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Show 4 Tha Magna TimetAVwt Valley Nw, Fab. 21, 2002 Editorial Cold War is alive and well among Olympics judges By TOM MfTSOfF Guast Columnist What has 1 8 legs and predetermines the of Olympic events? It's the panel of figure skating judges, of course! Last week when a French judge was suspended after admitting that she had been pressured to help fix the final standings of the pairs figure skating event, it was the first public admission by the bodies that govern international skating and the Olympics that such incidents actually may take place, though the suspicion has been there for years. The French judge's vote was critical. She was among five of the nine judges amateur sport's version of the Supreme Court -who voted to award the gold medal to the Russian duo of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. The other four judges joining her in the majority opinion were from Russia, China, Poland the the Ukraine. The minority opinion judges were from the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan. you see a political landscape forming here, it's not your imagination. The Cold War is apparently alive and well among Olympics judges, and the French judge appeared to have defected. The International Olympic Committee Friday voted to award a second gold medal to Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who were the obvious winners in the court of public opinion as well in the minds of observers of the many long-tim- e sport. Figure skating judging is easy to skew is because most of us donit understand the finer points of a lutz, what makes a quality salchow or how to analyze whether a triple toe loop was performed to perfection. e percent of figure Ninety-ninviewers know that if the skaters donit fall or stumble, that's good, and that if they look perky and pick good music, that's also good. But most of us know when we hear commentators like Dick Button and Scott Hamilton critique the landing position following the triple axel, they might as well be talking about quantum physics, because we really donit know what the heck they are talking about. Ah, but the judges do. They are experts. They ought to know -- right? Perhaps you remember some figure skating event that you watched in the past, and you just knew that skater A had it all over skater B. But when skater B won, you just figured that those expert judges knew more than you and must have seen skater A bend her leg slightly during that camel spin. now we know that we have mistrusted our untrained eyes so much. The Russian pair apparently was supposed to win last week. In the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano, Japan, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze fell twice and missed three other elements in their two programs and still received a silver medal for their efforts. Russian-boAlexander Zhulin, a 1994 Olympic silver medalist who now coaches U.S. ice dancers Naomi Lang and Peter to Tchemyshev, said results is rampant. "All federations are involved, not only the Russians," he told the Washington Post "The Canadians are involved, the French are involved, the Italians are involved. Everybody is trying to bring their couples, their skaters, into first place. Everybody is trying to keep the votes for their own country. . . . '1 think all judges from their home countries feel pressure from the person who j$ president, the people in the high posts," he said. "It's like in life some people are strong, and some people are weak, and (the weak judges) just follow what their federation says. That's corruption It's so dirty." o until some major reform occurs in the way figure skating is judged, enjoy it as entertainment, not sport. Watch it like you would watch professional wrestling enjoy the action, but know that the results are very likely scripted. Tom Mitsoff is a longtime daily newspaper editor and syndicated columnist. His web address is http:www.tommitsoff.com. But - Letters Welcome m deal-maki- - - - Readers are encouraged to share opinions by sending letters to the Editor, Magna TimesWest Valley News, 8980 W. 2700 S. Magna, Ut 84044, letters can be sent via fax to 250-568-5 or at magwestxmission.com Letters to the Editor i! ini m Editor, Here we go again. Another White House cover up. No, I am not talking about ENRON. I am talking about the case of George W. Bush vs. the pretzel. It was just a matter of convenience that there was a pretzel to blame, for the collapse, when it was a injury. You must recall that it was a matter of hours after Bush had complimented Ted Kennedy and had called him "a good man." This flew in the face of republican indoctrination and years of right self-inflict- wing propaganda. The policy and the strategy of u xtwa lu)iu!qiw ii jnw the republicans has been virtually the same for enemies in a war, either declared or undeclared and elected democrats. So it matters little that the name is Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Ladin. Or the name could be Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, presently Tom Daschle or Rocky Anderson. The all-titarget and whipping for the right wing has been Ted Kennedy. They pull out their normal weapons; liberal, slander and character assassination. They continue the barrage, attacking from all angles until the opponent is When George Bush complimented Ted Kennedy, it went against all of the teachings that he had undergone. It let a liberal, thought into a narrow republican mind. The effect was not immediate, but it finally took effect in the White House and mind-expandi- ng he collapsed. So it is with this believe that I maintain that the pretzel is innocent and should be exonerated before pretzels across the country are profiled as dangerous. And somehow a threat to democracy. Glen Graham Magna Editor, I just watched the reporter form Sports Illustrated doing a report on the Olympics. He was asked if he and other visitors were having a good time. He stated that: 'The walk and don't walk signals at the crosswalks bird that chirps when have a Koo-ko-o the light changes so how can you not have a good time in a city that has Koo-ko- o birds at all the crosswalks." I wonder if we are the only place that considers die sight impaired when it comes to safety? Editor, I would like to give Kudos of the special "wester" kind to an Olympic soldier who has been quietly and vigorously going about his assign- and its heritage. Together the mix of Grants hard work highlights the contributions of the United States in the arts and embraces the culture of the American Wiest. He has brought forward an impressive schedule of inspiriting art, dance, music, film, poetry and culture just to mention a few that will entertain us all. He made an extra effort to focus on the heart of western American, the Native American and the cowboy. The song, dance, poetry and traditional activities of the American West will be outstanding presentations. His tireless efforts to organize the Cultural Olympiad had inspired communities throughout Utah to sponsor Olympic events and activi ties for the culture enrichment of our children and adults alike. Mr. Grant, Utah thanks you for your hard and dedicated work to make this the best Olympics ever. Tardner" as the sun sets in the west at the conclusion of the 2002 Winter Games, may your lodge be filled with love, may your campfire ever bum with warmth and never go out, may your sourdough never lose its flavor, may your horse always cany you safe and swift and may the Great Spirit ever watch over you. would be the sheep's clothing hiding treasonous behavior? Could it be the clothing of patriotic speeches stirring American hearts? Could it be "high office" itself that clothes a person in legitimacy even as they betray? If men in high office seek to betray America into a 'New World Order" they will dress in the raiment of "sheep" not showing their wolves' hides. Does the wool-clot- h of patriotism excuse creation of a police state at home and submergence of American into a 'New World Order" abroad? Those strengthening the United Nations (New World Order) are modem wolves hidden in lamb's wool betraying American security, national independence and sovereignty. Please read die book 'The United Nations Exposed" by William Jasper' ment This he has done to make Utah's 2002 Olympic experience a rewarding and special memory for us all Raymond T. Grant is the Artistic Director of the Cultural Olympiad. His charge to bring together a comingling of the arts and cultures of the world and the American West truly commands attention. The Olympic Arts Festival began on Sept. 15 and continues until March 17. The Arts create for us a sense of pride. The cultural programs identify and celebrate Utah Editor, In Magna recently, I sold a studious man the small book: "The Insiders - Architects of the New World Order." Within its pages one learns that the "New World Order" is only a euphemism for a wodd gpvemment under a strengthened United Nations. In 1951, Robert Welch wrote: "treason has to prosper only so far and then none dare call it treason." It becomes "politically incorrect" then increasingly dangerous to point out traitorous behavior. Most busy Americans find it difficult to recognize treason in high places. Is there an arrogance within America that convinces us that it couldn't happen here? Of course the people of Czechoslovakia suffered from a fatal pride and arrogance, which had convinced them that 'ft couldn't happen to them." Betrayal, the assumed, couldn't land the into a communist-styl- e dictatorship, but it Darrel Norman Magna . Dannie R. McConkie Chairman, Davis County Commission Farmington Bliss W. Tew Orem, Utah did. "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." (Matthew 7:15) A wolf in sheep's clothing? What Businesses put a taint on 2002 Salt Lake Olympics went out the morning after opening ceremonies, just down the valley from the big Olympic rings on the mountain, to take a run. I went along the bench, a flat foothill facing the Wasatch, through a neighborhood and across a big street and into another neighborhood where the creek went across. There aren't many streams out here, it is an arid land, and so this one was valuable to the early settlers. And the year after Brigham Young got to Salt Lake, a friend of his came down here and built a mill. The first one in Utah. And so this is Mill Creek. And as I ran past I noticed an historical plaque in front of a church that told its story. grinding stones, as it out, had belonged to Brigham. Young once, but he sold them in Nebraska to the guy who built the mill. And in 1848, with the first crop of Utah wheat, he ground flour. I The And he sold it to the settlers. Six cents a pound. That was the going rate. Until some wagon trains came through on the way to California. These folks wererut stopping, they were pushing through, but they were in tough shape because of the thousand miles theyid already trekked across the Plains and the Rockies. And they were hungry. for them, the going was a dollar a pound. That was the Salt Lake City price. It was a free market, after all. Supply and demand. We've got, you want - what's it worth to you? Welcome to the world of American business. Some probably thought it was payback. in Iowa and west Because and had been hundreds of covered wagons on their way to Utah, in need of supplies and provisions, and it was the practice to charge them ridiculously high prices. It was OK to gouge the Mormons, the thinking apparently went, so And California. Olympic visitors. that's what it is And a motel room is off. $500 a night if youre in In spite of the fact that town for the president of the the Olympics. Chamber of Commerce calls The games are astoundit a "wonderful" thing. In ing. They are unquestionlandthe fact that of spite ably the best winter lords evicting tenants in Olympics there have ever been. The level of organizaorder to rent out their apartments at exorbitant Olympic tion by Olympic officials and the degree of gracious rates insist that they don't feel guilty. welcoming by the communiIn spite of the fact that ty are overwhelming. restaurants double their are lots of There are swear and to do, many of they prices servan them are free, Olympic providing everything is ice. Apparently Sunday off without a glitch. coming winSalt the out Lake has redefined goes morality what an Olympics can be. dow when there's a Monday It has been perfect business deal to be made. the Golden Rule for the greedy merExcept Because replaced by the chants. The ones who are Rule of Gold, and the god of gouging. And if their prices the land is "supply and went up when the Olympics demand." And in its name came to town, they are nothing else matters. People gouging. who might otherwise conAnd they should be sider themselves religious ashamed. Instead of being see no problem with increasinspired by the region's hering their prices out of all itage, they are demeaning it proportion to worth. by proving unworthy of it It's the same old story. Flour is a dollar a pound - by Bob Lonsbenry 2002 if yoiure a settler headed to And gouge them good. And the Utah settlers remembered that And if you were going to California, Salt Lake flour cost a dollar a pound. Except at Mill Creek. Where the man who had carted those stones over the mountains and built that mill sold it for six cents a pound. That was the price, no matter who you were. No matter how much he might have been able to wring out of you. No matter how many pretty arguments there were about the free market and profit sold flour for what it worth. He was hon-es- L And he wasnlt a thief. He not even under cover of a business transaction. And they built a monument to him. And have quietly forgotten the crooks who charged a dollar a pound. Just as they will forget their successors, the sharks who are now charging larcenous prices for services and accommodations at the Winter Olympics. is the only blot on the games. The completely immoral price gouging of hotels, restaurants, landlords, homeowners and others. Too many people and businesses in Salt Lake City have decided to make their fortunes by ripping off POO |