January 19, 2013

Sports, Drugs, and Lance

I'm writing this post because I really think we all need to cut Lance Armstrong some slack. Yes, he used drugs. Yes,  he lied about it. And yes, he won the Tour de France while doped. But I think everyone also needs to bear these things in mind as they continue bashing Lance:

Drug usage is a fact of life in high-profile, high-paying sports. Any sport, pick a sport, if it's professional, top-level sports, then 90% of the the top performers in it are on PED (Performance Enhancing Drugs) of one kind or another. As Durianrider said, unless you're talking about archery or curling, they're likely on drugs. It's just a fact of living in this cynical, all-about-money world. I'm sorry, I wish it wasn't like that, but there it is. As I think he said, he was just part of the "drug-culture" of high-performance cycling. Do I think that means he was right in doing so? No, certainly not. I just think we could all maybe be a little bit more sympathetic to his drug usage, especially given the fact that he (had) testicular cancer as well. At least that sort of gives him something of an excuse for doping... what's everyone else's?

If you were a champion (blank, pick a sport) athlete, and you were aware of drug usage in your sport, and you were aware that essentially all of the top performers in said sport were using drugs, would you decide to sacrifice your career for the sake of integrity? After all, if you don't use drugs, there's no way you can compete with everyone else. (who, likelier than not, do use drugs) I don't know that there are many people who can honestly say that they would've made a choice for integrity. In fact, given what I hear in business, politics, hollywood, and the like,  I know there aren't many people who would've made that choice... , people sacrifice integrity for career momentum all the time, especially now, in difficult economic times.

So please, unless you can say you've never sacrificed integrity for personal advancement, and never would, cut Lance a little slack.

*Note: As soon as I can find the link to Durianrider's video on Lance Armstrong and drug use, I will be posting it*


January 9, 2013

Gawker Publishes "Gun-pages" list

Following the outcry over the Journal News publishing a mappable list of gun owners in Westchester and Rockland counties, (included among those were several prison guards, who subsequently have been taunted by convicts reciting their home addresses at them.) yesterday (Jan 8, 3:10PM) the Gawker blog published their own, 446 page list of "every licensed gun owner in New York City."

Wow. Maybe this time they'll include more, perhaps private security guards, or private investigators. (In fact, they even say "(And for the record, they are not all assholes. Some of them need guns for legitimate reasons for their jobs, like providing security for assholes.)" so there are the names of people whose careers and lives depend on the usage of firearms listed there. Way to go, Gawker. Maybe you could publish your own writer's home addresses, as well? Hmmm? Maybe let us know your home addresses, Gawker.

I should think that all this is even more scary, and more dangerous, for those who aren't on the list as for those who are....now criminals know which houses and apartments to target.

I heard Chris Plante today say that someone should publish a list of all the women who've gotten abortions, as well, since the liberals are going to publish all of the gun owners. Tit for tat.

Seriously, since many abortions are funded with taxpayer-money, it's not such a bad idea. After all, as Gawker said, it's all in the public domain anyway. (or, by rights, ought to be) Why not?