Bryant Gumbel - American Idiot.

Bryant Gumbel's stupid racist crack about the winter Olympics isn't as bad as it appears at first glance.

It's a lot worse.

It's not that he made a racist remark that would have gotten him pilloried out of show business if it were directed at anyone other than the politically correct target of Whitey - it's not that he was just plain STUPID with his 'pseudo-athletics' crack

It's not that he was arrogant and mean with what he said.

It's that he was so terribly AMERICAN.

How AMERICAN to be ignorant of the incredible fitness levels of cross-country skiers. How AMERICAN to assume any sport not commercialised in America is of no use. How AMERICAN to need to be spoon feed sports by the networks or it doesn't exist. How AMERICAN to hold any sport that does not involve impact, trash-talk or steroids to be comptemptuous.

I bet he almost PUKED when that Norwegian coach gave the Canadian girl a ski pole. Imagine - SPORTSMANSHIP. How TOTALLY not American.

America is screwed, you know. Rome had to be like this towards the end. More later.

Was Pat Tilman murdered to prevent him from speaking out against the Iraq War? I think he was.

Tilman was not the dumb-jock militarist and my-country-right-or-wrong jingoist a lot of people might think he was. He was a thinker and a doer, unlike the vast majority of people.

He turned down a multi-million dollar offer from the Cardinals to join the Rangers. I think this was an example of TRUE PATRIOTISM that is so rare that we have almost forgotten how to recognise it.

So why do I think he was murdered? He wanted to fight in Afghanistan against al Qaeda and find Osama bin Ladin. He thought the war in Iraq was wrong and illegal and said so. This might have been reported upstairs. In fact, I bet it was. Gotta keep an eye on hero boy.

One of Tilman's favourite writers was pinko icon Noam Chomsky, if you can believe it. THAT must have set of some alarm bells in Washington.

I think it was decided it was best if he died a hero. Here's why.

Several weird things happened when he got killed.

His outfit was moving in broad daylight through enemy territory, something they are taught not to do.

They split the platoon after a Humvee died. Platoon leader Lt. David Uthlaut objected to this but was overruled (Presumably by big shots on the radio. Who? and who, if anyone, told THEM?)

They (Tilman's group) made contact with the enemy and there was a great deal of confusion, the exact thing the don't-break-up-the-platoon rule was created to prevent.

After coming under friendly fire they POPPED SMOKE (set off smoke grenades) and were still shot at. He (Tilman) got on the radio and yelled at people and they were STILL shot at.

And the clincher - Tilman caught three rounds right in the forehead after they popped smoke and shouted on the radio. Not something you expect from a running Muhajadin with an AK-47 but the original M-16-like M4 these Rangers would be armed with did have a three-round-burst mode. Not the current ones, but the original model. Elite guys get a lot of say in the their kit, someone might have had one. Those rifles have scopes.

That guy knew what he was shooting at.

In closing - I say Tilman was murdered to prevent him from becoming a prominent dissident in the war in Iraq - and the one in Iran which is coming soon.

Full story here