The Olympics used to be awesome.
Now they’re just another over-commercialized sporting event that turns the ‘s’ in spirit into a $.
The Olympics on NBC are even worse.
The network is ruining the games this year in several ways.
First, the events aren’t broadcast live at all, they’re all tape-delayed so that the network could show them during prime time, where they could charge advertisers the biggest bucks.
That’s pretty screwy. Seeing as how the games are in London this year, with the time difference, it’s not totally unrealistic for the network to conceive of this sort of broadcast plan.
Still, in the age of the Internet, it’s kind of stupid to find out who’s winning what events four hours before they’re on television. Just saying.
Second, and worse, is the online blackout for the live events. It’s only blacked out for people who don’t have a cable subscription, but that’s a lot of people in our book.
Why would you force people to get a cable subscription just to enjoy the Olympics live online? Is that the new “spirit” of the games?
Maybe because the owner of NBC is Comcast, this country’s biggest cable television provider. Cable company 1, poor person 0.
And speaking of poor. Us rurals live out here in the middle of nowhere. How’s your reception of NBC, because mine stinks?
Going online and watching the games seems a great alternative for people who live in the boondocks and don’t have a lot of money for cable to enjoy this great once-only-so-often gathering of the world community. But that door is shut, welded closed by greedy capitalists who are more interested in sucking every dollar out of your wallet then providing the whole world, poor included, with a chance enjoy these sort-of rare games.
By the way, how much is Comcast and NBC going to pull in from their Olympics broadcasts? Well, according to the Wall Street Journal nothing.
$0 profit is what NBC and all it’s Olympics-ruining decisions will bring in for the summer games.
Why not just give it away then?

A word on drug court.
A news story on the front page of this paper reveals a simmering feud between two District Court judges that has the potential to cast our local drug court in a less-than-positive light.
It shouldn’t. A few issues certainly surround this non-profit drug court organization that was set up years ago to collect donations to fund certain drug court purchases.
That will likely be worked out as those funds are audited.
While that’s taking place, it behooves us and everyone in the county’s law enforcement community to recognize that our drug court is an exemplary tool for diverting drug users into programs that might very well save their lives. Not just their’s either, their kids’ lives, too. Treating drug abusers also saves taxpayers money — productive, sober people are better for the bottom line of any community than incarcerated prisoners.
Tammi Odegard and her staff should be commended for their work at the drug court. Judge Robert Lane, too, deserves recognition for building a solid, self-sustaining program that enriches people’s lives. And Judge Kimberly Wanker, as for all to see, has helped make drug court a better program, too.
Whatever personal differences court staff and judges may have for one another, we hope that these difference do nothing to harm the quality of work being done by the drug court. It’s just too important.

The return of Don Holbrook.
Look closely at the photo of the supper club on the front page and you can barely see Don Holbrook, of Pahrump theme park fame, hiding to avoid the camera.
Last wee heard, Contour Entertainment’s Chris Brown had told local officials pretty clearly that Holbrook was no longer involved in his company’s work on behalf of the town’ plans for a major tourism development.
And yet there he is — ostensibly there as Front Sight’s newest economic development advisor, or some such capacity.
We’ll have more on this tidbit next week. For now, let the wild speculation begin.