Turn Style - 10 Top Photos of Olympic Triumph, Defeat, and Originality

With five days under our collective Olympic belt, we've already been treated to an abundance of jubilantly triumphant moments, as well as several instances of crushing defeat.

Here are a few photos that best capture the joy, the anguish, and sometimes just the most unique moments of the 2012 Olympics.

The Triumphant

Chad le Clos, South African Gold Medalist
Photo: Toby Melville / Reuters

South Korean Choi Byungchul - Fencing
Photo: Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

Michael Phelps and team win 4x100 Relay
Photo: David Gray / Reuters

More photos of herculean athletic efforts here.

The Defeated

Colombian weightlifter Lina Rivas
Photo: Stefano Rellandini / Reuters

New Zealand's Chris Wood tumbles on the pitch
Photo: Alessandro Garofalo / Reuters

Ksenila Afanseva - Russian gymnast
Photo: Michael Blake / Reuters

More Olympic blunders here.

The Original

Opening Ceremony
Photo: Marko Djurica / Reuters

First female Saudi Arabian Olympian ever
Photo: Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters

South Korean archer (and secret superhero?) Lee Sung Jin
Photo: Suhaib Salem / Reuters

Venus Williams - sporting the USA hairdo
Photo: Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters

Other interesting images from the 2012 Olympic Games here.

Westboro Baptist Gets Stone Cold Ass-Kicking

Brick Stone "interviewing" Shirley Phelps

By now anyone who reads my blog knows that I'm helplessly obsessed with all-things Westboro Baptist Church.

Try as I might to resist commenting, there is something about lunatic religious fanatics protesting disrespectfully at the funerals of dead soldiers and gay kids that always commands my attention.

If they tweet, I'm reading it. If they protest, I'm writing about it. If they visit nearby, I'm there.

Despite my careful study, I just can't determine how to best get under their skin. Luckily, others with far more creative talent are figuring it out.

The Foo Fighters staged a masterful counter-protest in September in the form of a flatbed drive-by concert, and now comedian Dave Sirus, aka newsman Brick Stone, has found another clever way to penetrate the Phelps family. Wait, check that. To be clear, he has not penetrated any family members, only their placard wall of bullshit.

Armed with only rapier sharp sarcasm, a microphone, and regular person sanity, Brick Stone and his news team take to the sidewalk and boldly face down the zealots. As Brick's interviews with church members are essentially an unfair exercise in matching wits with the dimwitted, one almost feels sorry for the Westboro picketers. But, that passes quickly when you glimpse a nearby protester sign that reads "Soldiers Die 4 Fag Marriage."

My favorite question is one Brick poses to the husband of church leader Shirley Phelps: "What's the best part about seeing a woman cry over her dead child?"

Brick Stone gave a swift, thorough, and vulgar ass-kicking to Westboro last week outside a high school in Las Vegas, and I couldn't be more grateful to him.

Viewing Tip: Click the title bar at the top of the clip to view in a larger window.

God Hates iPads? Westboro to Picket Funeral

Shirley (left) and Margie (right) - Faces of Insanity

According to the insane cult wackos of the Phelps family and their Westboro Baptist Church, deceased technology pioneer Steve Jobs has gone to hell. To bring attention to Jobs' evil (and themselves), the church has announced plans to picket Jobs' funeral.

You can be certain they will raise high their patented "God Hates Fags" placards, and I'm sure they are busily wasting their limited brain power, even as I write this, thinking of horrible and kitschy Apple-specific slogans to brandish.

Margie Phelps' iPhone Tweet

Margie Phelps, who serves with her sister Shirley as an operational leader of the group, has tweeted several times - via her iPhone - that Steve Jobs "served self, not God" and "spent his days teaching sin." The Twitter community quickly noted the irony of the iPhone-generated tweets and pointed this out to Phelps who replied - "Rebels mad cuz I used iPhone to tell you Steve Jobs is in hell. God created iPhone for that purpose!"

I always thought the iPhone was heaven-sent, and thanks to Phelps' acknowledgement that God actually created the iPhone, we now have the definitive confirmation.

I don't know how to feel about the folks at Westboro, and I am not sure how one combats such unteachable stupidity, and dare I say, evil. I've ruled out the idea of driving my car on to the sidewalk during their picket and martyring the whole lot of them because I'm not prone to violence (however appropriate it may feel in my gut in this instance).

I am open to any other creative counter-protest ideas that are out there though (like the drive-by concert so perfectly executed by the Foo Fighters).

If Jobs' funeral is near Palo Alto where he lived (and about 15 minutes from where I live), I may well attend just for the opportunity to face down evil, as we celebrate the life of someone who brought so much good to the world.