One thing I'll say for Michael Phelps — he had plausible deniability on the bong photo, which I didn't actually look at until today, and which you can see here. If he hadn't admitted that was him, I wouldn't know.
Anyway, that's all I have to say about that…
… except this: The Brit tabloid said, "THIS is the astonishing picture which could destroy the career of the greatest competitor in Olympic history."
Which made ME think: Hasn't he sort of already had his career as a "competitor in Olympic history"? I mean, he won the 8 medals, right? Did we think he was going to win 8 gold medals again, or what? Are we then talking NOT about his career as a competitor in the Olympics, but rather his career as what? An endorser? What?
I don't know. The whole getting-excited-about-people-as-celebrities thing is something I don't get anyway. The News of the World, judging by its Web site, probably knows way more about that stuff than I do.
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The real story and the question that Gen X and the Millenials have for the faux-ethical Baby Boomers is this: When will you begin shuffling off your mortal coils in increasingly larger numbers so that we finally can garner enough votes to legalize a drug that does much less harm than your own beloved, traditional vices of beer and liquor?
It may amuse you oldies-but-wanna-be-do-goodies to debate the ethics of Michael Phelps, but I can assure you that we see through your collective and disingenuous shock and disdain. After all, it was you who re-introduced the drug to our national pop culture after it wisped away in the late ’30’s.
To pretend that weed is not being used on a more widespread scale by athletes and average Americans than is being reported is just blowing smoke. That false belief is what led to the tragedy that was the War on the Drugs. Y’know, the FIRST illegitimate war manufactured and sponsored by a Bush?
(cue scene of Lee bending the fractals of reason by equating marijuana to harder drugs and mis-remembering a time when he “took an axe to Timothy Leary’s laboratory” which, in reality, was an old barn out in White Knoll)
Don’t blame us, man. Do you think Baby Boomers would be going around referring to a bong as a “marijuana pipe?” Not our M.O.
… unless we’re trying really, really hard to sound like our parents’ generation. And Boomers aren’t exactly known for that…
I have never read that eating beef could alter your way of thinking. Char up a burger and you will go into la la land and get a really good drug high? What would happen if you lit up a joint while eathing a burger?
If smoking a joint will make you a gold metal winner, maybe the swimmers will take to the pot. Who knows. They might even think that the kid won because he was a pot smoker. Forget steroids. It is about pot. The performance drug of choice.
I never tried pot but if it can be proven to be a means to win an Olympic Gold Metal, then who knows maybe the young folks can get the edge from the pot instead of the steriods.
Does pot show up on a drug test for athletes? Sure it does. Forgot that idea.
Back to Phelps smoking the pot and it being caught on camera while at a University of SC party. I just hope that it was not in Five Points.
slugger, I have to ask based on the rambling nature of your above post: Are you high?
Capital A.
It could be that I am high on what is wrong with this county and who is going to do something about the real problems.
The State newspaper’s making Michael Phelps the lead story two days running is part of their tabloid gossip mentality.
It really makes S.C. look like a backwater place, too, when Sheriff Lott threatens to prosecute Phelps. But what can Sheriff Lott do when he is cornered by a sensationalists trying to cook up a story?
Smoking pot is only a misdemeanor in South Carolina, with a $100.00 fine. The penalty is greater for smoking a cigarette in an restaurant than it is for smoking marijuana anywhere else.
Now, I will go into Cliff Clavin mode: It’s a little-known fact that Leon Lott and I are twins…
At least, we call each other that, in jest. We found out several years ago that we were born on the same day, and in the same year.
In the same state, too. So now you know. Had we not been separated at birth, maybe I, too, would have been judged the “toughest cop” twice…
Why don’t you trying going into Real Journalist Mode?
BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!! Lott had to make that statement for the PARENTS of all the CHILDREN. They have to use it as a teachable moment to their kiddies who admire this guy. Or who couldn’t care less about him except that the State went all tabloid over his arse. See, kids, Phelps is now going to get arrested for smoking pot. DON’T DO IT!!!
And the conversation ends there, instead of an inteligent real TWO WAY dialogue with their kids about the real issues of pot and other drugs, including cigs and alcohol.
Our last three Presidents have admitted to using marijuana and/or cocaine. Maybe that should be used as the primary deterrent for kids today. “Do you really want to end up like George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Obama?”
(aka Cheech, Chong, and Snoop Dogg)
I hope Sheriff Lott’s posturing on “investigating” Michael Phelps is just that. To waste any resources on that matter would be the true crime.
Chief Coble of the Columbia PD has smoking in Five Points covered. That’s reall crime – enjoying a cigar at a sidewalk cafe. Fines are much more lucrative, too.
The State newspaper makes the most bizarre selections for it’s front page. To run this HUUUUUUUGE front page picture of Michael Phelps in connection with the bong story simply boggles one’s ability to comprehend. Perhaps the front page editor was with Phelps at the time of the bong incident when he decided on the front page that day.
It’s their National Enquirer layout.
One big picture is easier than 1,000 words.
Lee, are you intimating that you will spare us your future typed rants by adopting a solely visual medium for broadcast?
If so, way to van Gogh!
I don’t write for you, Cap A. You obviously don’t read much.