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" (Permanent Musical Accompaniment From The Blog&amp;#039;s Second Favorite Canadian) The blog has a soft spot for Ed Schultz. We met at one of those Olbermannic free clinics, this one in New Orleans, a year or so back, and he was nothing but charming to all of us volunteers. The big fella got some terrible news this week. The blog wishes Wendy and Ed godspeed on their journey.  Gee, I still wonder what made Democratic mayor Cory Booker carry the water for the Wall Street cabals that nearly wrecked the world economy, screwing up the president&amp;#039;s message as he did so. Actually, I don&amp;#039;t wonder about that at all. We seem now simply to be haggling about the price. As an aging epee hack, the blog is thrilled that fencer Mariel Zagunis got to carry the U.S. flag at the Opening Ceremony today -- The blog resolutely resists operating on NBC Sports Daylight Time. -- and is not at all thrilled to discover that the men&amp;#039;s epee team competition is one of the events dropped from this year&amp;#039;s schedule, probably for insufficient pixiehood, after the U.S. team had just won the damn world championship. (Women&amp;#039;s sabre team is the other deleted competition, which means Zagunis only has a shot at one medal.) Every four years, I tell myself that the Olympics won&amp;#039;t suck me in, and every four years, they do. And I will never understand how this country can be so good at basketball and so lousy at team handball. Never. Ever. (Also, they&amp;#039;ve had 40 years, how can the IOC still be screwing up what happened in Munich in 1972? Moment of silence would have been too much of a problem?) Just as soon as he comes off oxygen, I intend to drop David Remnick a note telling him how much I enjoyed his whopping profile of Bruce Springsteen in this week&amp;#039;s New Yorker. He pried loose some stuff I&amp;#039;d never known before -- Bruce&amp;#039;s Dad was an angry enough schmuck to scare Steve Van Zandt. Bruce sees a shrink. -- and he got some terrific quotes from Van Zandt who, if you&amp;#039;ve ever heard his radio show on Sirius XM, you will know is both hilarious, and a stone serious musicologist, specializing in garage bands otherwise known only to their mothers. And there&amp;#039;s something quite poignant in Remnick&amp;#039;s conversation with Vini (Mad Dog) Lopez, the original E Street Band drummer who is probably the only man alive who knows how Pete Best felt. I have a seriously ambiguous feeling about the whole Springsteen thing. On the one hand, I saw a show in 1979 that stands with only about one or two others as what Shelley Duvall in Annie Hall would call &amp;quot;transplendent.&amp;quot; I think Nebraska was the ballsiest play by any major artist not named Bob Dylan. There&amp;#039;s no question he does god&amp;#039;s work with his politics and with his money. That said, I think every album he&amp;#039;s made since Darkness On The Edge Of Town is larded up with filler -- Born In The USA is especially bad in this regard -- and the last show I went to, while unquestionably worth every dime I paid, was like sitting through the Stations Of The Cross. He could coast, and he doesn&amp;#039;t, and he should be proud of that. (To my mind, Remnick&amp;#039;s unreasonably hard on the Stones by comparison.) But the shows, to me, especially when Bruce goes into his preacher-man shtick, are now like gatherings of a cult to which I do not belong. He&amp;#039;s managed to be predictable without ever being boring. I have no idea whether that&amp;#039;s good or bad. Anyway, have a good weekend rooting for the U-S-A!1 U-S-A!1 I always pick another country to root for besides my own and The Republic. This year, I&amp;#039;m going with the plucky folks from Tuvalu. This is only their second Olympiad and, because of the great global climate change hoax, there may not be many more for them. They need help, which is probably why their national anthem seems to have been co-written by Cotton Mather and Bob Marley: Tuvalu for the Almighty Are the words we hold most dear; For as people or as leaders Of Tuvalu we all share In the knowledge that God Ever rules in heav&amp;#039;n above, And that we in this land Are united in His love. See you Monday, ya pack o&amp;#039;bastids, with the usual gobshitery, although I think Disco Dave&amp;#039;s Disco Dance Party may be pre-empted by the NBC Olympic Special: Rafalca: The Story Of A Horse And The Tax Shelters Who Loved Him. Don&amp;#039;t miss it! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15059/the-olympian-weekend-ahead/>