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Justice for US victims of Jews| 8.8.09 @ 2:42PM
Zionist Jews crimes against USA!
The nation of Israel and Jews, friend or foe of America? Actions speak louder than words;
June 8, 1967; Israeli jets attack the USS Liberty, killing 34 American soldiers.
May of 1970; Perle passing secrets to Israel during Kissinger and Nixon term
1973-2001; according to the Christian science monitor, Since 1973, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. Top Jewish senators and Jewish congressmen in the US are voting to take tax payer’s money to support Israel. If divided by today’s US Citizens, that is more than $5,700 per person. That is more than twice the cost of the Vietnam War. Israel receives over 2 billion per year as a peace accord agreement, yet still to this day violates that agreement.
1979-1981 During the US hostage crisis in Iran, Israel was specifically asked to stop supplying Iran with weapons while Iran was holding US hostages. Israel was selling 500 million dollars per year of weapons to Iran, even after America asked Israel to stop.
October 1983; Israel deliberately allows 241 American Marines to die
1984; Israel denies U.S. Justice Department demand to extradite Marc Rich, a convicted Israeli spy against America.
August 1985, Israeli American scientist arrested for stealing 800 nuclear weapons triggers from America and sending them to Israel
November 22, 1985; Jewish US Navy Employee Arrested as Israeli Spy
October 27, 1991; Israel enflames race tensions in America by supplying apartheid South Africa with weapons and forcing the Bush administration to waive sanctions against Israel.
March 1995; Israel Charged With Systematic Harassment of U.S. Marines
August 23 1996; CIA accuses Israeli spies of theft of U.S. corporate scientific and technological data as the type of espionage that poses the greatest threat to U.S. economic competitiveness.
September 1997; Israel, as a haven for Jewish American murderers to flee to and be holed up in, refuses to extradite the Jewish murderer of an American.
June 18, 1998; Israeli businessman convicted selling chemical and biological weapons components and know-how to Iran for $16 million.
January 28, 1999; Israel transfers laser technology to Communist China, despite American outrage
February 24, 1999; Another Jewish American murderer flees to Israel and is holed up there, after killing another American.
July 30, 1999 Israeli hackers attack Pentagon
February 24, 2000; Israel again sells donated US military technology to Communist China, in the face of US outrage.
September 11, 2001; Israeli spies caught by FBI and Police cheering and photographing the WTC as it fell. What was their excuse? They said they were making a Documentary of 9/11. WTF? If they knew we were going to be attacked then why did they not warn us?
On 9/11 a group of Israelis were arrested.
1) Celebrating the attacks on us.
2) Trying to blow up the George Washington Bridge.
3) Blowing up a Van on King St near 6th and 7th.
911 Missing Links documentary. Very Interesting Information!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7877765982288566190
15 March 2002; Israel ignores US demand to leave Palestinian territories, damaging American credibility and making America look like a hypocrite for forcing Sadam out of Kuwait but not Sharon out of Palestine.
June 28, 2002; Israel Reports Weapons Development in Iraq, also prodded by 25 neo-conservatives, mostly Jewish, Bush went to war with Iraq, costing nearly a thousand American soldiers their lives, no weapons found.
August 28.2002; Israel Supplying Iran again: Germany holds up Israeli military shipment said headed for Iran
October 4, 2002; 9/11: WHAT DID ISRAEL KNOW? – and when did they tell us?
November 17, 2003; Israel blatantly uses American weapons in violation of AECA agreements between both countries which stipulate that Israel not use such weapons in civilian territories, enraging and inflaming the animosity in the Middle East against America, even though Israel can use Israeli weapons since Israel is the 6th largest weapons producer, it consistently showcases American weapons against civilians, spreading the guilt onto America by association.
25 Apr 2009 A Delta Airlines passenger jet en route to Tel Aviv from New York had to make an emergency stop when an Israeli man attempted to hijack the plane.
Today; Israel forces America to keep silent about Israel’s nuclear weapons, again destroying America’s credibility world wide and leaving America looking like a hypocrite on it’s goal to end weapons of mass destruction world wide, also allowing the “unsecure” Israel to attempt to guard that nuclear stockpile from the Middle Eastern black market.
In conclusion, since the founding of Israel in 1950, no other country has cost America more lives, money, and damage to credibility than Israel.
bluecollarbytes| 8.9.09 @ 9:49AM
What's going to happen to the free speech around here as a result of the Spam and other forms of opinion-corruption that appears to be Growing?
A.S. will need to stay on top of this trend or see the entire collection of "thought" descend into disconnected chaos....as witnessed above.
The posts remind me of the same rubbish arriving in emails day after day. Do we have a Nigerian following here?
BOGY | 8.10.09 @ 3:14AM
Two cabinet ministers have strongly denied allegations of collusion in the abuse of terrorist suspects overseas.
But Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Home Secretary Alan Johnson said it was impossible to remove all risk when using intelligence obtained overseas.
This came as a committee of MPs urged a probe into the transfer of terror suspects through UK territories.
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Last week a committee of MPs and peers called for an independent inquiry into claims of UK complicity in torture.
The Joint Human Rights Committee said on Tuesday the government had not done enough to investigate these claims, because it had been unable to establish whether British officers were involved in mistreatment.
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Now the Foreign Affairs Select Committee has also said it has grave concerns that British officers were complicit in torture.
'Hard choices'
But in a joint article in the Sunday Telegraph Mr Miliband and Mr Johnson said the UK "firmly opposed" torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
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They said there was "no truth" in suggestions it was official policy to "collude in, solicit, or directly participate in abuses of prisoners".
But "difficult judgments and hard choices" had to be made, they added, and while anyone detained in the UK would be treated well, the same guarantee could not be made about those held by foreign authorities.
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"Operations have been halted where the risk of mistreatment was too high. But it is not possible to eradicate all risk," they wrote.
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Jim| 2.5.10 @ 3:52PM
Samaa mieltä. Aika mukavat, vaikka silmien väsyessä joskus hieman ärsyttävätkin. Siitä selviää nukkumalla. Vähän normaaleja kuukausilinssejä kalliimmaksi nuo tulee, jos jatkuvasti käyttää.
Yötä/päivää kuukausilinssit toimii mielestäni hyvin kun ei tarvii päivittäin pelata niiden kanssa. :D