Rhubarb Report 047

The London Olympics are over. Big sigh. Are you having withdrawal symptoms? No more epic performances morning, noon, night, and late night. The world’s best reality TV show is now on hold for another two years.

I guess that means that it’s time to get back to the real world. Fortunately, college football will soon be upon us. Oh, and there is this little shindig called a presidential election just around the corner. I am sure that will provide us with plenty of rhubarb over the months ahead.

Time to dive right in to another episode of the Rhubarb Report.

1. Before we completely leave the Olympics behind for good, we need to congratulate Grenada for winning the medal count this year. What? You thought it was the United States, right? Well, not so fast there Uncle Sam.

How so? First of all, medals should be weighted. We all know that a gold, silver, and bronze aren’t equal. So why do we give them equal weighting in the medal totals? Second, let’s adjust the totals based on the population of the country. The United States has 310-ish million people. Surely, with that many people, you should find some medalists lurking in there somewhere. Adjust the medal totals to reflect the population. Third, let’s then adjust it based on GDP. How about we find out just how much each of those medals cost?

Fortunately, there is a website called “Medals Per Capita”. Finally, the truth has been revealed!

With that said, please stand up and salute our 2012 winner, Grenada! Four of the top 5 countries in the world are in the Caribbean. The United States? Only 42nd. China? 68th. How about Canada? 47th. Home country Great Britain? 15th.

2. There was a lot of smack talk about the 2012 version of the US men’s basketball team being better than the 1992 Dream Team. Really? When you have 11 of 12 players on the 1992 team in the Hall of Fame, I think you would be hard-pressed to get much better. Oh, and I can’t say that a 107 – 100 win over Spain in the gold medal match would confirm that notion. Let’s just let Kobe Bryant believe what he wants to believe …

3. I keep waiting for some real news in the presidential campaign. There is a lot of hedging going on right now. Mitt Romney keeps telling us he has a platform, but all I see is a lot of open-ended finger-pointing and not much else. Bluff and bluster, and still no tax reports either.

He even went on a brief foreign tour to show us that he is familiar with foreign policy – but ended up with more than his share of gaffes. He finally selected a vice-presidential running mate: Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. That’s big news, right? Texas Governor Perry and former President George W. Bush have supported the selection of Ryan. That unto itself should speak volumes long before Ryan ever opens his mouth.

The next few months should prove to be rather … intriguing … if nothing else.

Photo credits: Wikipedia