Budapest 2024:

In 2017, the next summer Olympics bid will be determined.  I hope the bid will go to Budapest.  This is a city that's bid on the Olympics six times and never been granted their wish.  The capital of Hungary, which is #3 in per capita medals and #8 in all-time medals, the only country with such an amazing record yet to host an Olympic Games.  If there's any country that has earned an Olympics, it's these little titans that could on the Danube river.

Budapest is full of beautiful scenery and architecture, with an ancient and glorious tradition going back thousands of years.  The city stands for all of Eastern Europe, which has yet to host an Olympics and celebrate their liberation from communism.  This would be the first time Eastern Europe is 're-introduced' to the world stage.

Tokyo 2020 is all well and good, I love Japan and Tokyo is the biggest city in the world, so giving it a 2nd Olympics is a fine idea.  But the true spirit of the Olympics is to keep expanding into new places and bringing new countries into the fold.  Budapest has never hosted an Olympics, in fact the entirety of Eastern Europe has never hosted a summer Olympics before.  It's about time they received their due.  Eastern Europe is in no way inferior to Western Europe, and in fact is far more politically sane and sensible these days than their Western cousins.  I'd much rather live in Eastern Europe than Western Europe these days.  Western Europe has already hosted the Olympics a plethora of times, London alone has already hosted 3 Olympics.  Can't Budapest be given the nod even once?

Meanwhile, Koyomimonogatari is out subbed in bluray, a huge step up from the 360p original version that was almost unwatchable.  However, there's not much point watching it until Owarimonogatari comes out in blu-ray first.  Hopefully that will come soon, and then both new seasons of Monogatari can be re-watched in their full splendor.

As predicted, America is lobbying the IOC to ban all Russian athletes from the Olympics just because some of them have been caught doping.  As though America is innocent of doping, with two of its track and field athletes caught doping multiple times still on the US team representing us in Rio.  Why not ban America from Rio instead?  The only country banned from the Olympics was South Africa over apartheid.  All sorts of evil dictators were allowed to send athletes to the Olympics, because the Olympics were viewed as a bridge to bring the world together regardless of our political differences.  Now the USA wants to suborn the Olympics as just one more tool to bully and bludgeon Russia into submission with, banning them on nonsense charges when in reality it's because Russia annexed Crimea and supported Donetsk and Luhansk against Kiev.  I hope the IOC can see through this politicizing of sport and veto it once and for all.  The Olympics have nothing to do with geopolitics and everyone should be welcome here, just like how wars temporarily ended in Greece when it was time for their Olympic games.

I don't want to sound eager about thermonuclear Armageddon, but banning Russia from the Olympics is an act of war, and should be met accordingly.  Russia has been under a pattern of persecution in all athletic events, where it has unfairly lost medals and games time after time.  The World Cup was disrupted by a laser pointer, Gabby Douglas got an unprecedented 15.7, 4/10 higher than any other bar routine in her life, which was just enough to beat Victoria Komova in the all-around competition, Eurovision judges decided a Crimean Tatar who sang about how evil Russia was won the Eurovision singing contest, despite the people of the various nations of Europe all agreeing that Russia's singer had won and the Ukrainian didn't even come close.  The abuses have just gone on and on.  Now they want to strip Russia from the right to participate in the Olympic Games, when Russia is synonymous with the Olympics and there's no point even holding an Olympics without them.  I would not nuke the world over one single instance of these abuses, but once the pattern becomes so clear and so aggressively, consistently anti-Russian there's no choice but to respond force with force.  Otherwise Russia will be isolated and sanctioned and humiliated into oblivion.  As a matter of national pride, Russians will be brought low if they are found to be inferior to all 206 other nations on Earth as the only country in the world not allowed in the Olympics.  Once your people are humiliated it is easy to conquer them.  They will do anything to get back into the good graces of the world and be forgiven, which means allowing Russia to be kicked out of the Games is the same as allowing Russia to be brought to its knees and undergoing an unconditional surrender.

Just think about this, North Korea, known for its human rights abuses against its own people for decades, is still allowed into the Olympics.  But Russia is somehow worse than North Korea?  You can't allow this level of insult to stand.  I would tell the USA that either Russia is considered an equal partner in this world and treated as such or there will no longer be a world.  You can't just pick and choose who world sports events get to host.  Russia will be treated fairly in the World Cup and the Olympics from here on, or there will be no World Cup, Olympics, or anything else on Earth.

If Russia is allowed into these Olympics, I would create a new system.  For every decade of international competitions, each time Russia is bilked in an obviously unfair judgment, that's one strike.  If there are three strikes in any one decade, the world is out.  I press the button and the whole world goes up in flames.  Once the decade is over the timer resets and the world gets another chance to be fair to Russia again.  Currently the world is already overdue for destruction because they've already been unfair to Russia more than three times in the last ten years, but just this once I'll be gracious and forgive them their past transgressions, with the guarantee that it will never be allowed to happen again.  Sport is not a tool for the USA to bully all of its opposition into political vassalage.  Sport is pure, objective, truth, a fair and honest contest for people to explore their full potential as human beings, a place for beauty and excellence to be rewarded.  Don't befoul my beautiful sports with your dirty politics.  Sport is Good.  Just leave it alone and let it be Good.  Politics always bring out the worst in men, while sport always brings out the best.  The two should never be mixed again.