The Beardown: Who voted for this?

Ok so after a long hiatus, pretty much working for the faces of Phoenix, Arizona (I don't care if I'm bragging but I met and cooked for Muhammad Ali) I have some time to put my 2 cents in since I don't know when I can talk it up for you all again. It's baseball season, and not being a baseball follower aside from supporting friends teams for morale, it's been very uneventful for me. The Bulls hired Vinny Del Negro, who came into my restaurant the week of the announcement(erroneous I know), which is pretty cool seeing as how Dom is an avid Chicago fan. However, the most intensely populated subjects on my blog scanning every night after work involve the Olympic games which apparently God, Allah, Buddha, and Cows don't want to have happen in Beijing. At first, everything started out great. They had cheerleading tryouts (since to them western eyes like cheerleaders), they built all these new complexes to hold events, and basically made it look like this would be an awesome idea. Unfortunately, for one of the most populous countries in the world, problems arose throughout the process of preparation. Pulling eminent domain in China is a bit different than in the US...

A Beijinger whose restaurant was demolished in the city's Olympic makeover and who was jailed for trying to organize a protest, Ye Guozhu, was taken from the Chaobai Prison on Tuesday to an unknown location, four days before he was due to be released, the monitoring group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said Wednesday. Police in Ye's old neighborhood said they were not aware of the case.

I mean maybe I take my rights as an American citizen for granted, and am naive to the ways of the world, but even for third-world countries that seems pretty fucked up. So, Beijing officials are working to create designated areas for people to protest the government smashing their homes and businesses to entertain the foreign crowds. But again....

It was not clear how easy access would be to enter the zones. Liu and Beijing police would not say if special permission would be needed.

So, you need permission to come protest. At what point would these "officials" just get fed up and deny the special permission. Last time I checked protests were to fight the man, and as long as civilized, no entrance requirements were set. I honestly don't blame the Chinese people, or the Beijingese, for being upset. And the fact that their probably going to be pigeon-holing people who security thinks are terrorists ( apparently there's a large muslim population in western China) it looks like the terrorists have a prime recruiting ground for followers. But wait one more second...

Hundreds were evacuated Wednesday from the massive building that will house broadcasting facilities for the Beijing Olympics, fearing there was a gas leak after people smelled a strong odor. But authorities later said it was a false alarm and the smell probably came from building materials or chemicals.

John Barton, the director of sport for the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, said he was in his office at the International Broadcast Center when people began running down the halls and telling occupants to clear out. He said no alarm sounded.

"The gas was swirling down the corridor and the emergency drill, if there is one, wasn't followed," Barton said. "Ladies were running up and down the corridors saying 'Get out of the building,'" he added. "I stepped out of my office and I thought it was some kind of joke — no sirens, no speakers, nothing."

Seriously? A couple more of these and the Olympic committee will only have themselves to blame for any shenanigans that occur during these trying times. Or maybe due to shoddy workmanship in order to kick off these festivities, they'll end up terrorizing themselves.

But honestly, who thought this was going to be a good idea having the Olympics in Beijing? I feel a Sarajevo vibe going down, and I was in the womb when that happened. So all I can do is feel vibes. But whatever goes down, it probably won't be worse than this: