By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Aug 8, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET
The American gold medalist explains to the New York Post that her choice of “Hava Nagila” for her floor routine was in dedication to the Munich 11 who lost their lives at the 1972 Olympics and for whom a moment of silence was denied by the International Olympic Committee:
“I can only imagine how painful it must be for the families and close personal friends of the victims.”
But by refusing to hit the pause button for a measly 60 seconds, Rogge and other organizers have committed a sin nearly as grave as denying there was ever a Holocaust.
Were it not for young Aly and her wedding dance/bat mitzvah accompaniment, the Munich dead may have never gotten their due.
“I am Jewish, that’s why I wanted that floor music,’’ Raisman said.
“I wanted something the crowd could clap to, especially being here in London.
“It makes it even much more if the audience is going through everything with you. That was really cool and fun to hear the audience clapping.’’
Raisman’s eyes opened as wide as the gold medal she would win when the judges announced her score of 15.600 points after her mistake-free routine.
Her top finish was the first by an American woman in the Olympic floor exercise, and the win gave Raisman her second gold medal. Raisman admitted the 40th anniversary of the Munich Games made her “hora” gold even more special.
“That was the best floor performance I’ve ever done, and to do it for the Olympics is like a dream,’’ Raisman said.
Raisman did not go to the Games with the star power of her teammate Gabrielle Douglas or the résumé of world champion Jordyn Wieber,
But those who know her best said she works as hard as anyone, and, more importantly, her heart is in the right place.
‘’I’m so happy for Aly,” Douglas, the first African-American to win the all-around title, said after the floor competition. “She deserves to be up on that podium.’’
“She is a focused person,” said Rabbi Keith Stern, spiritual leader of Temple Beth Avodah in Newton Centre, Mass., where the Raisman family are members.
“She’s very proud and upfront about being Jewish. Neither she nor her family explicitly sought to send a message. But it shows how very integrated her Jewish heritage is in everything that she does.”
Stern said he remembers picking up young Aly from preschool, and never imagined she’d be some sort of megastar.
He described the US team captain as a big sister-type who is a mother hen to all her younger siblings.
“I can’t wait to have her at the temple to talk about her experience,” he said.
“I know her sister’s bat mitzvah is coming up, so maybe I’ll catch up with her then.”
Stern said that he, too, was stunned by the IOC’s refusal to hold a moment of silence.
“I’m happy to hear any other explanation,” Stern said. “But short of some racist grudge somebody is holding, I can’t figure out why it would be a terrible thing to do.”
Stern said he watched the routine and was blown away. Even so, he said he is more proud of Raisman’s gold mettle than he is of the new jewelry around her neck.
“I have to say, the statement just warmed me to the very depths of my being,” Stern said.
He compared it to the iconic black-power, raised-fist protest made by track stars John Carlos and Tommie Smith on the medal stand at the 1968 Mexico City Games.
“They’re not going to forget that,” the rabbi said. “I certainly won’t.”
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Aug 8, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
A fancy story. About Kentucky politics.
In Kentucky we still have the medieval practice of Trial by Ordeal for our politicians. And it’s a great amount of fun for spectators. If you want to take your place among Kentucky’s statewide and congressional officeholders you must first survive Fancy Farm. Part stump speaking; part right of passage.
To borrow from Frank Sinatra, “If you can make it there (Fancy Farm), you can make it anywhere.”
It is the Southern political equivalent of an actor making it through his or her first Broadway show. You have been initiated and are now part of an elite club. You have what it takes…and the courage to put it all that on the line. And you survived. This time. And for a while you have the respect of others.
I remember preparing for my second Fancy Farm speech. I was in deep West KY outside our Super 8 hotel. I was sitting alone on the curb scanning the local newspapers for local tidbits to pepper my speech with while others ate breakfast inside. I overheard two people talking about me admiringly. Two people I had come to know well.
“Look at him. He’s something isn’t he? He’s reading those papers and putting his speech together in his head right now. I don’t know how he does it.”
And yet just a few days earlier I heard these same two people talking about me in a very different way. “You know you can’t rely on him. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. If you want something done, don’t expect him to do it.”
It was my wife and mother-in-law talking about me.
But Fancy Farm changed all that. Suddenly I went from failure on the home front to being a hero—one of only a few who would take the Fancy Farm platform later that day. And they were related to me. It made them proud. It made me feel special.
And grateful, for this one day each year, I wouldn’t be expected to run any errands or be judged on the same scale as ordinary mortals. Which was never my strong suit anyway.
Now that congressional candidate-turned political pundit Krystal Ball has a regular spot co-anchoring MSNBC’s “The Cycle,” we’ve been able to take a closer look at her. And while we may be overshooting here, we’re ready to say Ball looks very much like the beautiful Dutchess of Cambridge herself, Kate Middleton.
“Ha! Very flattering,” Middleton Ball told us. “I’ll take being compared to her any day!”
She told us we’re not the first to compare her to Middleton but that she is “more commonly” compared to a young Demi Moore. “Both are extremely flattering and a bit of a stretch,” she said.
If you’re wondering where she got the curious name, a 2011 WaPoprofile on Ball notes that her father, a physicist, wrote his doctoral dissertation on crystals.
OK, You decide. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Yesterday, the RP joined his friend — and Louisville’s most popular radio host — Terry Meiners on Terry’s afternoon drivetime program (WHAS 700 AM) to discuss his impossible journey through the World Series of Poker.
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue Jul 10, 2012 at 9:15 AM ET
It’s instructive that my impossible run through the World Series of Poker tournament was a study in black and white:
An exhilarating roller coaster ride encompassing 40 hours of mind-thumping boredom.
A liberal former politician succeeding by playing with an über-conservative game plan.
A victory of steadfast patience, the absence of which has been my defining character flaw.
The long distance coaching of one of my better friends, whom I’ve only met twice in person.
A game legendary for its macho bravado that’s dominated by pasty-faced math geeks.
And the most striking contrast of all: I’ve lived a life of painstaking diligence — some might say monomaniacal zeal — toward building a career centered around moral values; and one of my life’s highlights — indeed one of its most truly spiritual moments — came playing a card game that I’d hardly practiced and that’s banned in my home state because of its purportedly immoral implications.
===
On Independence Day 2012, the 73rd anniversary of baseball legend Lou Gehrig’s famous statement that he was “the luckiest man on the face of the earth,” I began a journey that certainly contested the Iron Horse’s declaration. Indeed, it was pure serendipity that I was even playing in the tournament in the first place.
Months earlier, when we learned the schedule of my youngest daughter‘s summer in Israel program, my wife, who had a trip planned already to Mexico, suggested that after I dropped Abby off at JFK airport, I should make it a long weekend playing poker in Vegas. She knew how much I loved no limit Texas hold ’em — a game that both rewarded my high school math skills and stoked my innate competitive fires — and that I so rarely got chance to play since online poker was made illegal.
Read the rest of… The RP: My Impossible Run Through the World Series of Poker
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Jul 9, 2012 at 12:15 PM ET
It’s instructive that my impossible run through the World Series of Poker tournament was a study in black and white:
An exhilarating roller coaster ride encompassing 40 hours of mind-thumping boredom.
A liberal former politician succeeding by playing with an über-conservative game plan.
A victory of steadfast patience, the absence of which has been my defining character flaw.
The long distance coaching of one of my better friends, whom I’ve only met twice in person.
A game legendary for its macho bravado that’s dominated by pasty-faced math geeks.
And the most striking contrast of all: I’ve lived a life of painstaking diligence — some might say monomaniacal zeal — toward building a career centered around moral values; and one of my life’s highlights — indeed one of its most truly spiritual moments — came playing a card game that I’d hardly practiced and that’s banned in my home state because of its purportedly immoral implications.
===
On Independence Day 2012, the 73rd anniversary of baseball legend Lou Gehrig’s famous statement that he was “the luckiest man on the face of the earth,” I began a journey that certainly contested the Iron Horse’s declaration. Indeed, it was pure serendipity that I was even playing in the tournament in the first place.
Months earlier, when we learned the schedule of my youngest daughter‘s summer in Israel program, my wife, who had a trip planned already to Mexico, suggested that after I dropped Abby off at JFK airport, I should make it a long weekend playing poker in Vegas. She knew how much I loved no limit Texas hold ’em — a game that both rewarded my high school math skills and stoked my innate competitive fires — and that I so rarely got chance to play since online poker was made illegal.
Read the rest of… The RP: My Impossible Run Through the World Series of Poker
Anderson Cooper has, at long last, publicly said he is gay.
Cooper made the announcement in an email to writer Andrew Sullivan.
“The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud,” he wrote.
Cooper’s sexuality has long been the subject of ample media speculation, but he has never publicly confirmed it — a fact which he also seemed to address in the email to Sullivan:
In other BREAKING NEWS: The RP is Jewish, RP Jeff Smith is short, RP Michael Steele is African-American. RP Krystal Ball is a brunette, and RP John Y. Brown, III has curly hair.
What Makes The Person A Game Changer: Michael Stephen Steele is an American politician who served as the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee from January 2009 until January 2011. From 2003 to 2007, he was the seventh Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland. During his time as Lieutenant Governor, he chaired the Minority Business Enterprise taskforce, actively promoting an expansion of affirmative action in the corporate world. He co-founded the Republican Leadership Council, a political action committee.
