The Atlantic - Latest Comments in But wait...that was you!!

Re: But wait...that was you!!

joejoejoe — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:42:17 -0000

I like Tonya Harding. She saved somebody outside a bar using CPR once. That's not exactly a get-out-of-kneecapping free card but it's close enough. In the big picture, Tonya Harding has her sh#t together a lot better than most people. Disciplined enough to be an elite athlete, quick enough on her feet to save a life. If she played team sports as a kid I think it would have been a better outlet for her in your face (or knees) style. Now her past makes her a bit of a freakshow so nobody wants her on their team in life. It's sad. She's an OK person.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

sv — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:32:45 -0000

There's a viciousness in her face, in her eyes. I find it rather frightening. I'm not just saying that because of her history in the public eye - look at her eyes. Snake's eyes.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Pesto — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:35:02 -0000

Quick clarification on my comment: I shouldn't have said that Harding finished "at the top" of the US Nationals -- that sounds like I mean that she won. She never won nationals, but she was among the top finishers, and in contention for the title, for those years.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Pesto — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:11:03 -0000

@ AdHoc Blues:

in her case for being an ambitious, yet no-talent hater on a competitor that was by all accounts was more talented and beautiful than she.

Harding is and has been a lot of things, but I don't think anyone thought of her as having "no talent". She was one of the most athletically gifted and technically accomplished women's figure skaters of her time, and finished at the top of the US nationals for 3 years or so in the late '80s and early 90's. She took 4th in the Olympics in 1992.

She had tons of talent -- certainly more athletic talent than Kerrigan. Her problem was her head. What the media loved about the kneecapping attack was that it represented a talented star falling into the depths.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

dragnet — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:30:14 -0000

But wait...that was you!!

God I love that.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Angus Johnston — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:01:03 -0000

"If ya like me, great. If you don't like me, that's okay. That's your opinion."

If they ever make The Tonya Harding Story (again), I hope they get John C. Reilly to play her. I can totally hear Reed Rothchild delivering that line.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

klg19 — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:02:15 -0000

Shorter Harding: "How DARE President Obama force me to go on television to say I don't care what people say as long as I get publicity!"

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Mike — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:23:02 -0000

Cowboys release T.O.!

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Colette — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:28:55 -0000

Ah, Tonya. Still the high priestess of the Church of Too Stupid to Live.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Jordan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:39:29 -0000

@Erika

And Monica Lewinsky went to L&C. We're rolling in the classy ladies around here (actually we are, thankfully).

Re: But wait...that was you!!

AdHoc Blues — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:57:35 -0000

Next up: Charles Manson wishes his name wasn't synonymous with criminally insane.

Well-played. Tempest in a teapot, boy. She's been ridiculed for any number of years so where does she get this faux outrage? Like a multitude of other infamous people, her name is shorthand for certain types of anti-social and deviant behavior; in her case for being an ambitious, yet no-talent hater on a competitor that was by all accounts was more talented and beautiful than she. I can't hate her hustle, though; she played Goldberg. She knows who she is and if she can parlay her infamy into money--she has bills doesn't she--why not?

The part that kills me though is when Goldberg is acting as if he's outraged at her self-serving behavior. It sounds to me as he's mad that she didn't continue lambasting Obama. He figured out that the outrage was fake and was mad he couldn't use her in his book as an example of Obama being some sort of self-serving, malcontent. But, given his reputation, it's like a crack fiend looking down on an alcoholic.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Hill Rat — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:21:30 -0000

Wow, the years have not been kind to Tonya.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

eric k — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:53:15 -0000

Erika,

Remmeber Tonya is from Clackamas County somehwre and now lives in Vancouver I think, so us Portlanders are off the hook:-)

Re: But wait...that was you!!

AJ in Boston — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:52:45 -0000

Stacy, as he so often does, has put his finger on the most intriguing aspect of this issue.

Those bangs...Good Lord...

Re: But wait...that was you!!

tinare — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:35:59 -0000

Pay to see her do what, exactly???

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Sean — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:13:52 -0000

"To be fair, it was her husband, Jeff, who actually did the knee-capping."

Indeed; from now on knee-capping should be referred to as "Gilloolying"

Re: But wait...that was you!!

McKingford — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:40:54 -0000

What sgwhiteinfla said. This reflects on Goldberg as much as Harding. Goldberg loves beating up on the powerless. One of the best takedowns Jon Stewart ever did was when he had Goldberg on for his plug of his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. When you look through his list you realize its full of people with no power or influence (Michael Moore? Ralph Neas?! Bill Moyers? Latrell Sprewell??!!!).

So way to go, Bernie. We know you hate Obama, and you pick on the one person in the world who is less sympathetic...

(also, norbizness FTW)

Re: But wait...that was you!!

rb — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:37:03 -0000

Heh, I guess I'm just a sucker but I can't help but feel bad for her.

I just can't stomach watching someone being tormented, and I imagine her life as one of near-constant torment. Literally, it turns my stomach.

Fuck that hack Bernie Goldberg.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

hurls — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:17:29 -0000

Daz, you beat me to it. I'd take that bet any day of the week.

TNC, really.. you should have nominated TH for our white person spokesperson

Re: But wait...that was you!!

ErikaMSN — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:04:32 -0000

Sometimes I'm almost ashamed to be from Portland...

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Stacy — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:42:40 -0000

"To be fair, it was her husband, Jeff, who actually did the knee-capping."

Well, to be extra fair, it was her bodyguard who did the actual swinging. Her husband just planned and watched. And it would have worked, too, if it wasn't for those damn kids!!

Re: But wait...that was you!!

tinisoli — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:38:36 -0000

Tonya Harding is pissed (or maybe not?) at Obama for using her name as synonym for kneecapping--except she did kneecap someone. Hilarious.

To be fair, it was her husband, Jeff, who actually did the knee-capping.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Stacy — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:35:36 -0000

Not to pick on her looks, but those bangs are fucking sweet!!

Oh, and Bernie Goldberg is such an idiot. This guy does sports stories like he's Mike Fucking Wallace. He LOVES himself.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Daz — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:29:34 -0000

"I bet you'll still pay to come see me"

I'll take that bet.

Re: But wait...that was you!!

Guest — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:27:39 -0000

Jan Brady circa 1972 called, she wants her hair back.