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Once again, my kids amaze me with their awesome grasp of history, culture, and the human experience. Today's feature: Hitler.

(This is the real deal, in all its raw and unedited glory.)

Hitler was a very cruel person who killed a whole lot of people which were Jewish, he also made them slaves it didn't matter how old you were he would make them work in open land and he would have his soldiers wip them if they did not work fast or if they said anything back to them. The reason he chose to pick the Jews instead of any other culture was because he did not like Jesus, and Jesus was Jewish, he also didn't like God because he herd from many people that God owned the world and that was what he was trying to do.

"I was only 14 years old"

I'd like to conclude writing about the age controversy in Chinese gymnastics with this document. Produced by Heather Lawver and Cindy our volunteer translator, here for the first time in English is Yang Yun's confession to having cheated at the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney. While Marion Jones does her time in prison for cheating, Yang Yun still holds her Olympic medal. This video lets us put to bed once and for all the question of whether China's government has issued false documents that have allowed their gymnasts to win medals. The only question left is: how many times have they done it?

While the Internet has made electronic identity easier to wipe out and easier to censor, it has also made the distribution of truth much harder to suppress. In conclusion, here's Yang Yun in her own words. I'm very proud to have worked with so many people around the world on this project: a sincere thank you to everyone who helped.
-stryde.hax

Now that I'm home for the school year, I'm having adventures of a more domestic nature. Here's the story of my day today:



And the song...

About two years ago, I got an email from a stranger on MySpace. In his message, he asked me about my interest in travel and briefly told me about his recent back-packing trip in Europe. For a few weeks, we exchanged emails almost every day, and eventually, we went out for coffee.

That was how I met MJ.



After we'd had several months of dinners, movies, fine wines, and good times, he decided to move to Los Angeles. From previous unpleasant experiences, I'd already learned that there are generally three ways these scenarios can play out: 1) You can feel abandoned, throw a fit, and break up with the person before they leave; 2) You can attempt a long-distance relationship, make lots of promises neither of you will keep, and break up after they've gone; or 3) You can quit your job, pack your things, and go with them, which is no guarantee that it'll work out once you get there anyway. Cynical? Yes, but not without reason.

Dissatisfied with all those options, I decided to invent an alternative strategy: 4) You can be unselfish and let them go. Now I'm no saint, and I don't mind admitting to you that I was devastated at the thought of losing him, but I also knew how badly he needed the change and how well LA would suit him. So while he was making arrangements, I went full-tilt into supportive friend mode, and when he left, I sent him off with a hug and a smile and never expected to see him again.

And I didn't. We spoke on the phone once or twice when he was first settling in, but then we got busy with our own lives and left it at that.



Until two weeks ago, when I got another email. It took me a few minutes to sort out who it was from as the address was unfamiliar and the author signed it with his initials. Something about how it had been a long time, an apology for not keeping in touch, going to be in town for a few days, really want to catch up, lots to talk about...

So after not speaking to him in well over a year, I suddenly found myself sitting across from MJ at one of our favorite haunts, talking jobs and families and traveling as if he'd never been away.

Since then, we've spoken several times, and a few days ago, he called to ask if I want to go to Spain with him. I think I would go pretty much anywhere with this man. Welcome back, MJ. I've missed you.

I'm not normally one to get into politics (or Matt Damon), but my friends (mostly my religious friends) are all getting up-in-arms over this video at the moment...



Irrelevant remarks about dinosaurs aside, Damon's point that Palin is a wild card is valid. We really haven't seen her in leadership enough to know who she is or what she's about. I think she's been chosen for two reasons 1) she's a young woman, which they're hoping will sway young voters and Clinton supporters, and 2) she's deeply religious, which should appeal to those on the right who think McCain is too socially liberal.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm not about to vote for someone based on what religious beliefs he or she claims to hold any more than I'd choose my heart surgeon based on whether I thought he was a nice guy. Show me training, skill, and experience. Show me an intricate knowledge of foreign & domestic policies, a history of prudent financial decisions, a deep thirst for justice, and a stomach strong enough to take the world's scrutiny. I'm glad Sarah Palin loves Jesus, but I know a lot of people who love Jesus and still aren't qualified to lead the free world.

I'm right with Damon on this one, especially that priceless Disney movie analogy. I just do not care what a swell gal Palin is. She has no business being in a national executive office.


And that is all I wish to say about this election.

A Land of Make-Believe

Who can forget Marion Jones? Seven years after she won gold medals in the Olympic games in Sydney, she was prosecuted by her own government for her role in an illegal steroids distribution ring. Sentenced to a jail term of six months for lying to federal prosecutors about her involvement, she is still currently in jail. After her admission of cheating she was stripped of every Olympic medal she ever won.

The reality of Jones's fate is not what I'm writing about today. I want to write about a land of make believe. Pretend for a moment that Jones went on to tell everyone that she cheated in the Olympics on film in a movie about her life. What if Jones went on to become a television reporter, and the mayor of her town gave a speech about her Olympic performance in which he bragged about her steroid use? And what if nobody cared? That would be a very interesting, very different world, wouldn't it?

We're Living In It

Consider for a moment the strange case of Chinese Olympic gymnast Yang Yun. Competing in the same games as Jones in Sydney, Yun won the bronze medal on the uneven bars. Soon thereafter, she was featured in a state sponsored documentary film, "Yang Yun: My Olympics". In this film she states that she competed as a 14-year-old at Sydney, two years underage. A confidential source forwarded me a copy of this film recently, and I have posted it at the Internet Archive. If Yang Yun's videotaped admission isn't enough, consider this jubilant speech still hosted (for now!) on the government web server sports.gov.cn. How old is this document? Annual copies have been saved by the Internet Archive dating back to 2002. The Google Translated version from 2002 is in agreement with the currently hosted version. This document is a transcript of a speech given 17 October 2000 by Fu Guoliang, the head of the Hunan Provincial Sports Bureau, to his colleagues. In addition to the automated translation, I've had this document inspected by multiple contacts who speak Chinese because of the translation subtlety I'm about to share with you.

体操运动员杨云实际年龄才１４岁，在悉尼初试身手，
就引起体操界的注目并夺得一枚铜牌，前程不可限量。

Gymnast Yang Yun's real age was only 14. She tried 
her hands in Sydney for the first time and attracted 
the attention of the gymnastic community by winning 
one bronze medal. Her future is limitless.

For those who are skeptical, please download this document straight from the government web server it's hosted on and translate it on your own. Google Translate and World Lingo do a pretty good job. The translation above is spot on: Guoliang is really saying real age, a differentiation one would not normally make. In fact, in the entire course of this speech, he never once uses the phrase "real age" when referring to the age of other gymnasts. Is it conspicuous that the phrase "real age" is used to qualify the age of a gymnast who competed under a government issued passport with a completely different birthday? Whether this distinction is made in order to emphasize that her actual age is different from the one on the passport she competed under, or in order to differentiate between the Chinese cultural traditions of "real age" vs. "virtual age", the point is clear: Yang Yun competed at fourteen years of age. How stunning is it that this is a point of pride to a government official?

In Plain Sight

Is this information a conspiracy? A big secret? Take a look at this message board listing posted by insiders within the Chinese gymnastics team:

这个时候是不是不太方便谈这些关于生日、年龄的事，
尤其是两大UB高手的，免得被间谍抓到把柄//

Talking about these birthday and age matters isn't 
too convenient right now, especially for the two 
big uneven bars aces [He Kexin and Yang Yilin], 
to avoid having (the information) grabbed by spies.

Certainly someone thinks there's still a need for secrecy. Personally, I'm no longer so sure. It may come as a shock that every 'revelation' in this entry was uncovered months ago by Diane Pucin. Her article received the same reception from the IOC as my blog: a cacophony of silence. Certainly Marion Jones needed to be concerned about 'spies'. However I believe the Chinese gymnastics team need fear no such threat of justice.

Which Reality?

Taking a look at the two different experiences of Jones and Yang, it's easy to conclude that a double standard is being applied. As Sally Jenkins so deftly points out, the IOC once barred Greek sprinter Ekaterina Thanou from competition simply for a pattern of doping offenses, despite her having tested negative for the Games. Given the documents above, does the Chinese government have a history of age falsification in gymnastics? Can a reasonable person conclude that there is a pattern? And if so, how do we explain the double standard?

One Standard

The answer, of course, is that the IOC is much smarter than we are. They are applying a single standard: What The Government Says Is True. The US government declared Jones a cheater, and the IOC applied their standard and stripped her medals. The Chinese government maintains that their gymnasts are of age, and the IOC again applied their standard and agreed. It seems that someone at the IOC is a fan of great literature, and is making an exercise of applying the classics:

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