Celebrity prosecutions, whether Armstrong, Madoff, Martha Stewart, or whoever, give great publicity to the authorities, creating the impression they are on the job, without having to go after the real culprits, who are truly rich and powerful, and untouchable.
When we have prosecutions of Wall Streeters for crashing the economy and taking over what was left of democracy, of GW Bush, Cheney, etc for paving the way for Wall Street, for illegally invading Iraq, and creating the coup of November 2000, which has resulted in the illegitimacy of federal government ever since,
I will eat my words.

Sports ?

Or, sports-type activities engaged in by big business and mafia-types
on a profitable basis?

For me, the two are vastly different.

I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports
hates common sense.

H. L. Mencken

jim tressel lied, so did gordon gee. it’s only college
athletics so it doesn’t matter, right? li(v)estrong.

I can hardly bring myself to type it, but I actually agree with this lightweight Robinson. I could care less if Armstrong wants to shorten his life-span.

Let’s see somebody prosecute Bush, Obama, Cheney or any of the hundred other War Criminals inside the borders of the largest terrorist state on the planet - the US.

Oh, and happy Warmongers Weekend!

Professional sports are entertainment, nothing more.

When entertainment became “news”, when “Dancing With The Stars” became serious headlines, is when the MSM found it could sell more advertising if an entertainer was taking steroids than if the Senate Minority Leader was selling his vote to the Petroleum lobby.

i don’t think it self righteous to know the difference
between honesty and dishonesty. i don’t think it naive
to hold sportsmen to ethics because businessmen might
have none. a lie is no more nor less a lie dependent
upon who is lying, be they banker or biker. perhaps it
is the fault of those who accept cheating from any
quarter that we have it in every quarter. if dishonesty
doesn’t bother you, perhaps you are the problem.

Good show, Eugene. I totally agree.

In any world of crime and punishment and protection of the people, convicting and regulating Wall Street is far more important that catching a jock who cheats or a president who gets oral sex.

What a person puts in their body is their own business as long as it harms no one else. We allow humans to legally put proven poisons in their body such as Alcohol and tobacco and it kills a million or so people in the US alone. As Robinson so logically and accurately puts forth this is just a so what and there is always going to be someone who will push the limits. People like saandoval with his logical fallacies and false comparisons are too stupid to get the point. If the what the people who are too stupid to understand the author’s point is that it is about the athletes promise not to use these performance enhancing drugs because of their promise then every human is guilty of breaking some sort of promise multiple times a day. If it is that the athletes have an obligation to be a positive role model then most humans violate it also on a daily basis. If not being a good role model is worthy of being imprisoned then practically all of our politicians should be there. They break their promises and the people who elected them don’t even think twice about it. They in fact, expect it.

I don’t know if Armstrong did it or not. But it is stupid to think that he is this very smart guy who fooled everyone and every test and yet was so stupid as to do it when there were witnesses. That, as Sherlock Holmes would say, is illogical!

Unfortunately, in our celebrity obsessed culture certain individuals will always be more important than the sport they compete in. If professional sports really wanted to eradicate doping, it would be a relatively easy matter. But guys like Barry Bonds and Lance Armstrong make a lot of money for professional sports; don’t expect to see any sweeping changes any time soon. It’s almost a microcosm of the “war on drugs”. The powers that be will always turn a blind eye when profits are involved and occasionally make a huge bust just to make a point. The fans are guilty as anyone in the conspiracy because they don’t demand more of their “heroes”. It’s all so larger than life isn’t it?

I live in Austin, Texas, Armstrong’s home.  One of them, anyway.  Local media
has fed us Lance Armstrong up the wazoo, since before he won his first Tour. 
His yellow rubber wristbands are ubiquitous here.  To the Austin media, he is -
- or, at least, was, until very recently—a god.

At first, I admired the guy.  Who wouldn’t?  Survived cancer to win 7 tours etc. 
This despite the fact that I have no interest in cycling whatsoever.  Or cyclists. 
Unfortunately, they are all over the streets here, in their stupid Frenchy outfits,
blocking traffic.  And they drive their damn bikes much too fast for safety on
the Hike & Bike Trail, where I racewalk.  But I digress.

But there was always something about him.  To me, he has always come off as
very hard to believe.  Especially when his sport has been rife with doping
cheaters since Day One.  Now we find out that, almost certainly, he was lying all
along.  Lying big time!  Giant, continuous lying!  And it has paid off, year after
year, with only more adulation.  Not to mention money.

So, Gene, you want to just forget it.  I hear what you’re saying but I can’t buy it. 
This Lance character has been playing me and everyone else for a fool for all
these years and I just cannot think any other way than to hope he gets his
comeuppance.  Slowly but surely, newspaper story by newspaper story, 10P
News lead-in by lead-in—I have come to loathe the guy. 

And now, I hope they find out just how dirty he really was, how big a liar he
really was, and throw in prison for a few years.  Maybe a few people will toss
away their rubber wristbands and take a lesson to stop worshipping! 
Worshipping is unseemly. 

I also wonder if he maybe did not give himself cancer by overloading on
testosterone.

I’m pretty much with mrfreeze on this item.  Seems like the majority of these self-righteous comments might be better aimed at taking down some of our Wall Street sportsmen who are into long-distance cycling and recycling stocks, bonds, mortages, whatever they can get their hands on to win. Let the proles obey the rules—and lose. Taking down one
guy is a lot easier, though.

I don’t understand how many of you commentators on this thread can even consider the idea of “winning” a valid notion in sports. Why go on about the ideal of fairness or honesty or transparency or any of that baloney? Ultimately, there is nothing to “WIN.” Since the advent of “professional” sports, there is nothing but “profit” that matters.

As an example: Is there anyone out there who sincerely believes the modern day “Olympics” is about international good will, honest competition and “the human spirit?” If you do, then you’re living in a fantasy world. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY and when something is reduced to the profit motive, cheating is as natural as breathing air. It’s an item that sits right smack dab on the “asset” side of the sports-world balance sheet along with manipulation, intimidation and dirty politics.

Hey, if you get your thrills by watching sports, that’s great, wonderful…...knock yourselves out. If you want to attach some sort of moral or ethical significance to sports, bring your own aspirin (or perhaps illegal/banned substance), for you will live in perpetual pain.

Winning by cheating, lying and underhanded behavior is not
winning.  It is defrauding, a characteristic of such people.

whether we like the rules or not, we know what they
are. he lied. he lies.

Four points: 
First, Robinson is very hypocritical here.  When he discuses politics he never says that unethical behavior is OK if everyone else is doing it.  That is really weak stuff. (FYI: his argument is ruined if a single competitor was not cheating—which is very likely)

Second, he wrongly assumes “We like it when they go faster”.  Central to my passion for cycling was the fact that a bunch of human beings are attempting to race their bikes up the steepest roads in the world. It was about who could dig the deepest and endure the most pain.  Seeing them recover like new each day takes away from the entire point of a 21 stage tour!  It is about what these individual men could do against each other—not who had access to the best drugs and medicine.

Third, Robinson implies that law enforcement is a zero-sum game.  Where do we draw the line?  Should we allow everyone to go through red lights until every murder is solved?

Finally, he is talking out of both sides of his mouth here.  He says that law enforcement should not be involved in these kinds of cases.  Later, he says that he can’t blame athletes for cheating because they are so highly insensitivized to cheat. Hmmm.  Certainly harsh penalties for cheating would be an incentive NOT to cheat.

Armstrong may not only have cheated, he may have been the most aggressive and effective cyclist at expanding the limits of cheating. He may have lied about it and actively may have tried to take down and hurt individuals who spoke out about it.  But Robinson implies that the ends justify the means.

If that is the case—it is just a race to the bottom.
—SteveR

PS I am no Lance hater.  If he did these things, they should not take away from the good he has done.  However, the good that he has done should not give him a free pass to cheat in the sport of cycling.

“it’s hard to fault a champ for using “performance-
enhancing” drugs when half the population is
“enhancing its own performance” by self-prescription or
medical recommendation just to get through an ordinary
day.”

maybe we self medicate because we live in a world where
a “champ” is some dope bicyclist or ball chucking lout.

Bacilo de Koch, May 27 at 1:07 pm

My objection to Caligula Robinson, is just that.

@mc.murphy

No, I watched and listened, and in fact, I don’t think you are wrong.  I quite like
Ron Paul and I would much rather have him leading than most of the other
options, but I can’t see what any of that has to do with Lance Armstrong and
doping which is the topic at hand.

When you infiltrate any conversation regardless of topic to scream “Rome is
burning” is hard to take you seriously.  This is hardly a front page article but
rather a well informed opinion piece on something else that is going on.

Chill.

Bacilo de Koch, May 27 at 12:38 pm

You won’t even dare to listen to 5 minutes of truth because your fanciful bias
would just collapse into the laundry bin of brainwash sullied gray matter.

If you want to talk about issues, rather than blathering about your inane and
uninformed prejudices, then take the 5 min, listen and come back to rebut,
otherwise you’ve got disinformed, uninformed nothi’.

http://mosquitocloud.net/ron-paul-sanity-speaks-out-in-congress-against-
totalitarianism/

@mc.murphy

Then again, to be that out of it.  Maybe it is fun…

I’ll have what he’s having!

Kids, this is what happens when you sniff too much glue.

RE: prosecution; How about those war criminals bush, cheney, and their accomplices? Oh, and let’s not forget our current POTUS, AKA, Pres. Murder, Inc.! I know international criminals only come to justice when their nations fall in war but it is by no means an excuse for us not to recognize those responsible for gross atrocities so that we may never forget the culpable! Remember, after 9/11 came 9/12 and so on. How many crimes have this nation’s leaders perpetrated in it’s aftermath?

Bacilo de Koch, May 27 at 11:29 am

What Kool-Aide sleepy head?

You think Lance is material for the front pages as Rome is burning? Bread and
circuses, and soma for the massess is the order of the day?

Go back to sleep—you’re useless.

http://mosquitocloud.net/

@mc.murphy

I don’t know what time zone you are in, but where I am at it is still early to start
sipping from the kool-aid.

You might want to slow it down a bit.

It’s hard to fault a champ for using “performance-enhancing” drugs when half the population is
“enhancing its own performance” by self-prescription or medical recommendation just to get through an ordinary day.

Eugene Robinson is a total waste of time.

Forget who is talking here, close your eyes and listen to the message. No more
burrowing your head into light denying places:

http://mosquitocloud.net/ron-paul-sanity-speaks-out-in-congress-against-
totalitarianism/

Consider yourselves forewarned, because just as Obama was not an unknown
cipher before being elected, the political trajectory of this country is being
made quite clear. Ignorance will only be a matter of personal willfulness. There
will be no excuses, just pain.

it should be a question of right, or good; of
sportsmanship, fair play, honesty. short of that we
have lance making an ass of himself lying about it. we
have the ncaa acting shocked and disappointed when
business as usual is exposed on an almost weekly basis.
we have louts and thugs like bryant and noah making
millions of dollars for chucking a ball. have it if you
want it, i’ll pass.

reynolds - I’d like to answer your (good) question: because all of the athletes are doing it, does it make performance enhancing drug use OK?

“OK” is not the fundamental issue. The correct word to describe drug use in sports is “necessity” and anyone participating or worshiping at the foot of the “athletic altar” KNOWS that all the participants (players, gamblers, commentators, and money-grubbing media outlets and owners) will and must do ANYTHING to get an edge.

And I hate to sound so crass, but I couldn’t care less if all the professional athletes in the world pumped themselves full of steroids, drugs or whatever. They are not that important in the big scheme of things. If all the athletes died tomorrow from an overdose of koolaid, the world would go on quite nicely without them.

everyone is doing it- that makes it ok? robinson seems
to be saying that about lying;
it’s wrong, but everyone does it and lance is the best
at being wrong.
the question might have been about integrity if
robinson had any.

Would that federal prosecutor­s spent as much time, energy and resources to bringing the “cheats” in the financial world to justice. Instead, they worry about athletes cheating.

Newsflash! Big Picture! Athletes = not really all that important

Newsflash! Big Picture! Financial fraud, lying, insider trading = really, really important

Of course, what does the Media spend it’s precious time doing? Worrying about a bicyclist’­s use of performanc­e enhancing drugs….a subject about which few people really care these days. If they do, it is only with passing interest because it has very little to do with the more important issues facing our lives. The “crime” for which Armstrong is guilty isn’t really a crime like, let’s say bank robbery, where people’s lives/live­lihood are at stake. People choose to “follow or worship” athletes and athletics…...they don’t have as much power to protect themselves against cheats and criminals who manage their pension funds, retirement and investment­s. I’d say, in terms of degree, the loss of $14 TRILLION of our personal wealth is a far more important issue to prosecute than the pittance that Armstrong represents­.

@Anarcissie

“Imagine a football game of the Robinson future, where the players are seven
or eight feet tall, weigh five hundred pounds, and often die during games.”

Imagine the ratings!!!  That would get me to watch football!

Mr. Robinson, you are 100% correct.

Those who follow cycling will hear endlessly about someones doping in the
cycling media, and they will make up their own minds.  To an elite athlete, the
disgrace that comes from such allegations, and the loss of respect by piers and
fans is punishment enough.  And if it isn’t, then the loss of sponsorship end
endorsement $$$ surely must be.

To use the justice system is a big waste of time and money.  There are people
out there actually hurting people.

“Having said all this and as noted already, chasing these people
down, holding
Congressional hearings and all is indeed idiocy—especially the
hearings part,- - “  CJ

Indeed!
When legality and sportsmanship are not in question, congressional
hearings on the subject may be considered to be diversions and
distractions. 

Hearings might be more appropriate for some private gatherings which
certain congresspersons attend.  Insiders have reported for years
that coke is occasionally provided freely, at discrete locations
within the meeting areas.  “The Chronicles of Chip Tatum” provide
details on the source of such cocaine along with the details of
transportation, from over thirty years ago.

No one can disagree with Robinson that prosecutors would do better to chase
down, prosecute and convict bankers and the like, but it’s not like there’s a
quota of possible prosecutions allotted and no more.

Anyway, I also agree with Robinson that none of those he mentioned ought go
to jail. Nor should anyone else who uses any drug whatsoever. Course that—
unfortunately—is not the law. (As I take capitalist law seriously here, and one
must since consequences are real enough whether or not one agrees with
class-, race- and gender-biased application of law. And most of us do or we’d
not tolerate it along with so much else so grossly unjust. In the present case
we’re discussing a number of wealthy athletes of all races and both genders.)

Cycling has become my one and only favorite spectator sport, the one and only
Tour in particular, which I carefully watch each day of the race every year. (Is
there a more beautiful sport? If one is bored with the race there’s always the
vista, nicely presented by French TV. There’s no tougher test of physical and
psychological will, and one gets Phil Liggett’s call too—the best in any sport.)

I agree with most all Robinson says, except he fails to mention Andreu’s
comments, also presented on the usually-god-awful “60 Minutes,” which this
one time I watched.

Frankie said he felt had to take whatever just to keep up, and there’s the rub.
What if you don’t want to take an enhancer? Forget about winning then, or as
Andreu said, even so much as keeping up. He noted that being dropped by the
Peloton, never mind the leaders, isn’t pleasant, and probably all the worse
when one knows the reason.

If Armstrong cheated, and I now believe he did after years of believing he
didn’t, the victories should be taken from him, and from Eddie Merchx too if he
cheated too. And from any other discovered or known to have cheated.
Otherwise give Landis back his victory and declare Rasumussen victor of the
next one, since he was going to win that before he got caught. Can’t have it
both ways and anyway Landis’ victory was rightly taken from him and
Rasmussen was rightly kicked out.

Lance needs to fess up same as Barry Bonds and Clemons, just as Jones finally
did. Jones was rightly embarrassed and then showed a lot of class that is always
worthy of emulation. She’s a class act in my opinion. Redemption is a worthy
thing, fessing up and taking the pain a lot harder than winning at some sport.

Having said all this and as noted already, chasing these people down, holding
Congressional hearings and all is indeed idiocy—especially the hearings part,
since there is a quota of members of Congress with a whole lot of better things
that desperately need doing. (Remember, however, promoting ideology is one
of their principle functions and so…idiotic hearings, etc., etc.)

Armstrong can no longer seriously maintain his innocence. Hamilton’s
testimony is serious as is that of George Hincappie, Armstrong’s real BFF. What
axes do these guys have to grind? All they did was help Armstrong, and in
cycling no road racer does it alone, no matter Robinson’s comments re “freaks
of nature.”

Bear in mind the fact one freak of nature is competing against other freaks of
nature, some of whom would prefer not to destroy their bodies at the same
time they might like a fair shot a winning.

The worst part is how these cheats cheat their sport and their competition,
which at the very least is a sign of very bad character, whether or not they’re
official role models, which as Barkley said of himself, he’s not. They needn’t be
in their personal lives, but on the field, court or road they damn well better be if
the only place real competition belongs (not in society at large) means anything
at all.

Professional sport is going to get rather weird if the prohibition of the use of performance-enhancing drugs is lifted.  And as Dr. Hunter S. Thompson noted, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.  Imagine a football game of the Robinson future, where the players are seven or eight feet tall, weigh five hundred pounds, and often die during games.

“Professional athletes are freaks of nature, with musculature, lung
capacity, hand-eye coordination, visual acuity and other attributes that
are different from yours or mine.”  Eugene Robinson

Wrong.                                                                                       
Several statements in the article are not supported by factual
information.  Indeed, some professional athletes have qualified
themselves as “freaks,” by their offensive-sometimes unsocial- behavior,
as have various humans in all areas of life, professional and non-
professional.  That athletes are freaks of nature appears to be an idea
that Robinson wishes to establish via Truthdig.  Which article might be
quoted as a formal citation by Armstrong´s defense lawyer when Armstrong
comes to trial.

When the various faculties of the human body are accurately plotted on a
“bell curve,” the variations are demonstrated.  “The training regimens
they undertake to marginally extend these gifts are relevant only to
those who participate in a given sport at the very highest level.” 
Gifts ?  Marginally extended ?  These training regimens have proven
historically to provide significant gains in performance.  Otherwise,
they would not be used.

“Over roughly six decades, how many hallowed records were set by hitters
or pitchers juiced up on speed? “ “And there’s no drug that allows an
ordinary person to ride a bicycle at top speed all day, climb one of the
Pyrenees, pose for a picture, get a few hours’ sleep, then jump back on
the bike and do it all over again— every day for three weeks.” 

The mention of “ordinary persons,” does not fit, since we are talking
about “professional athletes” who have lived a regimen of training,
which has assisted them to get to where they are.  Apparently, certain
drugs elevate the normal capabilities of some training-regimented
athletes, which is why the defrauders among them use these drugs. Which
is why those at the top end are the top end defrauders. 

Talking up unsportsmanship- even illegal- behavior as though it were
normalcy is a strike-out at home plate.  It is socially destructive, and
tends to parallel the behavior of the GHWBushSr entourage. After he was
identified as a drug abuser, the Bush family invited Lance Armstrong as
a celebrated sportsman to their ranch.  This invitation in itself aligns
Armstrong with the proper group.  Similarly, Arnold Schwarzenneger´s
association with the family Bush defrauders properly aligns him.

Winning by cheating, lying and underhanded behavior is not winning.                         
It is defrauding, a characteristic of such people.

The other thing people like to see happen with those in the spotlight .. is a flame out and a fiery crash!

Robinson is right about a lot of the details of his piece.. he’s wrong in proposing that top celebrities and more should not be held to mundane standards, even ones they pre-agree to uphold, if they just keep winning.

Isn’t that what went on with the Bush administration? .. rules are for wussies! We’re here to win!

Can’t take a little illegal wiretapping? rendition? torture? lying to Congress, the UN, all Americans? .. the justice department itself wielded as a political weapon?

You’re a loser! Winners win, that’s what we do! .. it’s a lesson not lost on the current administration.. or their friends in the columns and blogs.

Adios!