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Post by Swamp Gas on Feb 6, 2009 18:43:18 GMT -5
www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2009-02-01-michael-phelps_N.htmPhelps apologizes for 'bad judgment' in marijuana photoA list of Michael Phelps' sponsors * Speedo * Visa * Omega * Subway* * Kellogg's * PureSport * 505 Games* * Mazda (in China only)* * By Vicki Michaelis, USA TODAY A widely circulating photo of Michael Phelps inhaling from a marijuana pipe will not lead to doping sanctions for the Olympic swimmer but it could endanger his participation in a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency program aimed at helping athletes prove they compete drug-free. "We'll evaluate it," U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief executive officer Travis Tygart said Sunday. The British tabloid News of the World first published the photo in its Sunday edition, reporting it was taken in November at a house party at the University of South Carolina. BRENNAN: Phelps' fanclub saddened by incident "I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment," Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals in last summer's Beijing Olympics, said in a statement released Sunday. Three months after winning six gold and two bronze medals in the 2004 Olympics, Phelps was charged with DUI. Phelps, 23, later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of driving while impaired. His latest misstep raised the specter of doping penalties, as marijuana is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of prohibited substances. It is not prohibited, however, out of competition. "It's only if he shows up at an event, tests positive or uses during an event that this would become an anti-doping matter," Tygart said. Phelps was one of 12 athletes who volunteered last year for a pilot program that establishes a profile of participants using blood and urine tests and uses the profile as a baseline for subsequent tests. USADA will evaluate whether having Phelps continue in the program sends the right message, Tygart said. Meanwhile, the Olympic world reacted with disappointment Sunday after the photo surfaced, but at least one marketing expert doesn't expect Phelps' popularity to suffer. "I think consumers and marketers will cut him some slack because it's 'only' marijuana, something that it seems like other professional athletes get arrested for every five minutes — not that that condones it," said Bob Dorfman, executive creative director at Baker Street Partners in San Francisco and author of The Sports Marketers' Scouting Report. Speedo, which has sponsored Phelps, 23, since he was 15 and paid him a $1 million bonus for his record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, released a statement Sunday calling Phelps "a valued member of the Speedo team and a great champion." The U.S. Olympic Committee said it was "disappointed" in Phelps. "Michael is a role model," the USOC said in a statement, "and he is well aware of the responsibilities and accountability that come with setting a positive example for others. In this instance, regrettably, he failed to fulfill those responsibilities." Phelps' eight golds set him up to earn millions in endorsements. "I can't see any marketers dropping him," Dorfman said. "Generally, something like this, a marketer would maybe just have him lay low for a while."
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Post by Swamp Gas on Feb 6, 2009 18:44:41 GMT -5
www.theagitator.com/2009/02/01/a-letter-id-like-to-see-but-wont/A Letter I’d Like To See (But Won’t)Sunday, February 1st, 2009 Dear America, I take it back. I don’t apologize. Because you know what? It’s none of your goddamned business. I work my ass off 10 months per year. It’s that hard work that gave you all those gooey feelings of patriotism last summer. If during my brief window of down time I want to relax, enjoy myself, and partake of a substance that’s a hell of a lot less bad for me than alcohol, tobacco, or, frankly, most of the prescription drugs most of you are taking, well, you can spare me the lecture. I put myself through hell. I make my body do things nature never really intended us to endure. All world-class athletes do. We do it because you love to watch us push ourselves as far as we can possibly go. Some of us get hurt. Sometimes permanently. You’re watching the Super Bowl tonight. You’re watching 300 pound men smash each while running at full speed, in full pads. You know what the average life expectancy of an NFL player is? Fifty-five. That’s about 20 years shorter than your average non-NFL player. Yet you watch. And cheer. And you jump up spill your beer when a linebacker lays out a wide receiver on a crossing route across the middle. The harder he gets hit, the louder and more enthusiastically you scream. Yet you all get bent out of shape when Ricky Williams, or I, or Josh Howard smoke a little dope to relax. Why? Because the idiots you’ve elected to make your laws have have without a shred of evidence beat it into your head that smoking marijuana is something akin to drinking antifreeze, and done only by dirty hippies and sex offenders. You’ll have to pardon my cynicism. But I call bullshit. You don’t give a damn about my health. You just get a voyeuristic thrill from watching an elite athlete fall from grace–all the better if you get to exercise a little moral righteousness in the process. And it’s hypocritical righteousness at that, given that 40 percent of you have tried pot at least once in your lives. Here’s a crazy thought: If I can smoke a little dope and go on to win 14 Olympic gold medals, maybe pot smokers aren’t doomed to lives of couch surfing and video games, as our moronic government would have us believe. In fact, the list of successful pot smokers includes not just world class athletes like me, Howard, Williams, and others, it includes Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, the last three U.S. presidents, several Supreme Court justices, and luminaries and success stories from all sectors of business and the arts, sciences, and humanities. So go ahead. Ban me from the next Olympics. Yank my endorsement deals. Stick your collective noses in the air and get all indignant on me. While you’re at it, keep arresting cancer and AIDS patients who dare to smoke the stuff because it deadens their pain, or enables them to eat. Keep sending in goon squads to kick down doors and shoot little old ladies, maim innocent toddlers, handcuff elderly post-polio patients to their beds at gunpoint, and slaughter the family pet. Tell you what. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll apologize for smoking pot when every politician who ever did drugs and then voted to uphold or strengthen the drug laws marches his ass off to the nearest federal prison to serve out the sentence he wants to impose on everyone else for committing the same crimes he committed. I’ll apologize when the sons, daughters, and nephews of powerful politicians who get caught possessing or dealing drugs in the frat house or prep school get the same treatment as the no-name, probably black kid caught on the corner or the front stoop doing the same thing. Until then, I for one will have none of it. I smoked pot. I liked it. I’ll probably do it again. I refuse to apologize for it, because by apologizing I help perpetuate this stupid lie, this idea that what someone puts into his own body on his own time is any of the government’s damned business. Or any of yours. I’m not going to bend over and allow myself to be propaganda for this wasteful, ridiculous, immoral war. Go ahead and tear me down if you like. But let’s see you rationalize in your next lame ONDCP commercial how the greatest motherfucking swimmer the world has ever seen . . . is also a proud pot smoker. Yours, Michael Phelps
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Post by Swamp Gas on Feb 6, 2009 18:47:02 GMT -5
www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/025165.htmlFebruary 06, 2009 Smoking Pot: Horrors! Gasp! Unbelievable! I Am Outraged!Posted by Karen DeCoster at February 6, 2009 09:07 AM Now that Kellogg's has dumped Phelps, I expect the domino effect. USA Swimming also banned him from competing for three months, knocking him out of the Grand Prix event in Texas in March. The response to this matter shows us much about the level of intelligence and character of people in America. The horrified response from the media, and people in general, is yet another fine example of the wussified wimps that people have become. No one ever stops to question how it is that marijuana became illegal while much more potent drugs - nicotine and alcohol (and rubber-stamped prescription drugs) - are entirely legal. Going further, no one questions why any of these things should be deemed illegal. That's because they don't want to know the truth behind America's drug war policy. They don't want to think through it and formulate some common-sense conclusions. They don't want to follow the money trail or understand the power and control aspect of government drug policy. They have no problems with the corporatist pharmaceutical companies pushing their drug-addiction lifestyle on hapless, Boobus Americanus types (and on TV nonetheless), but they are horrified(!) by a star athlete taking a hit from a bong. People continue to be pantywaist cupcakes who always live up to the expectation that they will follow behind the tide of trained monkeys and denounce that which they are expected to denounce simply because it has been pronounced "illegal" or "bad" or objectionable. How can anyone possibly believe that smoking tobacco, an agricultural product from the leaves of plants, is any more justifiable than smoking marijuana, which comes from a plant? In addition, American adults are perfectly accepting of having their normal kids put on Big Pharma's potent, mind-altering, psychiatric drugs, but they are horrified by an exceptional adult athlete - or anyone else - who voluntarily puffs on a measly joint. The categorization of pot smokers as trouble-making, ne'er-do-well, societal misfits is a most disturbing portrait painted by decades of government propaganda justifying its fraudulent and violent drug wars and the placing of peaceful people in cages, like animals, for the "crime" of using (or selling) a drug that has not been approved for general use by the chain of power cascading on down from the gang of monopolists in Washington D.C.
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Post by chickenlittle on Feb 7, 2009 23:59:11 GMT -5
hey guys, I have been away I have been losing weight on a strict eating program,I needed it terribly.I now walk 2 miles a day etc and have dropped 24 lbs. Anyway besides all that I have just been busy but miss you all,Our dear musician friend of 27 years passed away last week,heartbreaking and so so sad. He was phenomenal. Life has sucked lately but one thing it did do was make my husband and I realize it is time to start playing live again. This was something our friend kept asking us to do and of course we kept promising and now can't ever jam with him again. WILL MISS THAT. O.K as for Phelps I can't believe that he left himself wide opened to be photographed like this,maybe he wants out because he must know that Americans are going to tell him what they think even though most of them are absolute morons. Yeah, they wouldn't care and would have probably pushed him to do an alcohol commercial. Odd isn't it? First of all I don't like the Disney bullshit to begin with. I love the SHOULD have letter........ awesome Well,thats my 2 cents worth, take care everyone.
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Post by Swamp Gas on Feb 8, 2009 15:53:46 GMT -5
Hi Chick, We too had a rough couple of months...Theta had to take a pay cut and had her back go out. I had chicken pox. Bedbugs invaded and we had a major steam pipe burst. Theta's back is good now, pipe fixed, bedbugs eliminated. The chicken pox may be from a vaccine I took 50 years ago that lied dormant because I was not in contact with anyone for the 3 day phase of catching it. Could be sprays, just don't know. I got over it real quick, and the doctor was surprised for my age. Must be the antioxidants.
Phelps is the new Hero-Crucifixion. It is just like Tim Leary, JFK, The Beatles, you name it. As soon as somebody tokes, they are literally an Enemy of the State. You're right, if he did a booze commercial everyone would have been "Cool he is just like us". Our culture is literally insane, and it is like living in Bizarro World, where enlightenment is illegal and stupification is legal.
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Post by Swamp Gas on Feb 8, 2009 18:41:06 GMT -5
ablogination.tn420.org/blog/index.php/hwr/2009/02/05/p394Standing up for Mike Phelps and What is Right02/05/09 10:19:09 pm High Witness Report Well, Kelloggs Foods just dropped Mike Phelps from their endorsements. Now TN420.0rg is dropping Kelloggs from the highest cliff possible. Mt. Boycott… The disgusting and arcane manner in which Kelloggs brand foods has sought to destroy this fine young man’s life is unforgivable. These filthy little hypocrites and their over-priced generic garbage wouldn’t be worth a plug nickle and would be staring General Mills in the ass were it not for Phelps. Therefor, it is our pleasure to ask all concerned to join us in a BOYCOTT of ALL Kelloggs brand products. The only way to teach corporations right from wrong is to hit them in the pockets. Our good friend, vic123, provides us with a nice list of Kelloggs products which we can hopefully all avoid. All-Bran® Products Apple Jacks® Cereal Austin® Cookies and Crackers Carr’s® Products Cheez-It® Crackers Chips Deluxe® Cookies Club® Crackers Crunchmania™ Products Eggo® Products EL Fudge® Sandwich Cookies Famous Amos® Cookies Fruit Flavored Rolls Fudge Shoppe® Cookies Gripz® Hydrox® Cookies Jack’s® Cookies Jackson’s® Cookies Keebler® Cookies and Crackers Keebler® Grahams Crackers Kellogg’s® Cereals and Snacks Kellogg’s™ Cereal Straws Kellogg’s™ Cocoa Krispies® Cereal Kellogg’s® Corn Flake Crumbs Kellogg’s® Corn Flakes Cereal Kellogg’s® Corn Pops® Cereal Kellogg’s® Cracklin’ Oat Bran® Cereal Kellogg’s® Crispix® Cereal Kellogg’s™ Crunchy Nut™ Granola Bars Kellogg’s® Froot Loops® Cereal Kellogg’s® Frosted Flakes® Cereal Kellogg’s® Honey Smacks® Cereal Kellogg’s® Keebler Cookie Crunch™ Cereal Kellogg’s™ Live Bright™ Brain Health Bars Kellogg’s® Low Fat Granola Kellogg’s® Mini-Wheats® Cereal Kellogg’s® Mueslix® Cereal Kellogg’s® Nutri-Grain® Products Kellogg’s® Product 19® Cereal Kellogg’s® Raisin Bran® Cereal Kellogg’s® Raisin Bran Crunch® Cereal Kellogg’s® Smart Start® Cereal Kellogg’s™ Smorz™ Cereal Kellogg’s® Special K® Products Kellogg’s® Stuffing Mix Kellogg’s® Yogos® Snacks Krispy® Saltine Crackers Morningstar Farms® Veggie Foods Morningstar Farms® Natural and Organic Veggie Foods Murray® Cookies Murray® Sugar Free Cookies Pop-Tarts® Toaster Pastries Ready Crust® Pie Crusts Rice Krispies® Cereal and Treats Sandies® Cookies Scooby-Doo!® Crackers Soft Batch® Cookies Themed Snacks Toasteds® Crackers Town House® Crackers Vienna Cremes® Sandwich Cookies Vienna Fingers® Cookies Wheatables® Crackers Worthington® Loma Linda® Veggie Foods Worthington® Veggie Foods Zesta® Crackers So this is for you, Mike. You’ll have bigger and better endorsements in the very near future. Meanwhile, Kelloggs will not hear the end of this outrageous display of ignorance. Let’s piss in their Corn Flakes, Pot Heads!
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Post by chickenlittle on Feb 9, 2009 2:11:19 GMT -5
Glad things are getting back to normal for you. You know Swamp,it is dangerous to get chickenpox even past the age of 14 it is way harder on the body. I got them at age 14 and I still get a breakout now and again of like a dormant something. I think it also affected my bones and is why I get arthritis at such a young age. No worries on the garbage food above this new way of eating is NO PROCESSED BOXED FOODS OF ANY KIND. I have gotten very used to whole foods or what I make at home I even make my own flour out of steel cut oats. take care everyone, chicky
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Post by Swamp Gas on Feb 9, 2009 18:08:02 GMT -5
Getting a re-occurrence of Chicken Pox is called Shingles. It can come back under stress and duress. The last three years has been a wild ride for Theta and I, and we have settled in jobs in the Construction/Infrastructure industry. Her company retrofits old NYC buildings to modern Green Standards, and my company builds roads and bridges, as well as they are investing in solar and wind wind power. So now, with a kind of stability, we can get back to music, video, health, birds, and friends.
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