Superstar of the Week: Team USA including members Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, Allison Schmitt, Dana Vollmer, Elizabeth Beisel, Rebecca Soni, Katie Ledecky, Gabby Douglas, Venus Williams, Serena Williams
Through the first week of competition at the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London, the United States has firmly established itself as one of two nations to beat alongside China. Through Sunday, China has the most medals, 61, followed closely by the United States, 60, with host nation Great Britain in third with 37 medals.
The biggest success for the American thus far has come in the pool. The Olympic career of Michael Phelps has ended with six more total medals. Phelps won four gold and two silver medals, bringing his career total to 22 medals - more than any other Olympic athlete in the history of the Games has. His 18 gold medals are double that of any other athlete in Olympic history. Phelps won gold in the Men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay, Men’s 200m individual medley, Men’s 100m butterfly, and Men’s 4 x 100m medley relay. Ryan Lochte, the future of US Men’s swimming, took gold in the Men’s 400m individual medley, Men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay, silver (along with Phelps) in the Men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay and Men’s 200m individual medley, and a bronze in the Men’s 200m backstroke.
Perhaps the new face of US swimming, 17-year-old Missy Franklin captured the imaginations of the country with her gold in the Women’s 100m backstroke. Franklin also won gold in the Women’s 200m backstroke, Women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay, Women’s 4 x 100m medley relay, and a bronze in the Women’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay. Allison Schmitt, Dana Vollmer, Elizabeth Beisel, Rebecca Soni, and Katie Ledecky were among the other US Women to earn gold over the week in the pool.
Gabby Douglas won gold in the Women’s individual all-around in gymnastics. Her gold medal performance puts her in the same company as American darlings Mary Lou Retton (1984), Carly Patterson (2004), and Nastia Liukin (2008). Douglas was also a part of the US Women’s team who won the gold in the team all-around competition. Venus and Serena Williams won gold in women’s doubles tennis and Serena won the women’s singles gold while Bob and Mike Bryan won gold in men’s doubles tennis. Kayla Harrison became the first American, male or female, to medal in Judo when she won gold in the Women’s 78kg division.
Those are just a handful of the stories to come from the first week of the 2012 Olympics. With a week remaining, Team USA has a great chance to bring home more medals as track and field kick off while both our men and women’s basketball teams look poised for gold. I am positive that next week will have another wave of patriotism in the Superstars of the Week.
Jerk of the Week: The Liberal Agenda fighting Chick-fil-A
The biggest divider among the American public currently is whether you support Chick-fil-A as the absurdly overrated issue that is gay marriage has claimed the fast food chicken franchise has its latest victim. As the Liberal Agenda continues to use gay marriage as their primary objective (ahead of unemployment, immigration, drugs, crime, gas prices, economic growth, or one of the other 72,000 issues more important to the health of our nation), it has came out that a local Chick-fil-A franchisee co-sponsored a marriage conference alongside the Pennsylvania Family Institute. The PFI is an organization strongly opposed to same-sex marriage. In addition, another organization with connections to Chick-fil-A, the WinShape Foundation, stated their opposition to same-sex marriage in 2010. Using these as straws to grasp on, Chick-fil-A COO Dan Cathy stated his opinion on same-sex marriage on the syndicated radio show The Ken Coleman Show on June 16th after being asked about those previous links to opposing same-sex marriage. Cathy’s opposition to same-sex marriage led to a major backlash from the liberal agenda.
On August 1st, Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country were host to Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day as supports of the restaurant visited. It was the most successful day in Chick-fil-A history. On August 3rd, same-sex marriage supporters countered this with a Kiss Off event that saw admitted “smaller than hoped for” numbers of same-sex couples entering Chick-fil-A restaurants to kiss in open.
The thing that bothers me the most about this whole story is that the liberals of our nation are using the gay and lesbian community as pawns in their game. The liberal agenda threw all of Chick-fil-A under the bus - every employee, customer, stockholder, etc. - as a hate-filled homophobe in order to push their own agenda when the reality is that Chick-fil-A did nothing to warrant this attention. COO Dan Cathy and CEO S. Truett Cathy quietly donated to causes they believed in. The deeply devout Southern Baptists, who do not even open their restaurants on Sundays, shockingly enough do not support same-sex marriage. Shocking, right? These men did not make a spectacle of their beliefs or donations. The liberal agenda did as they vilified Chick-fil-A when putting a corporate face on their hatred. The Cathy men did not post anti-gay messages or literature on the wrappers. Chick-fil-A did not run ads saying “Eat more Chicken & Marriage is between a Man and Woman.” The Cathy men quietly made donations that people in the opposing agenda decided to turn into a major spectacle for their own gain.
I do not care about same-sex marriage. I do not believe it should be an issue at all in our nation. If people want to get married, that is fine. It should not be a national story. However, I do care about hypocrisy. I find it hypocritical that people crying for equality and pleading for people not to hate them because of their lifestyles are… HATING others who have different beliefs and a different lifestyle. Treat others as you want to be treated. That is a golden rule that even the biggest anti-religious heathen can support. So, why can’t the liberals slandering Chick-fil-A understand that?
Babe of the Week: Carrie Underwood
A Melancholy Happy Trails to…
- Gore Vidal, 86 - American playwright, novelist, and political commentator (July 31st)
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