Friday, August 02, 2002
A bill to strip J Edgar Hoover's name off of the FBI building has been introduced by right wing fruitcake Dan Burton. It's about time the crossdressing paranoid, evil freaks name was stripped off that building.
Dan Burton is still a fruitcake though.
Taking a cue (call it a "homage") from Terminus, an excellent Blog, I will add my own counter-point version to his recently announced discussion/reviews of the bond films. Starting in order from Dr. No on down.
I've been a huge Bond fan for years ever since my friend Jason in High school got me into the Fleming novels. I read then all voraciously one summer at the Beach, and was unbelievably depressed when finally got to his last book The Man With the Golden Gun (his weakest novel as it was written while he was sick, and he died after only the first draft). I still proudly own a hardcover first Edition Goldfinger I found at a local used bookshop in South Lyme. I am a master at Bond trivia, and even read Flemings nonfiction travel adventure articles from some 60’s magazines, and of course, Flemings Biography.
So first up is the original Dr. No.
Stay tuned. (And don’t forget to read Terminus’s version on his site.)
Monday, July 29, 2002
Lance Armstrong wins his fourth consecutive Tour De France.
A highlight was the following excerpt from a news report (I read it in another blog whose name escapes me)
MONT VENTOUX, France -- As he closes in on a fourth straight Tour de France title, Lance Armstrong is hearing a familiar but unwelcome chant from fans lining the route.
On Sunday, after another strong performance in the mountains extended his overall lead to almost 4½ minutes, Armstrong had heard enough.
"If I had a dollar for every time somebody yelled, `Doe-PAY! Doe-PAY!' (French for 'Doped! Doped!'), I'd be a rich man,'' he said. "It's disappointing.''
The French favorite?
Virenque is one of the riders who's most popular with French fans, even though two years ago he confessed to taking drugs when competing for the Festina team. That whole squad, including Virenque, was thrown out of the 1998 Tour when a stash of banned drugs was found in a team car.
Lance has never failed a drug test. There were some accusations, and reports that he "met" with a doctor who was implicated in doping, but nothing definitive. And I of course am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Yet a friend of mine who is a huge fan of Lance's (he emailed me and my friends to see if we could tape the race for him on tv. That’s right, TAPE a bunch of guys riding bikes for hours on end) told me once that the reason he is so good is because of his peculiar physiology.
Apparently Lance's body for some reason produces lactic acid slower than most people, which is what causes the "burn" in your muscles when they lose oxygen. He also has a heart 1/3rd bigger than normal and it beats at a much slower (hence more efficient) rate.
So the question isn't that he cheats as far as doping is concerned, but doesn't his peculiar physiological advantages consist of a kind of "cheating"?
I mean if Aquaman entered the Olympics he'd win every swimming competition (even with only one hand), all without the benefit of drugs, but would it be fair?
