Georgia has pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest after organisers banned it from entering an act that mocked Vladimir Putin.
It rejected an offer to revise the lyrics to We Don’t Wanna Put In, whose chorus played on the Russian Prime Minister’s surname, after the disco song was ruled to have broken Eurovision regulations against political statements.
The Georgians are idiots.
“It’s still not clear to us why Eurovision took this decision. We have not received a concrete explanation.”
If they're honest, there's something wrong with them. The Eurovision Song Contest rules specifically ban politics from the competition, and the Georgian song is obviously making a political point.
I agree with them; I don't wanna Putin either. But the Eurovision Song Contest is about bringing Europe, in a very broad sense, together over something we can share: music. I like to believe in the idea that we can forget about politics and everything that divides us for a couple of nights in May. That's why I think the Eurovision Song Contest is a great thing. And bringing your political grievances to it undermines the whole idea of the contest. I admit I'm not sure how I feel about allowing the Russians to host after they attacked Georgia, but the correct way to protest is to boycott, not to try to break the rules and then act outraged when you're called on it. Shame on you, Georgia.
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While on the topic of current events and the Times, to repeat what's been said over and over again, here's an article on preventing school shootings. It's hard to put it better. Unfortunately, like I've said and documented, we continue to respond to these things by demonizing the perpetrators and looking for easy things to blame like guns or too little money for shrinks. Somehow we take it for granted that young men are being driven to murder innocents.
As long as we refuse to address the underlying problem, this will continue to happen. I'm just worried about how long it's going to take.
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