Beijing 2008. The world focuses on Chinese economic supremacy.

It has become official. The Olympic games have begun! And what better way to kick off the games than a breathtaking exhibition of artistic expression by a nation with over 5,000 years of history. Their artistic expression was nothing less than we would expect from a communist world power. If the display of thousands of Chinese people pounding drums with alarming precision was not intimidating enough, the ceremonies were dominated by more explosions than any of the athletes or viewers had ever seen before…including those representing Serbia and Montenegro. As expected, the games began with a ceremony that was much longer than necessary. I must admit that I watched every minute of it…twice.

One of the surprises of the ceremony was that George W. Bush did not do anything stupid enough to switch the focus of the festivities, or initiate a war with someone else. (nothing televised at least) Bush did, however, manage to take the spotlight from the few Iraqi athletes that have overcome such insurmountable adversity. I mean really NBC, here come a few athletes representing a country in sheer turmoil where not a soul is safe to walk down the street without fear of being obliterated by suicide bombers, and you show George Fucking Bush clapping. You have to be shitting me. Make your own opinion about that. I do not have enough room on the internet to elaborate on my feelings about that.

Well George Bush is an asshole, but not even he can ruin such a storied tradition as the Olympic games. One other thing I thought was quite amusing was that dude that was hoisted hundreds of feet into the air and almost plummeted to his death. The amusing part was not the fact that millions almost witnessed an Olympic tragedy on a scale never seen before, but the fact that he was running around the rim of the stadium opening some sort of scroll whose significance eluded me. The guy was like 10 yards ahead of the scroll at one point and then the scroll picked up steam and ended up finishing about 30 seconds before the guy. The Olympics had not even begun and already the Chinese had lost a race.

And so as the games begin (I am watching women's fencing at the moment...fuckin awesome) my focus has shifted. I can not sit here and type with my full attention to this passage. All I have left to say is this, it is only day one. There are many more laughs, tears, and laughing at tears to come. Stay tuned and enjoy the games.