Sunday, August 28, 2005
One Small Injection for Man. . .
I have to admit that I'm not a big cycling fan, and I'm annoyed by the sudden presence of yuppie guys with those tight little outfits on their pricey bikes getting in my way on the road. But the Lance Armstrong thing has me really amazed.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the situation is that Lance Armstrong was just another guy on a bike until he was stricken with cancer. Then he comes back -- well, he does more than come back -- he wins 7 straight Tour de France races against the world's top competition. And we fault the French for finding all this. . . shall we say. . . unlikely?
We all want to believe the story -- that a person can turn around an adverse situation and become invincible. And there's ample evidence supporting this possibility -- I saw a movie just last week in which Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie stood in the middle of a room and killed about 3 million professional assassins -- a feat unmatched by anything achieved by Jennifer Aniston over the course of several seasons on Friends.
Now I don't know if Armstrong doped. But if he could dope and escape detection for several years, you know that a lot of those other guys were doping too. As for the overcoming adversity theory, didn't any of those other guys have to overcome their own problems?
We'll probably never know -- we want to believe the story, but the best guess is that the cancer, or the chemo, or some other part of the treatment, physically changed something for Lance Armstrong. I know it sounds pretty lame, but 7 straight victories? This guy wasn't exactly Tiger Woods before he got cancer. Something changed.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the situation is that Lance Armstrong was just another guy on a bike until he was stricken with cancer. Then he comes back -- well, he does more than come back -- he wins 7 straight Tour de France races against the world's top competition. And we fault the French for finding all this. . . shall we say. . . unlikely?
We all want to believe the story -- that a person can turn around an adverse situation and become invincible. And there's ample evidence supporting this possibility -- I saw a movie just last week in which Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie stood in the middle of a room and killed about 3 million professional assassins -- a feat unmatched by anything achieved by Jennifer Aniston over the course of several seasons on Friends.
Now I don't know if Armstrong doped. But if he could dope and escape detection for several years, you know that a lot of those other guys were doping too. As for the overcoming adversity theory, didn't any of those other guys have to overcome their own problems?
We'll probably never know -- we want to believe the story, but the best guess is that the cancer, or the chemo, or some other part of the treatment, physically changed something for Lance Armstrong. I know it sounds pretty lame, but 7 straight victories? This guy wasn't exactly Tiger Woods before he got cancer. Something changed.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Work
I must apologize to my millions of faithful readers for the lack of recent postings to this blog. I've been on a five-week vacation at my Texas ranch. . .
All kidding aside, I think that the people criticizing the President's vacation are being quite hypocritical. First of all, the man is a lame-duck President. He doesn't really answer to anyone anymore -- so why shouldn't he take the world's longest vacation. I mean, who is he going to ask permission from, anyway? And, if we were in the same position, wouldn't we all do the same thing?
Besides, most of the people criticizing the length of his vacation are people who don't like him anyway. I would expect them to be in favor of an even longer vacation -- so that he could do less damage.
My only criticism has nothing to do with the length of his vacation, but rather the location. I mean, this guy is rich -- he could vacation anywhere. Rome, Paris, Newark -- anywhere. He goes to Crawford, Texas. Huh? It's the middle of summer, for Christsakes -- who goes to Texas?!
But what I really don't get is all the people protesting outside his ranch -- not to mention all the people protesting the protestors. Am I the only person left in this country who has a job? Where do all these people find the time? It's like all the people who were outside the courtroom during the Michael Jackson trial. Don't these people have anything to do? How do these people make a living? If it's this bad now, what will happen when the boomers retire? Who will be left to sell the "I was at Crawford" tee shirts to the protestors?
So -- to sum up -- the President isn't working and nobody else is working. There must be chores to do on this ranch -- maybe the real story is that they're all out camped outside looking for jobs.
All kidding aside, I think that the people criticizing the President's vacation are being quite hypocritical. First of all, the man is a lame-duck President. He doesn't really answer to anyone anymore -- so why shouldn't he take the world's longest vacation. I mean, who is he going to ask permission from, anyway? And, if we were in the same position, wouldn't we all do the same thing?
Besides, most of the people criticizing the length of his vacation are people who don't like him anyway. I would expect them to be in favor of an even longer vacation -- so that he could do less damage.
My only criticism has nothing to do with the length of his vacation, but rather the location. I mean, this guy is rich -- he could vacation anywhere. Rome, Paris, Newark -- anywhere. He goes to Crawford, Texas. Huh? It's the middle of summer, for Christsakes -- who goes to Texas?!
But what I really don't get is all the people protesting outside his ranch -- not to mention all the people protesting the protestors. Am I the only person left in this country who has a job? Where do all these people find the time? It's like all the people who were outside the courtroom during the Michael Jackson trial. Don't these people have anything to do? How do these people make a living? If it's this bad now, what will happen when the boomers retire? Who will be left to sell the "I was at Crawford" tee shirts to the protestors?
So -- to sum up -- the President isn't working and nobody else is working. There must be chores to do on this ranch -- maybe the real story is that they're all out camped outside looking for jobs.
