The numbers

I've had more comments ( only 7 mind you) about the numbers I posted yesterday than anything since my heyday of daily posting of intestinal distress and hangover stories.

Yesterday was Israel's Memorial Day and I heard that 25,000 Israelis died "defending the homeland" since 1860...which I found to be really odd since there weren't any Israelis until 1948. So anyway I looked up some more current numbers, then surfed around to find some comparative numbers and posted them.

I had originally included Vietnam was and WWII stats as well but I thought that the post would get too convoluted to keep the attention of the bloggeratti. If you're interested those numbers can be easily found.

Someone with the screen name Mike has draw the conclusion that the numbers are somehow bashing the US military. Of course I'm not.

I think the reason I felt compelled to post the numbers is that I was a bit surprised at the disparity and, for me, its another example of the effectiveness of propaganda and the very ego-centric view of America.

I was under the impression that Israel is really getting hammered and has always been getting hammered with missiles and suicide bombers. Granted, any of those deaths by terrorists is an atrocity, and deplorable. But comparatively speaking, they've experienced a third of the deaths that the Palestinians have in the same time frame.

As for 9/11, As a country we suffered 3000 deaths on that terrible day. But we've lost 50% more than that in American lives fighting a war that supposed to prevent/be retribution for losses due to terrorism. That seems like a losing proposition to me.

The number that really jumped out at me was the number of Iraqi civilian deaths. Was struck me there, besides the huge number, was the comparison to American deaths on 9/11. If, as a country, are willing to commit billions of dollars and 5,000 soldiers lives because we lost 3000 civilians in an attack on our soil.....and Israel is willing to kill 3 times as many Palestinians as they've lost as retribution in their conflict...then what is the long term fallout of a nation of Iraqis who have lost 95,000 people as a consequence of our invasion, regardless of who is pulling the trigger ?

And regardless of whether you're watching MSNBC or FOXNEWS and you think that the media has liberal or conservative bias, in reality the US media outlets are really giving you two versions of a very similar story. That story is a very American/Israeli view of the world. That's one where American and Israeli deaths, interests, and political agendas are emphasized and situation and impact to the rest of the world is downplayed substantially.

I suppose, to some degree, that's done everywhere. But that sort of nationalist propaganda was once the mark of the Soviet Union and more currently of China. If, as individuals, we don't recognize those some tactics being applied to us, then we're subject to the same controls and losses of liberty as those two communist powers.

Some would say that with things such as the Patriot Act, the nationalization of the banking and auto industry, and whatever health care related legislation come out of this so called swine flu pandemic, that we've already turned that corner.

Perspective

1484 = Israeli deaths since 1987 in Mideast conflict

2,974 = People killed at 9/11

4957 = US soldiers killed in Iraq/Afghanistan

6500 = Palastinian deaths since 1987 in Mideast conflict

95,000 = CIVILIAN deaths in Iraq since invasion

Durr'd

Fast forward to 2:30



BTW, for all his laughing at 6:30, Negraneau got his own ass kicked for about $400,000 himself later in this session.

fickle

It took exactly one day of good weather for people to turn unappreciative.

For almost 6 months I've been suffering in this cold, dealing with the wind and wearing 5 layers of stuff to go outside an exercise. I don't care if its 99 degrees, anything is better than a 3 hour ride at 22.

But sure enough, I was out in the yard yesterday and someone walked by complaining, " its too hot...I wish it was 70". Yeah well I wish my male pattern baldness didn't have me looking at hair plug ads, but wishing don't make it so. Shaddup, drink a glass of water, and be happy you don't have frostbite.

I sound pretty surley for a guy happy about the weather.

weird true stuff

that might freak you out.

- Alston Chase's book tells of the MK ULTRA experiments in which Theodore Kaczynski is reported to have undergone at Harvard, under the direction of Henry Murray. Chase connects these experiences in a controversial thesis to Kaczynski's later career as the Unabomber.

So a dude undergoes CIA mental experiments and became the Unibomber

Remember John Hinkley Jr who tried to assasinate Reagan ? How about this...

Hinckley is the son of one of George H.W. Bush's political and financial supporters in his 1980 presidential primary campaign against Ronald Reagan; John Hinckley Jr.'s elder brother, Scott Hinckley, and Vice President Bush's son Neil Bush had a dinner appointment scheduled for the next day.

Oh and what did the Hinkley family do for money ?

Scott Hinckley, vice-president of his father's Denver-based firm, Vanderbilt Energy Corporation,

Oil. What a surprise.

You do of course know and remember that GHW Bush was he head of the CIA before running for president.

Remember the guy who investaged Vince Fosters death and Monica Lewinski, Ken Starr ? His uncle was C.V. Starr . C.V. Star helps form form the CIA and he founded a company that you may have heard of in the news recently AIG.

Pat Robertson, the 700 club religous dude...well his father was a US Senator on the Banking Committee with Bush's dad Prescott Bush. Small world eh ?

THIS ONE you're just going to have to click on.

forsaken

My last social outlet is a monthly poker game on the second Monday of each month.

This month I missed it.

That means I haven't had a reasonable, or for that matter unreasonable,conversation with an adult male for more than 5 minutes in length in something like 7 weeks.

If I don't have an inane conversation that includes the words "field", " one more last round", and " waitress's age" within the next 5 days, I'm fairly certain my head will explode.

I'm like the Ultraman of degenerates.

dreams

I've been having weird dreams.

Last week was a mash up between My Cousin Vinnie and the part of the bible when Pilate lets Barabus free. I was the Ralph Macchio character and the dude who played Herman Munster was Pontius Pilate. Unfortunately there were no bedroom scene with Marisa Tomei.

The upside: Entertaining with an Easter theme

The downside: No chance of getting back to sleep after that madness

nyvelocity.com

Wicked funny.

Go to their site and do whatever they have you do to support their efforts.

Quality.

Got that behind me

Did the tri yesterday. Given my recent illness(es) it went better than expected. Swim time spot on, ride time not embarassing, and the run time was ( for me) solid. It was an encouraging start. I've slacked the last 6 weeks and the experience was encouraging enough to make me bear down again for a little while with the training.

The event itself was very well done. The marshals were great, the people running the show did a fantastic job, and it was really nice being able to ride to the race and run, bike, and swim in a familiar setting. I'm a little stiff today, but given last week being a little sore isn't anything I'm not used to.

One thing I noticed. Knowing that she was going to be standing around in her bare feet, everyone woman there had freshly painted toenails. So I suppose that in addition to all the other stuff necessary for triathlon preparation, women have to add "paint toenails" to the list. That seems like a bit of a pain, but their feet did look nice.

Wow, that sounded creepy.

athletic supporters

One time years ago I was in a race (like a real bike race )and one of the better riders on the team was having a problem with his saddle slipping into the frame.

He went to the back of the field and I went with him and we waived up support. After much gesticulating we realize that the support guy was too scared to drive close to the field so we went back.

My rider, " My seat post is slipping I need some allen keys..probably a 5"

The neutral support mechanic, " what ?"

" I need a some allen keys !"

" huh ?"

Meanwhile, this whole time I'm trying to keep us the same distance from the back of the field which is getting increasing difficult because the field was really clipping along.

Frustrated, my guy screamed " ALLEN..... KEYS !!!!!"

Finally the mechanics eyes lit up and he started nodding and giving us the thumbs up. He said something to the driver and they zoomed up ahead of us and quickly pulled over to the side of the road.

As we pulled up along side of them, the mechanic jumped out of the truck and ran to the back and started rooting through the wheels while we stood there befuddled.

My guys said, " What the hell are you doing ?!"

and franticly the mechanic looked up and said, " Hang on, hang on I'm looking....but, I can't find any wheels with the name Allen Keys anywhere."

We got dropped.

shaved and tapered

So far in the last week:

- my bike broke
- I cracked myself in the nose with my handlebars while trying to pull my brake pads off - the wrong direction
- I was bed ridden sick for 36 hours ( btw 'drunk with my own power' i posted last week didn't mean drunk with alcohol..THAT I could have handled...I mean that I trained way too hard and got sick)
- I had vertigo
- I've had massive insomnia averaging 4 hours of sleep a night
- I've run 3 miles on a treadmill and swam 500 yards - total since last thursday
- I haven't ridden at all. I got up this morning and its too foggy
- my diet has consisted almost entirely of pulled pork and slightly stale birthday cake

3 days till race time.

"yeah, I'll try it"

I posted this a couple years ago. It always cheers me up when I'm down.

If you turn up the volume near the end you can hear Miles the whole way to the bottom.

Quality

Walked across the room
In a neon light
Dark pair of shades
Blocking out the night

Smoke ring blowing
White Owl Panatella
There wasn't a thing
That man couldn't sell you

He kept a 45 in a Crown Royal bag
Wiped the fingerprints off
Handed me the rag

top 5

Top 5 things...

not to do when you have vertigo

5. Nod vigerously in the affirmative or negative

4. Swim

3. Get on 30 westbound while traveling south from anywhere

2. Run on a treadmill

1. Demonstrate what vertigo feels like by spinning around in a circle

he takes a lickin

Harry Kalas is dead.

But Abe Vigoda just keep on tickin'

http://www.abevigoda.com/

weirdness

The overall body ache came and went, but has now been replaced by dizziness.

If I sit completely still nothing spins. But seeing as how I'm nauseous, sitting still isn't all that comfortable. The minute I move my head to either size the spinning starts.

No other symptoms beside the spinning.

I'm going to do a little googling and see what I have. Last time I did this I diagnosed myself with early onset menopause.

overcooked

I done went and done it.

I felt the best I felt all year this week and went and got drunk on my own power.

I swam super hard monday and Thursday. I ran hard Tuesday and Thursday. And I rode myself into the ground on Wednesday night feeling fantastic.

Since Friday afternoon I haven't been able to move.

I slept 14 hours yesterday and the only thing in my body that doesn't severely ache is my right kneecap. And that's only because its gone numb.

One week to go till my first triathlon and I've too sore and tired to get up to take a leak.

Fantastic.

I'm sure the 4 hours in the car today will faciliitate my recouperation.

That's 3 liters metric

Yesterday

" Daddy, sometimes when I run really hard my mouth tastes like pennies"

- that's not pennies dear, that's a spoonful of heaven


Today

" How was your ride Daddy"

- fine

" How fast did you go ?"

- about a gallons worth of heaven dear, about a gallons worth

Culture Clash

I was down in Richmond to golf for a few days with a bunch of my Uncles and cousins from New Jersey.


Besides the usual things like broken clubs, temper tantrums, and drunken brawls that you'd expect from such an outting, I was suprised by the mix of cultures when you take 8 guys from Jersey and toss them into the middle of southern hospitality.

First thing was ordering food. Guys from jersey mean to say, " Can I have a burger ?", but it comes out, " Gimme a burger !" Apparently southerns react to perceived rudeness by just walking away. New Jerseyians hate to be ignored. If we had stayed one more day I thing I would have just given up eating all together.

The other thing was the friendliness. Everywhere you walked, people would look you in the eye and say hello. Guys from Jersey assume that a hearty hello is likely to be followed by a shiv to the gut. So as we walked from the putting green to the clubhouse or from the car to the restaurant locals would look up at us and say, " Howdy, how y'all doin ?" and half the guys would immediately check their wallets in their back pockets and the other half would say something along the lines of, " No thanks, we don't want any." or " sorry, I don't have any change."

Other stuff that happened B.L.

Other random stuff that happened "Before Lance" that you may never have known.

Peter Stetina's father and uncle kicked ass. Between the two of them they won some ungodly number of races...then as a joke, they convinced half the mid-west that grape juice had some magical cycling properties.




Mike Neel crashed the 7-11 Team car, narrowly avoided death, but inadvertantly slipped in and out of the different 5 languages he knows for like a year after the crash.

This thing


is called a spoke wrench. It used to be a mandatory piece of equipment on every ride because your wheels would go out of true. Additionally, chains used to break, gears would go out of adjustment, and toe straps ( don't even get me started) would break. I know it all sounds insane. It was. Be very grateful to the Japanese.

Steve Woznik had the mother of all protests

Fitchburg is actually called Fitchburg-Longsjo. Here's why.


This is a bad-ass picture



I'm out golfing for a few days. Have fun.

Poor Angie Harmon

Poor Angie Harmon has to "dress for a recession"

Harmon told Tarts at Thursday’s Los Angeles launch of the new eyelash-growing formula, Latisse. "But it has nothing to do with it, I don’t care what color he is. I’m just not crazy about what he's doing and I heard all about this, and he’s gonna do that and change and change, so okay … I'm still dressing for a recession over here buddy and we've got unemployment at an all-time high and that was his number one thing and that's the thing I really don't appreciate

The horror...the horror.

credit where credit isn't due

With astonishment I read this quote last week...

“We continue to invest a significant amount of resources into the support and development of both emerging and elite athletes,” said USA Cycling interim director of athletics Jim Miller. “Looking at Taylor’s recent accomplishments, as well as the many successes of American athletes on the track throughout the last several years, it’s obvious our efforts are yielding results.”

You see young Taylor Phinney won the gold medal in the individual pursuit at the World Championships, then followed that up with a silver in the Kilo time trial. What's even more amazing is that in doing so beat a long standing record that was set with an erstwhile illegal position and during the height of the EPO craze. Oh yeah, btw, he's just turned 18 years old.

Now Taylors success is not of a total surprise to those of us who have been following the sport since B.L. ( before Lance). Taylor's father Davis Phinney was the most successful American racer in terms of total wins, he medaled in the Olympics and he's won stages of the Tour De France include a stage into Bordeaux. And he's the second best of of Taylors two parents. His mother is Connie Carpenter who, in addition to winning the Tour De France Femine and Gold medal in the Olympic RR, participated in the Winter Olympics as a speed skater and upon retirement became an NCAA champion rower.

Despite the bru-haha and expressions to the contrary, what made people most upset about Jimmy the Greeks drunken banter is that its got some truth to it. If you want to be a professional athlete, pick your parents carefully. Back the 80's when Taylor's parents tied the knot we were all marking our calendar for 2012 not knowing what the Phinney kids would be doing in the Olympic games, but whatever it was they were likely to be doing it much better than everyone else.

That brings us to the quote from USA Cycling's Jim Miller about the successes of USA Cycling's developmental program. My main point is this, Taylor was never part of USA Cycling's developmental program. And every time that this country gets an athelte that's any good, this is exactly what USA Cycling does...they hand a kid a jersey, issue a press release, and glom on accepting all the credit.

Taylor was supported by his parents, developed my Jonathan Vaughters team, and then eventually poached by Lance Armstrong. USA Cycling's role has been asking, " What size do you wear Taylor" and maybe booking Davis and Connie the same hotel 20 years ago.

In fact, maybe USA Cycling and learn from their "successes" and limit their development program to open bar mixers and handing out extasy at NRC race hotels.

I've been through beauty pagent runner up Lisa Voight and her lap dog Evan Call running the organization into the ground. I've been through the the USCF/USA coup. I've listened to the staff at USA Cycling openly mock clean racers like the Carney brothers while giving Jim Ocavitz all the resources facilitate the development of Tyler and Floyd. I watched while they ignored the people on the ground calling for the support of collegate racing and cyclo-cross. I haven't forgotten that it was USA Cycling coaches that had to settle lawsuits for shoving needles into the arm of junior riders.

So USA Cycling, if you want to be an abusive or absentee father, fine. But when you get a kid who make it into the big game, don't show up in the stands yelling, "THAT'S MY BOY !"

Wed Worlds Report

Well it went better than last week. Then again if it went worse I'd probably be writing this in braille. Anyway we rode around as a group. I attacked 3 times between the third and fourth laps to no avail and then we sprinted at the end.

I have a loose cleat, no brake pads, and a chain and sprocket that skips because it has about 4500 miles on it. So when I said we sprinted at the end, I should really say everyone else sprinted. I pretended I was Capt. Kirk with Scotty yelling in my ear that I was going to blow the ship up.

Damn, that was a pretty nerdy reference.

OK I have that whole post-ride-after-four-days-of being-sick thing going on, so its probably best if I don't write anything else until I get my wits back.

i told you this smelled funny

If you haven't read the AIG resignation letter you should.

click HERE to link to the full text.

My guess is that in October, when you learned of these retention contracts, you realized that the employees of the financial products unit needed some incentive to stay and that the contracts, being both ethical and useful, should be left to stand. That’s probably why A.I.G. management assured us on three occasions during that month that the company would “live up to its commitment” to honor the contract guarantees.

and


As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.

I'm so glad I'm not a single woman

I poached the following from this fantastic website

Psychotic Letters From Men

Please check it out as well as her sister site

Why Women Hate Men


This guy is a riot



This guy is scary



Demitri has a peppered past of losing his doctors license for inappropriate activity during house calls. He's also been spending some time in...whats the technical name being used these days ?...oh right, the loony bin.

I am so glad that I'm not a single woman.

If you'd like to read more about the wonderful Dimitri, you can find an article about him here on Gawker site Jezebel, and an article about him here from Eye Weekly.

lets talk baseball

First off, I'm sick. I haven't been able to train since Thursday so I've already convinced myself that 4 days off has completely ruined my season and that I've lost all my fitness. I think I'd have made a good crackhead.

I'm generally a part time baseball fan. I go to a few games a year, I follow the playoffs from a distance, and I'll catch a Yankees/RedSox game on a sleepy Sunday afternoon. But I've been glued to the set for this World Baseball Classic thing !

This tournament has been incredible. The games have been exciting and the players ( well the non-American players anyway) have been intense and passionate. This isn't just playoff baseball, this is single elimination playoff baseball. Last night's championship game saw the game tied in the bottom of the ninth and then won in extra innings. Amazing stuff.

I really can't understand how this thing hasn't been better covered or better promoted. I have a feeling that, like Olympic basketball, the WBC is going to continue to grow in worldwide significance and coincide with the decline in US dominance. It look like baseball will yet again be the great American metaphor.

In a related note, Curt Shilling announced his retirement yesterday. The news since has been a debate as to whether or not he should be in the hall of fame. Now I don't like Shilling. He's left a sour taste in my mouth ever since the nonsense he pulled with Mitch Williams back in '92. But despite my tendency to hold a 17 year old grudge, I think the conversation I've heard so far has been unfair.

What "they're" saying is that Shilling might not get in because a number of the baseball writers don't like him. Apparently, he's too outspoken and he challenged too many of the writers. And if there's one thing that baseball writers don't like, its anyone challenging their autho-i-tay.

Mind you, these are the same baseball writers who spend 30 years watching baseball players eat up amphetamines and steroids and didn't say anything, but now act SHOCKED that the game's integrity is being threatened. These are the same people who vilified Bonds because he wouldn't talk to them ( do their job for them), but now they're going to roast Shilling for giving them more column inches than Brittney Spears on a bender. Shilling might be brash, but he was news, and I can't believe the writers, even baseball writers would see past the obvious.

Somehow I think this has a much to do with his blogging being a threat to their profession as much as anything else. Adapt or die baseball writers, you aren't covering Connie Mack anymore.

MSR

If you have your speakers up, it sounds like the announcer climaxes at 2:15

I was a good finish, but it wasn't THAT good a finish.

Rip Van Winkle

Fridy night I ate a huge dinner and went to bed at 11pm. I woke at 11 am, ate 6 eggs, then fell back asleep till 2. I went to the pool with the kids and splashed around, then ate a steak, 2 beers, and a giant bowl of ice cream, then went back to bed and woke up now at 8 am sunday morning.

Thats like 22 hours of sleep and 10,000 calories in 48 hours and I still feel bad.

I either overcooked my chicken and/or I'm fighting off a cold.

3 hours till race time.

good beat, bad beat

Yesterday's game was pitching. After 15 pitches the boy and I were tied at 10 a piece, we went into overtime and I beat him 3-2. 25 cents in the kitty !

I then went and played poker for 5 hours and lets just say that I'm going to need to win a lot more quarters in the cookie jar. And I might need to add a few more sons. After five hours I had played 6 total hands to showdown. Two I won on bluffs, two I tied, and two I got my head kicked in. 6 hands in five hours and going bust is not normally a good time. The only bright spot was the company was enjoyable enough that I can write the whole thing off as admission to an entertaining floor show.

Today, hurting. Two races on Sunday, running intervals and swimming on Tuesday, race on Wednesday, swimming intervals yesterday, and then up all night playing cards. I think that I've success proven to myself that I'm not 24 anymore. If somehow I don't end up with a cold, I'll be spending the weekend resting and recovering.

Unless the boy wants to have a sitting still contest, I think I might have to conceed tonights game.

1 and 1

I've started a daily competition with the boy.

25 cents a day goes into a jar, he comes up with the game, the winner holds the jar. Whoever is holding the jar on his birthday gets the contents.

Day 1 was hitting golfballs. I had to hit the ball from across the yard between a street sign and a telephone pole ( about 4 feet across), he had to hit from the same distance and land it anywhere it the driveway. I can accept the fact that the weasel made the game inherantly unfair, I mean he IS 8. But I thought it was a littl much that he declared, after I pegged the pole from 40 yards, " sorry Dad, HITTING the telephone pole is not going BETWEEN the telephone pole". Stupid "no child left behind" legislation.

Day 2 I got my revenge. Two-bounce. The equlizer was that he shot foul shots from the scratch in the driveway, while I had to shoot from behind the first part or the sidewalk ( or as we've declared them, international rules). The boy underestimated the handicap and I easily schooled him 16 - 5...." quarter in the tip jar sucker !"

There intense level of competition is only exceeded by the quality of the smack talk.

I don't know what we have on tap tonight, but when I left this morning he was asking what time I'll be home so he's cooking up something.

race report

Race report from Wed worlds...

I sucked, i sucked, i got dropped, then I sucked for a little while in the second group, then I yelled at a guy, then I rode home.

I'm considering doping. Not for the performance benefit as much as the two year ban.

Do you think it makes him nuts...

....that after being the only one predicting all this was going to happen, that still nobody takes him seriously ?

If only he was a foot taller and a little more handsome I suppose.

Kimmage, Eustice, et al

Ever since his head to head with Armstrong Kimmage has gotten a lot of attention. He's used the opportunity to be his usual outspoken self about cycling, and not just about Lance.

Quite a bit of his ire is directed at the UCI and other major players within the cycling hierarchy. To me is seems apparent that he's right, but at the same time I've been trying to better understand the other side. I mean we're dealing with rational, successful people...people like Pat McQuaid or Steve Montgomery or even Jim Ochavitz....and I'm try to get a sense of their perspective on things.

I've had the most success in trying to garner that understanding by evaluating someone a little closer to home, John Eustice. Despite whatever I think about John as a TV announcer, I would be the first to heap praise in the work that he's done on behalf of the sport. His hard work, vision, and commitment to cycling has had played a significant positive impact on the sport in many direct and indirect ways.

To name just a few things, John put together composite teams and brought over foreign teams when Philly Week was just getting started that helped riders and helped the race. His efforts with Univest are obvious, but less obvious is the impact it had in raising the level of expectation and the quality of racing in the region as seen in Mt. Holly, Blue Bell, Turkey Hill, etc etc. John has worked behind the scenes promoting the sport and encouraging others to promote the sports and folks who have worked with him and for him have gone on to be accomplished promoters, team directors, and cycling journalists.

Conversely, John's efforts and passion for the sport have also, in my opinion, represented so much of what is wrong with cycling. In addition to the riders that he's given opportunity to, he was also instrumental in promoting the career of one of the main sources of drugs in US cycling in 80's and early 90's. For every Gannet ( winner of the race in 98) that won the race, there have been less than reputable riders that John has celebrated in victory despite him having to have had a suspicion that things were a little too good to be true. ((I should add the disclaimer that I acknowledge some bitterness that he accused me of undermining the sport's integrity when I brought a legal, publicly-traded gambling sponsor to the sport...while he was putting obvious dopers on his promotional material for upcoming races.)) More recently, Eustice has made a very public spectacle of supporting Floyd Landis when, as someone so close to the sport, he knows the prevalence of doping in the peleton.

For every two steps forward that John exhaustingly pushes the sport, he seems to so easily and inexplicably take one step back. Yes, I suppose it keeps things plodding along in the right direction, but I've really a hard time understanding the contradiction of it all.

So I've tried putting myself in his shoes. John puts on Univest which is good for the sport, it provides a showcase for cycling, and it provides opportunities for up and coming cyclists.

Its also and event that's under constant threat.

Houstatonic is gone, Philly week is back down to one day. The economy, and the banking industry that cycling has depended so heavily upon for 20 years is dead.

So here is a guy who has his income ( are at least a portion thereof) hanging in the balance, who has 10 years of hard work hanging in the balance, and who has to justify to existing sponsors and convince new sponsors, that the product that he's selling is the eyeball drawing, beautiful spectacle that he (we) have all fallen in love with.

The last thing that he needs when he's selling Oscar Pierro is Operation Puerto.

Add to the those pressures the moral justification ( highground ?) that the successes of the race benefit more of the clean majority than cheating minority and ends start to look like a heck of a justification for the means.

Sort of like same was that the smile on the face of a dozen cancer kids, or home to a guy just diagnosed with testicular cancer can help foot the bill for questioning the integrity of a journalist, ruining a former champion's career, of forcing a former friend out of the sport he loves.

I'm not sure that does it for me. I mean I'm not sure I see the sport as presented as an either or scenario. I think that Festina presented an opportunity missed. Then later Floyd's case presented another chance passed over. Maybe this most recent return of Armstrong presents one last chance for the sport to begin anew.

I don't know what the future holds, but in trying to better understand the forces and pressures at work, maybe the sport can continue to find better solutions. In the meantime, I'll look to celebrate the successes of the the Garmins of the world. And look at their successes as a reason to continue to hope.

enough toe dipping

I keep answer the question, "Are you going to race this year ?" with the answer, " I haven't looked that far ahead yet".

Well enough dipping my toe in the water. At some point you have to hold your nose and jump.

April
4 Fawn Grove - cat 4
19 Hempfield Triathlon
25/26 - Ephrata Stage Race, Cat 4

May
2 Turkey Hill - 5K run and cat 4 bike
17 Pinchot Triathlon
30 Fulton Road Race - 35+

June
7 Pinchot Triathlon 2
21 Cargas Crit - 35+
28 Millersville RR - 35+

July
25 Granview Crit - 35+

Aug
2 Patriots Triathlon

Sept
13 Diamondman Half Ironman
19 State TT

November
8 Harrisburg Marathon

The trap

I got 3rd in the D race and 7th in the C race today. At the finish of both races I though I could have done better, but the ride home gave me perspective. I pretty much got the exact spot I deserved in both races. Good legs = good luck. If you're strong and you're confident then you don't have to worry about positioning and you're able to overcome obstacles.

Which brings us to the title of this post, "the trap".

For years I played golf as an 18 hcp. About a year and a half ago I made a commitment to try and improve my game and after some hard work I got down to a 12. That satisfaction lasted about two weeks before I started shooting for 10. Every round after that wasn't measured against the 6 strokes a round improvement I had made, It was measure against breaking 80.

If you would have asked me last night what would have been a successful day today, I would have said " placing in the D race, and finishing the C race". But no sooner were those things realized than I was already looking forward to next week. I could have, should have, picked up at least three places in the C race. I shouldn't have even been in the D race, and I left during the B race already looking over the guys I'll be racing next week.

So the trick in all athletics is that fine balancing act between satisfaction and expectations. There's an inherent drive in all athletes thats needed in order to keep progressing...a focus forward. At the same time there needs to be some recognition of the ground covered. Too much satisfaction and the athlete goes static. Too little appreciation and the sport becomes an endless source of disappointment and misery.

Its been 5 years since I've done any real racing, and I have to say that I've been humbled by the friendship and support that I've seen the last month. Cycling has a reputation ( well earned) of being a selfish and adversarial sport, but I've seen none of that. People have been very welcoming, very encouraging, and incredibly supportive. Its been a real treat to see folks that I haven't really seen much of in the last few years. And I have really appreciated the encouragement of the better riders who have taken the time to take note of my return. All of that has been helpful in trying to keep everything in perspective.

I'm going to stop now. This is all a little too introspective and rambling for a blog about beer farts.

Equal time

I've been meaning to mention this guy for a while.

Maybe the greatest stage racer you never heard of, Gilles Delion. He had the misfortune of coming into prominence at exactly the same time that EPO hit the peleton.

I love this quote from Verbruggen, who was always SHOCKED !!! that anyone would suggest riders were taking EPO. Anyone claiming that was just sour graped (take note Lemond haters)

In the Team of the 1/17/1997 , Hein Verbruggen, then President of UCI, said in connection with declarations of Gilles Delion implying that many runners are doped with EPO:
" I am not impressed at all by testimonys of runners like Delion or (Graham) Obree which are people in end of a career, who cannot follow the group any more. I find that release, I do not have an other mot."

Other guys who were nutso losers whos careers ended because they were making up stuff about drug use:

Chirstophe Bassons

Jesus Manzono

Filippo Simeoni - His career didn't end, he just went into anonymity until a certain other rider retired and the sport cleaned up a bit. Then he won a National Championship in Italy.

Eddy Planckaert

Eddy Planckaert was one of a family of bicycle racers who, after the death of their father, were racing to put food on the family table.

Since retiring from cycling Eddy Plankaert has lead a tulmuluous existance. He's been broke, homeless, and suicidal. I read an interview where he talked seriously about lashing himself to a pier at low tide then throwing the key into the ocean. The quote was , " After you threw the key away and the tide started coming in...then you'd really know something." For some reason that quote always stuck with me.

In recent years, Plankaert and his family have become "The Obornes" ( remember them) of Belgium. For 4-5 seasons a television crew has followed them as they've lived in a teepee and set out on a variety of adventures. Eddy's son is an aspiring race car driver, his other son is an actor and race three years as a profession cyclist, and his daughter Stephanie is a pop star. Eddy gets himself drunk and causes trouble across Flandia.

The Plankaerts continue to stay involved in the world of cycling. Eddy's brothers were great racers and now Walter won Flanders, Willy won the Tour's green jersey. Their sons have seen some success with the aforementioned Francesco having a brief carreer and Jo Plankaert winning Kerne-Brussle-Kerne and getting second in Paris-Roubix. The newest to try his hand is Baptiste Plankaert who has been realizing some success in the amateur ranks.

I was inspired by the Swashbuckler jersey.

I rode the last two laps off the front last night, part of the way by myself and then with some scragly dude in a 1980s performance jersey he bought from craigslist, who bridged up to me.

The kid was friggin hammering...just killing me. Just before the last corner, with the group breathing down our necks, I told him that to settle down and that if we got to the line, that he could have the win. Instead of calming him down it got him all excited and the kid just busted a move after I took a pull.

We went through the final corner with him 50 yards ahead of me and turned right into a block headwind. I sat up and waited for the group. Three guys caught me and I latched onto the back. First guy pulled and died, second guy pulled and died, Third guy sprinted and caught the kid 50 yards from the finish line. They were both pretty much standing still when I started to sprint.

I felt bad for the kid, he was pretty bummed out, but effem...all bets were off when he dropped me.

Anyway I know its a B race, but I'm pretty happy. Its one thing to ride around and then out snooker those guys. But being able to ride off tells me that I'm finally starting to get a little bit of fitness.

weird

Last year the World Series of Poker made an annoucement that they were going to double the number of chips that you got to start any of their tournaments.So if you paid $3000 to enter, you were going to get $6000 in starting chips.

This was supposed to provide a bigger incentive to get people to attend.

The thing is, they also doubled the blinds. To the uninitiated what that means is that they doubled the ammt you needed in order to play each hand. This is like telling someone that you're going to charge them half price for a 4 slice pizza. BFD.

Beyond the transparent stupidity of it all, I didn't understand it from a marketing perspective. There are two types of poker players...math nuts and degenerate gamblers. Creating a illogical system like this was only going to annoy the math guys. And the degen guys don't care how many chips they get to start, they're shoving them in the middle anyway. I just didn't get it and in the end it didn't have an effect on how many people participated.

Yesterday the WSOP announced that they're doing it again. The announcement read that they're TRIPPLING! what you get for your buy-in this year. So a $1000 buy-in gets $3000 in chips. BUT...

From Cardplayer.com:

With 150,000 in starting chips in 2009, the blinds will start at 400-800, as opposed to 300-600 from last year.

The other obvious effect of all of this are all the zeros. 400-800 with 150,000 ??!?! Why not 40-80 with 15,000 ? I mean the way they have it, at the end of the tourney guys are saying, " I raise you eleventy-billion.....re-raise".

Its absurd. But somewhere I hear someone saying, " These go to eleven "

awareness test

The big trip

Saturday night I was schedule to go to my niece's birthday party in Philly. The family was excited and wanted to stay overnight. I agreed under the condition that everyone needed to get up in the morning as I had a bike race on Sunday.

Saturday night everyone is up and having a good time, including yours truly, who at some point in the last few weeks fell off the wagon, and was taking advantage of my sisters tequila mixing skills. At around 11:30 I decided to hit the hay as I knew that 6:00 am, and the ensuing 2 hour drive home was going to come fast. Then I was reminded about daylight saving time and realized it was going to come faster.

My alarm went off and I was groggily awake, " time to get up".

Mrs. Flick went right on the offensive, " are you SUUUURE you want to race ?"

"yes we have to get up."

" Can't we just lay here a minute...just a minute...here hold me.", and she grabbed my arm and pulled me close.

I snuggled in next to her and started to drift off asleep again when I sudden thought bolted me awake... " HOLD ME ?!" We've been married almost 14 years and have 3 kids. The last time I got solicited into bed without protest or an exchange of funds was when the twin towers were standing.

" HEY ! YOU'RE TRICKING ME !", I jumped out of bed.

"Come back to bed", she purred.

Knowing what a weak man I am I grabbed my pants and ran out of the room. Literally, I bottomed out the van jumping the curb and sped out of town as fast as I could, leaving my family there.

I was a little hung over and facing a long drive so I stopped at Starbucks and grabbed a breakfast sandwich as a big black coffee. With about 10 miles to go in the trip I started peculating. 3 miles to go I was sweating and driving with cheeks clenched. 1 mile to go I was considering where I could best throw away my pants to save myself the embarrassment if I couldn't hold it anymore. Finally I pulled into my driveway and started running for the door with me key out. The Sunday paper was no the stoop. " How fortuitous !", I thought...impressing myself with my big word. I was just about home free when I bent over to scoop up the paper.

Note to self: When you are in defcon dump mode level 5, do not bed down for anything...esp note a 4 lb newspaper.

For the record, I made it to the can....but it was not, shall we say, without incident.

So then I cleaned up. Got my stuff on and rode over to the bike race.

The temptation of course is to give you a race report outlining all of the wickedly exciting things that happened from my perspective...but that's about as fun as a bad beat poker story...only interesting to the teller, never interesting to the listener/reader. The long and short is we rode around in circles. I took me about 3 laps to remember everything about bike racing, and about 4 laps to realize that I'm not fit enough yet to be able to compete. So I did what I could, got some good training in, did two races, and tried to have as much fun as possible. I rode home and got a good 65 mile day in.

Oh, yeah..then I had to drive back to Philly and pick up my family. Total count...4 hours on the bike, 4 hours in the car, 3 fast food meals. A good day all around.

( I almost made it through the weekend having lost another pound or two...but 4 tequilas, cheese puffs, an ice cream cone, and a few beers later, I think I killed those chances...damn nothing good ever happens past 10 pm)

forget all the heavy stuff

starting tomorrow I should have some good poop stories as well as the results of my riding around in a circle comeback.

Ah, seems like old times.

overly simple

I literally had to draw a diagram on a piece of paper but I think i'm starting to get it.

So

Person A has 10,000 in cash..they go to a bank and hand it over into their checking acct.

Builder B builds a house

Person C want to buy the house.

Based on the 10,000 in despoits the bank lends Person C 100,000

Person C give the money to Builder B

The Builder B puts "the money" in the bank.

So the Bank now has $110,000 in desposits....BUT really has $10,000 in actual money

So there's a real house, and there's a real $10,000 in cash.

But the other $100,000 doesn't really exist...its a promise from Person C for future labor.

The loan is actually between the BuilderB and PersonC, with the bank acting as the enforcing or insurance agency at a ridiculous ( IMO) fee of like a 200% mark-up.

So if circumstances lead us to the point where person C can't pay the debt. Then the bank has a house and $10,000, but owes out $110,000. So if the reaction is well fuck the bank that its problem for writing a stupid loan....then what happens to the BuilderB and PersonA both of whom are owed a total of $110,000 ?

The first thing that comes to mind is "WTF doesn't the builder just sell ( or rent) the house directly to the person and forget the bank ?"

And I can see how in this model, something needs to be done to prevent total catastrophy...but what is going to be done to prevent this from happening again ? Shouldn't we be looking at what's wrong with this model and take the steps necessary to make sure it doesn't happen again ?

And finally, the role of the bank really seems to be to help people get shit they want RIGHT NOW in exchange for paying for it later. But they're doing that with no more security ( actually you could contend less security) than the person promising to pay them ! If the bank has actual money to loan out, that sounds reasonable, but it doesn't appear that's the case. Its a promise on a promise....and sadly backed up by a promise from the government. Thats bullshit obviously.

What should happen is that we should take our lumps, get through this, and learn as a country to only buy those things that we can afford and to only lend out resources that only exist in the here and now. That will be a difficult transitition until people are able to accumulate that wealth. But such a system should also force a decrease in prices or at least an increase in purchasing power as the banks cut of the action decreases. I suspect all of that will mean a static economy, but really, don't recent events this prove there no sustainable alternative ?

Fathers and Sons

I took the boy out fishing last night and when we got home my wife asked how it went.

It went like everything else we do.

Golf - We walk around with me yelling at him to stop walking across the sandtraps or stop dragging his bag across the green.

Baseball - We have batting practice until I start yelling at him for letting go of the bat.

Video games - We play until I start yelling at him for having his fingers up his nose and then sticking them into the bag of chips.

and now fishing - which constitutes me yelling at him to stop throwing his bait into the only tree within three miles of where we're fishing.

I'd characterize it as him having his head up his ass, but I suspect that he doesn't have enough of an attention span to get any further than bending over before he either got distracted by something else or tripped over his own gigantic feet.

I love the boy to death, but he's doing a hell of a job at making me understand what my father was pissed off about all the time when I was a kid.

Watts Up ?

Intervals at the gym last night. I could sustain 265 watts at threshold for 5, five minute intervals. Given the fact that I'm 200 lbs...and given the fact that anyone who publishes on their blog that they sustained 265 probably really only sustained 250 watts but is too embarassed to say it....puts me sqaurely in the middle of the range of people who actively play Wii FIT at their local nursin home.

To put it in perspective, Lance needs both Olsen twins in bed with him at the same time to even think needing to put out 265 watts and at that point only Mary Kate and Ashley are the ones breathing hard.

OMG I think I'm channeling Andrew Dice Clay. Is he even dead or was that just his career ? Booya !

Training week

For the first time in 4-5 years I've started a regular regimen of training. Training for "what" hasn't really been determined, but I've been consistently riding 3x, running 2x, and swimming 2x, for a total of about 8 hours a week since October. I've lost some weight, I've seen some improvement in all areas, and I'm generally encouraged.

What I had somehow forgotten over those 4+ years was the other parts of the training week that goes along with figuring out time to ride or run...the obsessive compulsive part, the pain part, and the " this isn't any fun" part, among others. Now that I've into a regular routine, I thought I'd share with your the other routine.

Monday - I was up feeling pretty decent. Usually I've done two long hard days over the weekend and I wake up Monday feeling fresher than I expect. Go down stairs, make coffee and start trying to talk myself into not getting on the scale,

" Do NOT get on the scale....you're going to be swollen from the weekend and the number is gong to be high. Do NOT get on the scale"

Then I have a cup of coffee. Watch a little bit of Mike and Mike on ESPN2, then I go upstairs and get on the scale.

The rest of the day is being depressed about how much I weigh.

Tuesday - Wake up a little melancholy because I made it 14 hours yesterday on nothing but coffee and one slice of toast, but woke up in the middle of the night starving and ate half a tub ( the other half left over from the previous Monday) of Turkey Hill ice cream.

By 2 pm, I'm totally sore and exhausted, the weekend is finally starting to catch up to me. I respond to this by doing 1.5 hours of really hard intervals, eating 6 ibuprofen, and staring at the ceiling all night.

Wednesday - The urinating starts. A weekends worth of swelling and an absurd ammt of coffee come together in what I like to refer to as Whizzin Wednesday. I pee every 20 mins all day long and try to convince my co-workers that I'm really not a coke fiend.

Thursday - Wake up and put hand cream on the hands which are now chapped from washing them every 20 minutes the day before. Get on scale and see that I've lost 3.5 lbs in 4 days. Elated, I celebrate my good dieting that evening by eating 8 extra slices of pizza then consider the the merits and social stigma of bulimics.

Friday - Friday is mostly spent telling myself that I'm so exhausted that I really do deserve a day off and that I shouldn't feel guilty about it. In the end I compromise by doing a light workout, then feeling half guilty about it.

Saturday and Sunday - Coffeekidstuffworkouteatvegrinserepeat.

Fundamental breakdown

This past weekend marked another disappointing experience in the world of retail.

I make a conscious effort, where practical to support those businesses that make an effort to do a good job and provide a good service. I'll do so even where that service or product costs more than the alternative.

Sadly, I'm finding that regardless of cost, my options are increasingly limited.

Rather than continue to focus in the negative ( which seems all too easy these days in a world of supposed economic turmoil) , I've decided to use this post as an opportunity to talk about my positive experiences in retail.

< cue the crickets >

The last time I can remember....actually the last two times I can remember being stopped in my tracks by high quality customer service with a smile happened about an hour apart. Once getting one and then getting off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Yeah I know...right ?! But its true, of all the places, but I've noticed that for the most part the Turnpike Toll Takers ( or whatever their official title is...maybe Revenue Accepting Associate) ..anyway...whatever they're called, they always are pleasant, friendly, and knowledgeable.

So here's a tip of the coffee mug to toll takers...the last bastion of civility in the modern world.


---for those of you reading via google reader, you're sooo missing my new twitter widget ------>

Making the pros

You know you're getting pretty good at this parenting thing when you instinctively know the difference between the sound of an object falling down the stairs and a child falling down the stairs.

_DO_ call it a comeback

Weather pending, I'll make my triumphant return to bicycle racing on Sunday.

My wife is pretty psyched about me doing a C race on a tight course, early in the season, on a wet windy day.

I've been notified that I'll be scrubbing out my own wounds.

Dogbert

No Stats All Star

An interesting piece on statistics and basketball. - ty Andrew

ToC is done and I've heard some amazement at the fact that Armstrong was able to predict how much time that he would lose to Levi in the time trial. For those of you who still believe that bike racing is largely about guts and being "super-motivated" you may want to stop reading now. Predicting the outcome of the TT or for that matter, the outcome of a mountain finish isn't really that hard to do if you know a few things.

If you know the sustain wattage of the riders at threshold. ( which Lance would have as they're teammates)
If you know the drag difference between riders ( negligible on climbs and not significant between Levi and Lance)
The weight of the riders ( also known)
If you know the terrain and distance of the event ( known quantities)
and you assume both riders aren't sick or injured.

At that point its a matter of punching in sustained wattage at threshold over distance. Then factor in weight/terrain and if necessary drag. Then you'll have an approximation of what their finishing time will be. Even if some of your assumptions are wrong, you should have a decent idea of of the difference of their times relative to each other.

Dr Michele Ferrari may be guilty of providing riders with drugs, but he's not guilty of being an idiot. Years ago he created for his clients ( including one Lance Armstrong) a catalogue of VAM. VAM was a measure of riders rate of assent over various climbs. By establishing the VAM he could, essentially, back his way through the formula described above and figure out power output and projected climbing times for various riders. That's one of the ways that Lance knew to let Pantani go away during stage 15 of the 2000 Tour De France, Ferrari knew that Pantani would only about 30 seconds at the top based on his previous recent performances.

That might take some of the beauty and mystique out of the grand tours, but it also goes to show how Johan Bruneel and Lance Armstong's legendary preparation and attention directly contributed to his 7 victories.

Some other point the the same topic:
- The theory also reinforces the point that LeMond made, which was ignored and which I think eventually got Catlin bounced from Armstrong's team. Once you've established a baseline wattage/kg at threshold, riders shouldn't see a significant increase in that wattage unless there's something funny going on.
- Lance already has his team accumulating this wattage and VAM numbers on other riders. This of course includes the information he has the greatest access to...that on Alberto Contador. Lance will start the tour knowing whether or not he can outclimb and out TT Countador. Regardless of what he says, that will be the only factor in deciding who will be team leader.
- Classics, largely, are immune from this sort of scientific application. Classics races are too dynamic and unpredictable....which is why they remain my favorite.

I'm twittering

flickstrong on twitter.com

and I'll save your the trouble of having to comment...yes that makes me gay.

extortion explained

So the mob goes into a neighborhood and explains to a shop owner that there are dangers in the world and the mob is the agency best equipped to protect the shop owner. Should the owner balk at that idea, he'll find himself proven wrong when, coincidentally, a brick gets thrown through his window two night later....surely something that would have been prevented if he had taken advantage of the "insurance" policy offered by the mob.

Over the course of time, the mob recognized various opportunities that their diversified business associations provided. For instance, everyone they provided "protection" for also need to throw out their trash. So the mob formed a trash hauling business. Also, if the mob provided protection for both a painter and for a grocer, and the Giants failed to cover on Sunday... the grocer might find himself in need of some painting, which the mob would happily arrange with their friend the painter...for a standard 20% vig, on both sides. Over the course of time came drug distribution, gambling, and other associated business.

In short, the mob became a very convenient one stop shop for everything everyone needed, for the small fee of just about everything you owned. And if that ended up costing too much, no worries, they also had a very successful lending program to ensure you kept afloat.

Yeah you were giving them all your money, and they were putting you deeper in debt, and you were subject to their whims and any given time, but you WERE protected. Make no bones about that, you were definately protected.

So just replace "brick" with 9/11, "trash" with "everything", and "mob" with "government" and you see what has me all pissed off.

Oh right...you don't have to change drugs and gambling. Those are the same.

the story

Transcript of Paul Kimmage's radio interview in Ireland, 9/10/08:

"My reaction to Armstrong coming back? ...the enthusiasm that I had built up about the sport in the last couple of years has been all but completely wiped out in the last couple of hours.

Let's turn the clock back to Armstrong's last apparition in the sport. The Tour de France 2005. He's standing on the podium. And he makes this big impassioned speech. Which is basically saying 'The last thing I'll say to the people who don't believe in cycling, the cynics, the sceptics: I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry you can't dream big. I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles.' That was 2005, his last ride in the the Tour de France. And the people flanking him on that podium were Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich. And a month after that race ended the French newspaper L'Equipe reported that in his first winning Tour de France, in 1999, Armstrong had tested positive for EPO. Six separate samples taken during that race revealed positive tests for EPO.

STORY: Angry Armstrong blasts reporter; 2/12/09

This return, he wants us to believe that it's all about saving the world from cancer. That's complete bullshit. It's about revenge It's about ego. It's about Lance Armstrong. I think he's trying to rewrite his exit from the sport. He's sat back and he's watched the last two years and he cannot stand the idea that there are clean cyclists now that will overtake his legacy and buy the memory of all the crap that he put the sport through.

When I heard it being mooted first that he was coming back, I thought well that's fine, because the first thing ASO are going to say is 'sorry Lance, we've seen your results from the 1999 tests , you're not coming back.' I expected a similar statement from Pat McQuaid. What's happened instead is that Christian Prudhomme has said 'yes, you can come back, no problem.' And Pat McQiad has said 'I really admire this man, he's a tremendous ambassador for cycling.' What we're getting here is the corporate dollars and the money that's going to accompany this guy back into the game. The money that's going to bring for Nike, one of the big sponsors of the Tour. And for the UCI, who have been experiencing some serious problems in the last couple of years.

Much as you want to say the sport has changed, as quickly as they can change their own opinions - McQuaid, who says one thing in private and quite the opposite in public, and Prudhomme - if they can change so quickly then I'm sorry, it's really very, very difficult to have any optimism with regard to Armstrong and the way the sport was moving forward. For me, if he comes back next year, the sport takes two steps back.

I spent the whole Tour this year with Slipstream, the Garmin team. That wasn't by accident. I chose that team deliberately, because of what they were saying about the sport and the message they were putting out. But also the fact that so many of that team had raced with Armstrong during his best years and knew exactly what he got up to. And the stuff that I learnt on that Tour about him and what he was really like was absolutely shocking, really shocking.

What's going to happen now is he comes back and everybody's going to wave their hands in the air and give him a big clap. And all the guys who really know what he's about are going to feel so utterly and totally depressed. And I'm talking about Jonathan Vuaghthers, who raced with Armstrong that first winning Tour and who doped. And if you look at that Tour, Armstrong's first win, there were seven Americans on that team. Frankie Andreu has said he used EPO. Tyler Hamilton has been done for [blood doping]. George Hincapie was exposed as a doper by Emma O'Reilly, the team soigneur. Christian Vand Velde and Jonathan Vaughters . both are members of Slipstream and would promote the notion that this was not a clean team by any means. When you look at that and what Armstrong's done and how he's seemingly got away with it, it just makes his come back very hard to stomach.

Astana's the absolute perfect team for him. He'd be renewing his old acquaintance with Bruyneel, who wanted to hire Basso last year. Will he be renewing his old acquaintance with Ferrari, the famous doctor? Will Bruyneel be taking pictures of the questioning journalists and pinning them on the side of his bus?

When Armstrong talks about transparency, this is the greatest laugh. When he talks about embracing this new transparency . I'm really looking forward to that. I'm really looking forward to my first interview request with him and seeing how that comes back. Because that would really make it interesting.

This guy, any other way but his bullying and intimidation wrapped up in this great cloak, the great cancer martyr . this is what he hides behind all the time. The great man who conquered cancer. Well he is the cancer in this sport. And for two years this sport has been in remission. And now the cancer's back."


Podium Cafe.com
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odds and ends from the weekend

My daughter had a swim meet over the weekend and set PRs in each of her events. This lead me to take a look at the qualifying standards for junior Olympics. Strangely enough, my daughter would have placed a few spots higher in the 9-10 boys events than she did in the girls races. I'm always surprised to see that for many events, the girls time standards are lower than the boys. This, of course, is a fact often pointed out to the boys by the girls.

---------------------------

The hottest two topics of conversation back and forth to the pool were

* wondering how cool it would be if they could put Lake Huron on Uranus.
and
* complete fascination with rectal thermometers, asking Dad if he even had his butt temperature taken then laughing hysterically.

---------------------------

On Sat, I was half asleep, staring out the window and drinking a cup of coffee when the boy walked in, " good morning Dad."

"urgh", and sipped my coffee.

Then as he walked by the little bastard reached over, "pantsed" me, and kept going.

" You little shit. You know I'm going to kill you"

" HA ! first you gotta catch me ! And you owe me a dollar for cursing.", and he ran downstairs.

I now owe him $26.
-------------------------

Horner is the best

Lance Twittered this 2 hours after the race:

Getting massage and Horner comes in. He's just back from the race. Johan and I were like, "where have u been?".

Reply - "I was at In and Out Burger". What??

He ordered a double-double (xtra onions), fries, coke, and a strawberry shake. Wow.

ToC oberservations

from yesterday's stage:

- If Horner were such a dop- errrr 'super-motivated' rider he'd be, by far my favorite bicycle racer. He always reads the race perfectly, he speaks his mind, and he's always willing to do the work. If Astana wins the race, they owe it to him.

- Astana blaming their screw up on the radio communication is would be like the Miami Dophins blaming a loss because it was just too darned cold to be playing football in Green Bay. Even if you're right you still sound like a pussy. The radios are primarily for safety and assist with the racing. Ultimately if you want to win the race, put down your Blackberry, pay attention, and race at the front of the field Johan.

- Floyd = chubby

- Mancebo not waiting for Tim Johnson is funny. Tim Johnson complainint about it is funny. I'll be happy when the race leaves "whine" country.

- I owe Eustice and apology. Clearly he's not the worst cycling announcer ever.

- The officials supposedly changing the rules to that the GC time was taken the first time across the line is really interesting and totally changed the complexion of the race. It also explains how Mancebo put time into the chase on the circuits while the other to riders cleared the game. The way the whole finishing circuit played out was confusing, but makes more sense in light of the officials decission.

- Someone needs to get the cameraman on of those Sham-WOWs! Maybe the ShamWow! guy could do some announcing. THAT I'd watch.

TREK - ARMSTONG - AMERICA

I get it. Sorry it took so long.

All those granny-earth muffin, WTO protesting, Birkenstock wearing, nutjobs who have been yelling about capitalist imperialism and American ills...I own you an apology. You were right.

Now in my defense, if you guys had presented yourselves a little better and, say, taken a bath once a month, you may have been able to make a more compelling argument. But bygones....

I have a friend who is a successful Trek dealer. I mentioned how I thought it was disappointing that Trek screwed over Greg LeMond. " Greg LeMond ? Greg LeMond is a big fucking crybaby full of sour grapes and jealousy."

Well you can imagine the the rest of the conversation didn't go particularly well.

But after some thoughtful discussion he make the following points:

- Yeah Lemond is right. Yes Lemond is fighting from the moral high ground. Yes Lance is a self-selving cheating dick with a god complex. And yes, the guy in the black hat is winning, and winning handily. It's like if Star Wars ended with Darth Vader killing Luke and Leah.

But none of that matters.

- Trek is making money. He's making money. Trek is American and so Lance is good for America ( he actually said this). Lance brings people to cycling. Lance brings attention to cancer. He said the benefits of Lance (even doping) outweigh the negatives. The ends totally justify the means. Even if he's right, Greg Lemond should have recognized that and should have realized that speaking out was going to cost him his business and his reputation. Ultimately no one really cares if Lance doped.

He (Greg) should have just shut the fuck up and get onto the gravy train.

THAT, my fiends, should be the first line revised constitution.

God Bless America(tm)

foreboding ? foreclosing ?

"Politics. Where greed wears the mask of morality." -Inspector Jacques Clouseau:

I have a friend who told me that he hasn't made a mortgage payment for three months. The bank called him for the first time this week. Instead of the hard sell, he got a simple request, " Can you pay anything ?"

Now before your let your heartstring get pulled I should give you a little more of the story. My friend no longer lives in the house. He now lives in an upscale condo, his 4th place in the last 6 years. He was one of the upwardly mobile suburban DC denizens who flipped houses every two years moving from a reasonable 400K place up to the 1.2 million mansion that he find himself upside down in. All along the way, he's made the move with little money down, ARMortgages, and using the proceeds to make the minimum down payment followed by purchases of sports cars, motorcycles, and Caribbean trips. Does that sound jealous ? Yeah, well that's probably because I am. During that same time period I've been cutting my lawn of the modest home and making the monthly nut on time as promised.

But that's besides the point. Whatever arrangements that exist between my friend and the bank are between those two. If they want to make a risky loan, fine. If he doesn't want to pay, what difference is it to me ? That's UNTIL I have to politicians bellyaching about poor Little Sally Johnson being evicted....or the " pain on Main Street". I have sympathy for working class people living from paycheck to paycheck, but I have little sympathy for people living above their means or for those people who got caught on the ground floor of a world-wide greed filled ponzi scheme they got caught up in.

Which brings us to my main point. The banks and policiticans would have us believe that they're being magnanimous by passing policies and legislation to limit the forecloseurs and by not evicting people from their homes for non-payment.

BULLSHIT.

If the banks thought for a minute that they could sell those homes for a profit, they'd do it in a minute. If they could get another interest paying veal to pony up the minimum down payment, then the current residents would be out on the street by sunset. What it really comes down to is that in this housing market the banks aren't getting any money...but if they foreclose on those houses they start LOSING money. So long as people like my buddy own the house, then my buddy has to cut the lawn, my buddy has to insure it, my buddy is responsible for the taxes, and there's the off change that the bank can talk him into making some sort of payments..then eventually pick the mortgage back up when things turn around. And THAT is what banks want.

Credit is imaginary money. Its a promise on future labor. And seeing as its largely fabricated wealth then whatever return the banks make on it is profit. If the bank can get my buddy to pay even a portion of the interest he owns each month, the bank is happy to let the principal sit in the "owed" column and continue to the the vig run. Loanshaking 101.

Thats what this bailout is about. Its about helping keep the banks afloat and keeping the loansharks in business.

Defending a so called doper

So A-Rod is all over the news and using performance enhancing drugs.

Lets sets a few things straight.

* Prior to 2002 MLB had no testing program which means that whatever rules they had in place really didn't exist. I'll take that a step further and say that they knew the players were regularly takinf steriods and MLB didn't care. MLB made a lot of money during and after the Sosa/ Maguire rivalry.

* The self rightous reporters who are condemning players now were in the locker rooms and damn well knew what had been going on for year and years. They never said a word. They were complicit. For them to act shocked is hypocritical.

* In 2002 the players union agreed to participate with testing so that MLB could assess the situation. The tests were to be anonymous and not to be used against and player. A-Rod positive is coming out of those test, which are proving to be NOT anonymous and now are being considered for use against him. This type of behavior is going SET BACK the efforts of anti-doping in athletics. If the testers can't be trusted to follow their own rules and anonymous doesn't mean anonymous then you're not going to get any cooperation.

For me the issue is simple. For anything that occurred prior to 2004, the slate is wiped clean. None of that matters. Anything that happened(s) after 2004 should be enforced according to the rules in place. That's all. As for records, there needs to be some recognition that from 1990-2004 drugs were rampant in the sport.

From this point forward I'd consider any doping to be affecting the integrity of the game and I'd deal with it the same way that you would someone who cheated or gambled on games.

As for A-Rod, I can't see punishing a guy who did something years ago that nobody cared about then..because suddenly they care about it now.

We've all been there

ty Andrew

Armstrong

Did you expect anything different ?


"Armstrong’s first race out of retirement, he said he was worried that publishing all his biological data would prompt unfair questions about him from the public. A layman would probably not be able to understand complex information"

- He's not cheating. You're just too dumb to know realize that.

Discussion topic Wednesday

Suppose there's a kid who is pretty good at baseball and is graduating high school. He's given two choices:

1) Accept a partial scholarship ( $3500) from a small University to play baseball for them.

2) Sign with a independant league team for $ 3500 a year...and the team would accomodate his college academic schedule into his team participation.

We're going to assume the following for sake of discussion...

- He'd go to same college either in either case, and the college is local.
- The quality of play is slightly better with the pro team, but the competition for a starting spot is also slightly more difficult.
- The kids main goal is to play and enjoy baseball, but has not given up on thoughts of a real pro career.

The kid comes to you for advice, and you say ????

Call to arms

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Figure out what your local municipality is. Find out what vacancies exist and fill them. Boards, commissions, committees, whatever. At the very least, go the to municipal website and read what's going on.

Everyone's attention is on the national stage. People bicker about stuff that barely or indirectly affects them, macro issues like the national economy, abortion, race relations, etc.

Meanwhile, right in your back yard, decisions are being made that are going to directly affect where you live, how your children are educated, and how much of your tax dollars are being taken out of your pocket. And by and large those decisions are being made by self-serving and/or under-informed dolts.

I hate to put it like that, but by and large, people who have the biggest interests in what's going on tend to be the least involved. Either people have no interest in local government or the feel like they're already torn with jobs and children to allocate much time to the get involved. SO what you, in far too many cases, are those people who either crave the position, or who have nothing else going on ( obv. not always the case, but its getting worse every year).

Let me put some of those concerns to rest. Typically, this participation doesn't end up taking much of your time at all. Usually one or two nights a month. Secondly, even if you can't participate fully. Having 50% of a competent person is better than 100% dolt.

Don't believe me, here's a few examples:

- Regardless of the size, condition, use, or maintenance of the septic system, local people are now being required to pay $300 to have their system pumped out and inspected every 2 and in some cases 3 years. The percentage of failing systems is minor, but the 90% of people with low risk, well maintained systems being forced to pay this fee for what is effectively no service.

- Local municipalities negotiated to add a tax to your cable bill. Check your bill out and it will say $0.40 or whatever directly to your local municipality each month. They'll pitch that as a fee to Comcast, but its written in the legislation to be an added tax to YOU the user. Currently many municipalities are negotiating to increase that fee. The major part of that negotiation is get Comcast to take the municipalities name off the bill. Still charge the tax mind you, just not disclose who it's going to. Oh, and the service provided to you the consumer for the fees paid, NOTHING...just the right to have cable !

I could go on and on, the example are numerous and in cases far more substantial than the two issues above. Point is...if you ain't driving the bus, then you're just along for the ride.

Take the small time it takes, read about what's going on, and get involved in your community.

droppin the old ka-nowledge

After a lengthy hiatus I finally have enough fitness to return to some of the local group rides.

About 2 hours into it on Sunday I looked down to see my front wheel sandwiched in six inches of space with someone's rear wheel on one side and gravel drop off on the other, and I risked life and limb to hide from the 20 mph wind blasting us into the gutter from left to right.

Finally the entire line moved left to avoid another one of the giant shit soup puddles of cow dung and snow melt and I had the opening I needed. I rode through the puddle, spraying myself and my water bottles with cow feces and using the draft to move up in the line.

When I got near the front I looked over to an old friend....both of us wet, tired, covered in mud and crap, and flat out fighting the wind...and said, " I can't believe I stayed away from this for 4 years....this is great !"

He laughed, thinking I was being sarcastic.

I wasn't.

Assuming I don't die from hoof and mouth disease, I'm already looking forward to next week.

Ron Paul making sense again

Cures for Our Economic Disease

I have recently had several opportunities on various news programs to discuss the economy and what is wrong with the so-called economic stimulus package. I have said over and over what we shouldn’t be doing, and now I’d like to explain what we should be doing.

But to improve the situation, you must first have a solid grasp of how we got here. Government policies and central planning created the housing bubble, now going bust. About a decade ago the government made expanded homeownership and affordable housing a public goal. Through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the secondary mortgage market the government incentivized creative, low down-payment, more widely available mortgage products, and discouraged the market-proven lending standards of the past. The Federal Reserve kept interest rates artificially low, which added more fuel to this fire. Many related sectors temporarily flourished because of this, and many people got into homes they otherwise could not have afforded. The increased demand for housing sent prices soaring until in many markets housing became even more unaffordable, necessitating even more creative mortgages, and impossibly leveraging homeowners. Many risky investment vehicles such as mortgage-backed securities, derivatives, credit default swaps grew out of this unsustainable situation. As the foreclosures began, the house of cards started to tumble. Too many people have confused the symptoms and the pain of the bust with the problematic policies that caused the bubble, which is really what needs to be treated.

First of all, just as the best cure for a hangover is not to drink so much, the best cure for a recession is a recession. It is time to sober up and return to free market sanity, risk and reward, supply and demand, without political intervention. Politicians are good at catering to the needs of special interests, but very bad at determining what needs to take place in the market. Government should stick to punishing fraud and enforcing contracts. When they use the tax code, bureaucratic departments and their manipulative rules and regulations to dictate social and economic behavior, we end up with distortions and malinvestments. Bailing out banks, continuing failed Fed policies and strapping the taxpayer with toxic debt will worsen the pain, and punish the innocent.

If Congress really wanted to do something helpful, it would cut taxes. Ideally, we would repeal the income tax altogether and get the IRS off the economy’s back, which would be a huge boon. We should also cut spending. Cut every unconstitutional department and program, every wasteful governmental encroachment on the people’s liberty and money, starting with our massive overseas empire. The cost of our empire is bringing us to our knees, just as the Soviets’ empire did to them. Congress should also abolish the Federal Reserve and take back its responsibilities to ensure sound money, safe from the manipulations of powerful banking interests.

These things would constitute real change, real economic stimulus. The plans being bandied about Washington are just more of the same. As long as no one seriously considers the cure, we are unfortunately destined to prolong the disease.

http://www.house.gov/paul/

an old friend

The last two months of sobriety has worked out really well for me.

So naturally, last night I decided it would be a good idea to have a few glasses of scotch.

It was like bumping into your ex-girlfriend out one night and then going home with her. At first it seems like a reasonable idea and a fun time. Then the next day you wake up and your very first thought is, " why did I do that" and you remember why you broke up with her in the first place.

Yeah, good times...I just hope it (the booze) realizes last evening was just a one night stand and doesn't assume that we're back into a relationship.

LANCE NEWS NETWORK

Feb 02, 2009 - Austin, Tx

Headline: Lance Scratches His Ass.

Seven time Tour De France winner and semi-Deity Lance Armstrong scratched his ass today. The ass scratching occurred about one hour and forty-three minutes into a four hour training ride just outside of the Livestrong compound in Austin Texas. The ass scratching sent shockwaves through the cycling world as riders, journalists, and UCI president Pat McQuaid scrambled to respond the this afternoon's event.

Interviewed in Qatar after his stage win today Roger Hammond was asked about the ass scratching and how it would impact his chances in the tour. His response, " I'm not even racing the bloody Tour", showed just how intimidating Armstrong's return is the to peloton.

Alberto Contador issued a statement through his agent saying, " I continue to respect Lance's accomplishments, but ass scratching or no ass scratching, I still plan on being leader of the Astana team in July." Levi Leipheimer, also contacted this afternoon was surprised by the news, " Lance scratched his ass ? Really ? I would have happily scratched his ass, but I'm not due to be down there till Thursday. So your saying that new Spanish kid wasn't down there scratching his ass ? Well at least that's good."

The UCI's response came in the form of a press release from Pat McQuaid, " The UCI has recently learned of the increased incidents of ass scratching in the peloton. We'd directed WADA to immediately begin work on a finding a test. We hope to eradicated this egregious scratching of the buttocks and all other hind quarter areas."

The only one seeming unconcerned with the hoopla was Armstrong confidant and wingman John College Korioth, " Yeah dude, I just put the official Livestrong ass scratchers up on the website..in both black with yellow trim and vice-versa. We're hoping these sell better than the Mary-Kate and Ashley commemorative diaphragms, cause the big pool off the guesthouse needs a new filter...oh yeah, and to save the cancer kids and shit."