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Of course it is ridiculously easy to dismiss Mr. Fierstein as a drama queen, and those who do so probably don’t have much respect for Dan Savage, either:
… Most of us weren’t planning to go to the Olympic games in Russia this winter, of course, so we wouldn’t be able to participate in a boycott if one got off the ground. And there are good arguments to be made against boycotting the Olympics in Sochi. Outsports opposes a boycott. And Patrick Burke, co-founder of the You Can Play Project, an organization for gay athletes and their straight allies, makes a solid argument against a boycott…
If there isn’t a boycott—if gay and pro-gay athletes compete at the Olympics in Sochi this winter—there must be a protest during the Sochi Olympics that is as powerful and indelible as Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s protest during the Mexico City Olympics. It should happen on the medal stand while the world watches.
But boycott or no boycott there is something we can do right here, right now, in Seattle and other US cities to show our solidarity with Russian queers and their allies and to help to draw international attention to the persecution of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, trans people, and straight allies in Putin’s increasingly fascistic Russia: DUMP RUSSIAN VODKA…
However, here’s the Extremely Not Frivolous Always Serious NYTimes:
… For some time, antigay sentiment has been spreading in Russia’s conservative society, encouraged by the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church. But Mr. Putin and his government have taken that to a new level by legitimizing the hatemongering in legislation.
Earlier this month, he signed a law banning the adoption of Russian-born children to gay couples and to any couple or single parent living in any country where marriage equality exists. Last month, Mr. Putin signed a law allowing the police to arrest tourists and foreigners suspected of being gay or pro-gay and detain them for up to 14 days. He also signed a bill classifying “homosexual” propaganda as pornography with vague wording that could subject anyone arguing for tolerance or educating children about homosexuality to arrest and fines.
There is no defense for such actions, which occur against a backdrop of growing violence against gays and could be seen as a license for even more violence. Russia is in danger of moving from pursuing the rule of law to the rule of hate. The new laws contravene Russian commitments to human rights and fundamental freedoms under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe…
The United States, which has made great strides in accepting and protecting gay rights, has expressed concern about the new laws but needs to be more forceful. So does the International Olympic Committee, which too often fails to defend the Olympic ideals and should be leading a full-throated international campaign to insist that Russia repeal these laws….
Just Some Fuckhead
Holy smokes, I didn’t even know Russians could be gay.
The prophet Nostradumbass
There’s perfectly decent vodkas from all sorts of other countries; it’s easy to avoid the Russian stuff.
On another subject, there’s been a explosion at a propane plant in Florida, near Orlando.
Suzanne
Never get involved in a land war in Asia.
However, I would LOVE if the Olympics got moved, the Russians got pissed, and the rest of the world shrugged their shoulders and uttered a collective “meh”. Wy should the rest of the world give a shit about that frosty hellhole?
Phoenician in a time of Romans
Sounds like he’s headed for the compulsory wearing of pink triangles there…
Frankensteinbeck
‘In danger of’? This is RUSSIA, where the guy in charge actually does have journalists assassinated just for annoying him.
askew
While I find the Russian anti-gay laws/attitude appalling, I don’t want to see the U.S. boycott the Olympic Games. I think that sends a bad message. But, I have no problems with boycotting products from Russia.
Gex
Lots and lots of concerned words will be uttered by government officials, US Olympic team officials, and corporate sponsors.
Followed by a collective shrug.
Followed by business as usual.
There’s too much money on the line for any serious pushback to occur. So all that’s left is ineffective consumer posturing.
sparky
Google image Putin
Being gay is frowned upon in Russia? Butch is okay, though.
Beat up a sissy/nancy-boy/twink for Vlad.
Naked male wrestling ancient Greek-style is sooo hetero.
Oye. I sound (am). . . drunk.
Keith G
Russian vodka….bleh. Pour yourself a shot of Tito’s.
As far as the Olympics, maybe Johnny Weir needs to show Putin the Ruskies who can swing a bigger dick.
Gex
@askew: What is the bad message that sends?
Yatsuno
@Gex: Too late in the game. China’s laws were already long on the books before Beijing so ramping up the pressure to change was easier to manage. The IOC could definitely be making more noise than they should, but the gay athletes should all go and make their presence LOUD.
The Other Chuck
Pfft I pretty much only drink Tito’s or Svedka anyway. It’s not like scotch or even tequila, once you get to a decent level of purity, vodka is vodka.
Jane2
America isn’t exactly the poster country for gay rights, and saying “but they’re not as bad as Russia’s policies” doesn’t cut it. The last boycott (over the invasion of Afghanistan…oh the irony) and the subsequent boycott of LA did absolutely nothing to affect either country’s policies.
kdaug
My dog snores. Considerably out of proportion to her size. Sneaks onto the bed when I’m asleep and commences with her little Richter competition.
Ideas?
J.Ty
@askew: Sent a nice (if later unheeded here) message in 1980.
Suzanne
@Keith G: I hope some gay athlete kisses Putin on international TV.
sfinny
@kdaug: earplugs?
NotMax
@The Other Chuck
YMMV, it should go without saying.
I l-o-oo-ooove to drink, but wouldn’t drink tequila if it was free and served in a keeper solid platinum cup.
Strictly a matter of personal taste, of course, but to my palate it is the toe jam of spirits.
JR
I want all the athletes to wear rainbow flag temporary tattoos to their events. And the medal ceremonies. And the Opening Ceremony. And the Closing.
dance around in your bones
We usually drink Swedish or Austrian vodka. I don’t know why – prolly ’cause it’s cheap.
If Steeplejack is around? I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed Ugetsu Monogatari – beautifully filmed and a great weird story – plus it made me remember that thing women used to do in Japan – Hikimayu – where they shaved their eyebrows off and painted smudges on their foreheads instead. I read about it in The Tale of Genji but hadn’t actually seen it before. Nice – thanks!
sparky
@kdaug: Euthanasia or keeping your bedroom door closed? The latter seems more rational, but that’s just me.
The Other Chuck
@NotMax: Tequila starts getting tasty at $40/bottle and up. And even cheap tequila you can toss into a margarita and enjoy – unlike, for example, Johnnie Walker Red which one should use only as an emergency topical antiseptic.
NotMax
@dance around in your bones
Ever see Tampopo? Great fun and entirely entertaining.
Kac90b
Well sure. Russians can be gay. Just like Americans can be.
TheMightyTrowel
I hope the IOC gets involved but I’m not banking on it. I know lgbt athletes are against a boycott of the games and I’ve heard there’s a big gay rights protest planned for early Feb in Sochi but whether it’s a potempkin protest or a real one, whether the media covers it, how the media covers it, whether it will change anything (it probably won’t) are all unclear. NBC in the states are being super cagey about how they’re covering all of this.
Honestly, with all the good news in some quarters (my state is putting gay marriage legislation through in Sept! Go ACT!) the global violent backlash against LGBT people over the past couple of years is just horrifying. It’s never been easy in many places, but it’s gotten so much worse so quickly that I just. I don’t even know.
xx. TMT (proud if slightly depressed bisexual)
NotMax
@
In a long and storied drinking career, have had dirt-cheap tequila, bar tequila and pricey tequila. No thanks to all.
Guilty pleasure where sippin’ scotch whisky is concerned was Loch Dhu (no longer made) which was so peaty and smoky (nearly black in color) one could practically barbeque over it. One of those love-it-or-hate-it brands.
dance around in your bones
@NotMax: I’ll have to watch it again – saw it many years ago……it’s on the list of to be seen again!
I love the recommendations of the BJ commentariat. Y’all are awesome.
MikeJ
I just don’t understand vodka drinkers to begin with. Why would you pick a drink where quality is measured by a lack of flavor? I often have flavorless liquids, but usually it’s a splash of water in my scotch.
NotMax
General query: looks as if shall have to book a flight in Sept. (not pleased about it).
Haven’t taken a plane in like 25 years. Best place online to check fares still kayak.com?
Jane2
@NotMax: I have good luck with Google flights.
dance around in your bones
Watching Portrait of Jennie right now, also on Steeplejack’s reco…..
Tequila is best done as shots because anything else you make from it tastes like crap IMHO….margaritas included. They don’t call it to kill ya for nothing. Spent too many mornings embracing the porcelain throne after a night of tequila – and I lived in Baja for many years. Oh well. No mas!
Yatsuno
@Jane2: Save the link. :)
(It broke. U fix please.)
@dance around in your bones: Tequila you either love or hate. There really is no in-between. Put me in the love camp please.
fuckwit
This definitely is like the total opposite of gay, but it’s Russian, and it definitely was designed to annoy Putin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRFirQ7LVT8
Steeplejack
@dance around in your bones:
Glad you liked it. I watched some of it today, had to go do something, and will finish it tomorrow. I hadn’t seen it in decades, and I was blown away again by Mizoguchi’s painterly visual style.
And this will motivate me to watch a few of his other movies that I have on the DVR: The Life of Oharu (1952), Sansho the Bailiff (1954) and The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939) (which was just on TCM a week or so ago).
Right now I’m back to “Blink,” an episode of Doctor Who from 2007. It’s got those damn stone angels in it. And it’s got Carey Mulligan from The Great Gatsby. Always weird to run across someone who got big before they got big.
dance around in your bones
@Yatsuno:
Well, I kind of love it while I’m doing shots but hate it afterwards when I’m hurling. So for me it’s a love/hate thingy.
@Steeplejack: Ok, those will all go on my to be watched list. Thank you so much.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
That’s a great movie. And now available on DVD, I think, which it wasn’t for a really long time. Trailer here (Tampopo, 1985), for those who might be interested.
fuckwit
Gah wrong link. The version with the Putin-related backstory is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNa7tNFB7c4
Michael G
I just spent three and a half weeks in Russia, taking the Trans-Siberian express.
I don’t think boycotts will do much–the average Russian is already pretty isolated from the West. Ramping up the isolation isn’t going to influence anyone’s opinion.
Rather, if we want to spread our values, we should *increase* their exposure to them. If they see successful gay athletes who don’t live up to their stereotypes, I think that *has* to be a good thing. I’d like them to hear the idea “gay people are just like you and me” many, many more times.
(I also see a lot of people up on their high horse, but our country’s tolerance of homosexuality is pretty freakin’ recent. And you know if they could, even today a fifth of the states in the US would enact anti-gay laws to the right of Russia’s)
J.Ty
@Steeplejack: ’round this house we call Mulligan “Sally Sparrow” whenever we run into her. Primacy is a harsh mistress.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
I checked to see if this scene is on YouTube. Yes! “The Oyster.”
ETA: Yeah, I’m pretty sure this movie is about food and sex. Just needed to refresh my memory.
NotMax
@dance around in your bones
The other problem I have with tequila drinking is that I have always intensely disliked the taste of salt.
I do use it sparingly in cooking, however, where it can dilute into or alloy with other flavors and be less evident. Just about at the bottom of one of those round Morton’s boxes of salt. That’ll be the second one I’ve gone through since I moved here 30 years ago.
Took 1½ years, but did finally get the college food service to agree to stop salting the french fries.
Mnemosyne
@dance around in your bones:
You’ve never had my boss’s husband’s margaritas, then. Tequila, triple sec, and fresh-squeezed lime juice. He makes them for our office every Cinco de Mayo and we have to dole them out very cautiously, because those suckers sneak right up on you.
Jane2
@Yatsuno: Google Flights
Steeplejack
@J.Ty:
Is this the first appearance of the angels? I saw the two-parter that came later, but this period of the series was sort of hit or miss for me.
dance around in your bones
@NotMax: I’ve never liked the salt on the rim of a margarita. I just rub it off if I forget to order it without.
Another shout-out for straight shots – if the tequila is good enough it doesn’t taste like kerosene. Or, one could just drink something else.
When I lived in Mexico, they had a term for people who imbibed a lot of tequila – “two lines in the sand” – meaning, when they dragged you back to your house or trailer, your feet left two lines in the sand.
@Mnemosyne: Tequila IS a sneaky sucker. It should come with a “CAUTION” label.
J.Ty
@Steeplejack: It is, yeah. That episode is by Steven Moffat, who also wrote the Silence in the Library 2-parter. He’s show-runner now. Seems to have lost the magic, but he’s good at spooky.
Spoilers, I guess, but which two-parter?
max
@NotMax: I l-o-oo-ooove to drink, but wouldn’t drink tequila if it was free and served in a keeper solid platinum cup.
And that’s why you’re NotMax. Yep, tequila, a bunch of salt (sea salt!) and a big old lime. About the only hard liquor I like and way better than that pale radiator fluid the Russians drink. (Worst and sickest hangover I ever had was from vodka. Gah.)(
@Jane2: America isn’t exactly the poster country for gay rights, and saying “but they’re not as bad as Russia’s policies” doesn’t cut it. The last boycott (over the invasion of Afghanistan…oh the irony) and the subsequent boycott of LA did absolutely nothing to affect either country’s policies.
Going to Sochi (which is, incidentally, at the latitude as, say, Venice) and flying the rainbow flag is going to work a lot better at annoying Putin and the anti-gay crowd in an effective than ‘the Americans are acting like brats again’ act.
max
[‘Particularly since no one will believe it is in the cause of anti-discrimination.’]
Steeplejack
@J.Ty:
I meant “The Time of Angels”/“Flesh and Stone.” I know the angels reappear in New York in the most recent series, but I’m just now starting those. In fact, the reason I’m watching “Blink” is because the DVR hoovered it up along with one of those, and it was the oldest episode in the queue when I started watching tonight.
And I know the angels have appeared another time or two, but, as I said, I have big gaps in my viewing. Was just wondering if this was their first appearance. Thanks for the info. And for no spoilers.
J.Ty
@Steeplejack: If you like Blink you should watch Silence in the Library. Same showrunner, Doctor, and author.
ETA: Silence in the Library lost that year’s Hugo in the relevant category to Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
/librarian
Steeplejack
@J.Ty:
Yeah, I know that’s the other one. I’m trying to watch groups of episodes in order, and what I’ve got on DVR right now is the most recent season. Then I’ll go back and fill in Tennant. (I think I saw all, or almost all, of the Eccleston ones.)
J.Ty
@Steeplejack: Did you like Eccleston? I found him to be a little grumpy, personally. But I grew up with my dad showing me old episodes from the Tom Baker years, when Douglas Adams was in charge.
Cookie Monster
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances two parter from the first season of “New” Who is also by Moffat, as is The Girl in the Fireplace from the second season.
pastormaker
Remind me again about boycotting countries over their atrocious human rights records next time there’s an international sporting event in the USA.
J.Ty
@pastormaker: America’s Cup is going on right now in San Francisco…
Jess Sane
I don’t have much respect for Dan Savage, but it stems mostly from his cheerleading in favor of the Iraq war.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@pastormaker: You’re right. The USA’s human rights record is totally as bad as Russia, or Saudi Arabia, or North Korea. Boycott away!
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Jess Sane: Yeah, he really covered himself in glory with this article. Has he ever repudiated that, or apologized for it?
Steeplejack
@J.Ty:
I thought Eccleston was okay. I first saw Doctor Who back in the Tom Baker years when some PBS station used to run episodes late on Saturday night. So I thought the reboot was an interesting idea, and Eccleston was just “different,” not “good” or “bad.” Of course, now there’s a whole cottage industry involved in critiquing and comparing the “new” doctors. I find that they all have their strengths, usually depending on the writing of the individual episode.
BruinKid
@Just Some Fuckhead: Yeah, I knew a Russian girl in college who didn’t come to the U.S. until she was in high school. She saw two gay guys holding hands when we were walking to a choir rehearsal, and she was genuinely surprised gay people existed.
Now, this was back in the late 1990s. She wasn’t anti-gay at all, it had simply never crossed her mind because it was never talked about in public in Russia.
gorram
Um… did anyone even check this with Russian activists at all?
MikeJ
@gorram: They aren’t actually against the boycott, they just don’t think it will have any effect. I don’t know if they’re right or not. I do know there’s a long history of using boycotts in the US, and very little experience with them in Russia.
hamletta
@dance around in your bones: Portrait of Jennie is a weird movie. Without the talent of everyone involved, it would be gross. Instead it’s just sadly eerie.
Spent some time tonight arguing about Spike Lee’s 50 Essential Films over at Gawker. People are stupid.
BillinGlendaleCA
@BruinKid: I didn’t know anybody who was gay and out in high school. However, my freshman year at UCLA my roommate talked me into a seminar class in the School of Education and we had to introduce ourselves, there were 7 people in the class. One woman started her introduction saying she was a lesbian. Then again, that was they late 70’s and we had just had a ballot measure to keep anyone gay or anyone who supported gay rights from working in public schools.
SpaceSquid
America’s number one geopolitical foe versus the reason God sends hurricanes to punish the US? Can’t wait to see who the Republicans will want to be pricks to the most.
Vanya
We should boycott the Olympics just on general principle – because they are an exercise in corporate exploitation run by an avowed fascist. Am I a hypocrite because I will spend the World Cup glued to the screen even though FIFA is just as corrupt and awful as the IOC? Yes I am, but I will only compromise my principles for one event and the Olympics can go.
Getting off my high horse – boycotting Russian vodka is fairly pointless. The Russian state is hardly dependent on vodka exports to the West. We need to hit Russia where it hurts – boycotting Russian fashion designers and blacklisting Russian elites from cocktail parties in London, art openings, and Viennese dress balls would be a better start. Refuse to sell Russian nationals real estate in Paris, London and Vienna. Russian elites want desperately to be accepted by the West – if they are going to treat gays as pariahs then we should start treating Russians as pariahs until Putin realizes that going after the gay to bolster his standing among nationalists is a bad idea.
SRW1
For a homophobe Vlad does a lot of topless posing. And then he dumped wifey recently. Methinks we may have a closet case.
hamletta
@Vanya: Shouldn’t we do the same to American banksters?
I don’t think the rich give a shit. Gays, black people, poor people; whatever is handy to get the rubes in a froth.
Amir Khalid
@SRW1:
Putin started out in the KGB. I think it’s more likely that the KGB has never really left him, that he’s still a secret policeman at heart. In addition to being the kind who can’t let go of power.
John Weiss
@The Other Chuck: All spirits start out as grain/potato alcohol. So all spirits are flavored vodka.
raven
SIXTY FOUR DEGREES IN GEORGIA IN JULY!
raven
Hillary Rettig
Every time someone mentions the Russian Orthodox Church, someone should link to this:
http://boingboing.net/2012/04/06/this-church-scandal-in-russia.html
NotMax
@raven
Hey there.
Looks as if we dodged the Flossie bullet, as the storm fell apart fast and has been downgraded to a tropical depression.
Surf was 12 to 18 feet. Harbors and Haleakala National Park remain closed. Local Flossie report here.
Frankly, the concentrated weather chaos we had for about an hour or so was more than sufficient.
BTW, have been meaning to inquire as how the sewer relocation is progressing.
raven
@NotMax: But there seems to be widespread power outages?
We got the preliminary post-survey report from the city. Because of slope issues and the fact that the existing sewer runs under two of our neighbor’s houses they propose to move the entire line along a path almost three blocks long. This is going to entail easements from a number of folks and there are some big trees in the way. We had hoped they might finish by September but I don’t think there is any way that is going to happen. Mission creep.
NotMax
@raven
Yeah, power still out in a few areas. Weather forecasts for Tuesday are all over the place as to what it will be like. Most still hinting at 70 to 90 per cent chance of rains and wind.
Fingers crossed for you that the city doesn’t come across an archeologically important site while digging.
raven
@NotMax: Yikes, hadn’t thought of that! There is some heavy growth where they want to go.
p.a.
Except for S. Africa, how many boycotts have been really effective? I usually come down on the ‘stay engaged’ side on these issues.
Only decent vodka is potato vodka. Chopin and Luksusowa are from Poland, so we can get ripped and still maintain our moral purity.
raven
@NotMax: At the UGA graduation it is tradition that the county sheriff leads the procession with his drawn sword to ward off Indian attacks.
aimai
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Wow. That’s just astounding. It does take one back to that time, though. I remember being lectured to by a formerly pacifist, leftist (his mother was in the ILGWU for god’s sake) philosophy professor about the necessity of bombing Iraq. He just flipped out after 9/11 and simply couldn’t apply the rational part of his brain to what he was being told. He came back, older, sadder, and wiser but its like for a few months–a few crucial months–he completely lost his fucking mind and everything he knew to be true (Bush would be incompetent, Cheney was malevolent, nation building doesn’t work, people don’t like to be bombed into submission) was false. At least he wasn’t in a position to influence anyone, and I know he snapped back to normal a few months into the war.
NotMax
@raven
Odd, and a bit goofy.
Movie was on yesterday with the Russian actress Maria Ouspenskaya weirdly cast as an Indian (the sub-continent, not the Native American, type). Though made some years before his mug graced the movies, she looks like Walter Matthau in drag.
Betty Cracker
@The prophet Nostradumbass: One great thing about the internet is that now it’s harder for people to lie about or obfuscate boneheaded positions they held in the past. I had no idea Savage was one of the many liberals who fell for the Bush Admin’s bullshit on Iraq. Disappointing, but not surprising.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@aimai: I think of the Minbari every time I hear a story like that.
Omnes Omnibus
I think boycotts work well when they are able to deny the boycotted party something it wants – money, respect, etc. For example, the SA boycott managed to do both. OTOH they can provoke a “Fuck you” response. Will Russians looking at the US’s record on gay rights be somewhat justified in calling out boycotters for hypocrisy and then ignoring them? And even if not they aren’t justified in doing so, who will be surprised if that is what happens? Would a rainbow version of Tommie Smith and John Carlos work better?
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
The Cesar Chavez/UFW grape boycott comes to mind as successful in its goals.
In the case of South African apartheid, the snowballing of divestment was indeed key.
Neddie Jingo
@aimai: I remember the time well, and I remember thinking that as a person of the Left, I shouldn’t be opposed to an action that would result in the overthrow of a truly evil bastard and the liberation of the people who were under his tyranny. I’d seen the Uday and Qusay videos, the brutal suppression of the Marsh Arabs, and believed the “gassing his own people” reports. I wasn’t rah-rah-ing the troops and buying the “flowers and candy” bullshit, but goddammit, Saddam was deeply malignant and he deserved whatever he got — all this in spite of the obvious mendacity of the neocons and the slavering of the oil companies.
I had an online disagreement with a friend of mine, who asked me, Where does that impulse end? Do we gear up for war everywhere, and liberate every repressed and miserable population? What are the long-term implications of the invasion? After Saddam bites it, do we rush on to Teheran? Lahore? And supposing all that was successful, what then? Do you want to govern that shit, a foreign occupier with a hair-thin supply line and a deeply resentful population?
This friend was English, and knew something about Empire.
I watched the tanks going over the berms with Ted Koppel running the play-by-play, and about then the idealistic scales fell away. Sure, Saddam was going to get what was coming to him, but… Yikes.
jon
I’m going to do the boycott that will matter most: not watch the Olympics. If NBC doesn’t get the ratings, the IOC doesn’t get the big money, and future games get to be played away from the Kingdom of Asshat or the People’s Republic of Praetorianism.
The Red Pen
Polish vodka is the best, anyway — at least according to my Belarussian friends.
Russian vodka is 2nd best and after that is Belarussian vodka (a close 3rd) and the worst is Ukrainian vodka. Anything else, you want to pass through a Britta filter to improve (pro tip, folks!).
After hearing the praises of Polish vodka, I shared the fact that there is a long running thread of ethnic jokes in America that paint Poles as being really stupid. My friend paused and said, “Eez naht jyoke.”
Another Halocene Human
Relevant:
Catholic links to Russian anti-gay activists:
http://barthsnotes.com/2013/07/27/us-anti-gay-catholic-activist-makes-russia-links/
Read it. It’s a veritable ecumenical council of hatred.
SRW1
@Amir Khalid:
Yep, I was just kidding. Putin is a wannabe macho blowhard. The slightly bizarre thing is that his stunts tend to be rather transparent.
Maus
@Keith G: Yeah! Tito’s or Dry Fly definitely make me not need to worry about Russian vodka, ever.
gogol's wife
@NotMax:
The Rains Came! Fabulous film.
Misterpuff
@Omnes Omnibus: Jesse Owens didn’t boycott Nazi Germany. Jesse Owens went over and kicked Nazi ass. The Master Race bested by a black man.
Russian skaters should be bested by gay American skaters! USA! USA! USGay!
Seriously, the LBGT community should stick this in the Russian’s faces on International Television.
boatboy_srq
@Just Some Fuckhead: Clearly you’ve never been to Leningrad/Petrograd/St. Petersburg/That place.
Omnes Omnibus
@Misterpuff: I think it is a pick your weapon situation. In some situations, engagement works; in others, a boycott is more effective. I can honestly say that I don’t know enough about it to know which option is best here.
Mike in NC
Lindsey Graham is leading the drive for an Olympics boycott, but because of Snowden. Still a stupid idea.
pastormaker
@The prophet Nostradumbass: I guess I should just overlook your country’s disgusting, current abuses because someone somewhere is doing something worse. Great “get out of jail free” card you got there, Mr Guantanamo.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I wonder if Mr. Savage happens to be Jewish? IMO, a whooooole lot of Jews changed previously long held positions to encourage the whomping of Iraq.
AdamK
“Vodka”? That’s a RUSSIAN word. I call it “freedom milk”.
boatboy_srq
I still don’t know whether boycotting (specifically) Stoli now (which has come out in support of LGBT rights as a currently-private company) is useful in applying pressure to Russia (which won’t own Stoli until next year). Hitting state-owned businesses, or private enterprises that do not support us, seems like it would be more effective.
Now if Lada were being marketed outside Russia, that might make more of a dent.
Joel
Whenever people talk about vodka, my mind wanders to this taste test conducted by the New York Times eight years ago. Key paragraph:
In the United States almost all vodka producers buy neutral spirits that have already been distilled from grain by one of several big Midwestern companies like Archer Daniels Midland. The neutral spirits, which are 95 percent alcohol or more, are trucked to the producers, where they are filtered, diluted and bottled.
JWL
The Olympic merry-go-round has always been more trouble than it’s worth.
The summer games should be permanently based in Greece. The winter games to wherever the best odds of snow having fallen is assured, if there is such a place on the face of the earth nowadays.
Heliopause
Really, this is one of the stupidest boycotts ever. Nobody even uses Russian vodka except weird purists who do so for no other reason than vodka is supposed to be Russian. Well, that’s just bullshit, and if you’re buying anything other than the cheap American shit on the bottom shelf you’re a dumbass. Christ, the whole point of vodka is that you can’t fucking taste it.
Want to make a real difference in the world? Reduce your petroleum consumption by a third and stick with it for the rest of your life. That will not only hit Russia harder than any stupid vodka boycott possibly could, it will hit noted gay rights havens such as Saudi Arabia as well.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@pastormaker: I really don’t give a flying fuck what you think, Mr. Putin.
Cleos Mom
If Eddie Snowden is gay, this could turn out to be entertaining in a Coliseum sort of way.