Grateful Dead

Attitudes will harden by the end of the summer. There will be very few undecideds after that. The real battle is being fought right now and Romney is getting slaughtered. He has been defined by the Obama team. In reality, there is very little difference between the two candidates. The ship of state veers very little from it's course.

Recent emails, to my hotmail, from Move On, DNC and DSCC indicate Mittens is ahead in campaign funds raised, with the President trailing. Tomorrow is a major deadline for making a contribution. I'll make another pledge today. Super PAC fever is hurting not just Obama, but critical congressional races, like the one here in Missouri with Claire McCaskill. Good grief, you'd think Obamacare was some kind of abomination the way it get's knocked down in the tv commercials! Lord help us all if the donkeys get slaughtered in November. Romney's issues with offshore bank accounts (tax evasion?), holding back his previous tax returns, and tying the family dog to the roof of his car should be haunting his election aspirations. Any more ghosts or oddities?

When he was in college he had a policeman's uniform and liked to go around harassing necking couples in parked cars. He was widely considered a creep by many people in his college years and was shunned.

Move On, DNC and DSCC have all been hounding for money at the end of every reporting period. They would have you believe the race is close. I've been saying and will continue to say: THE RACE ISN'T CLOSE. It may seem to be with the popular vote, but the electoral swing state vote is safely in Obama hands at this point. The important Republican candidates such as Christy are on the sidelines this year, as is most of the big Republican money. It is very hard to defeat an incumbent president unless something goes very wrong on the domestic front. Even if there is a foreign crisis it just tends to make people rally around the country and the president. I am so sure of what I am saying that I am willing to take anybody's bet and give 33 basis points. That means I'll pay out $1.33 for every $1 you bet with me. Minimum $100 bet. Any takers? Las Vegas odds are stuck at $1.40 payout if you pick Romney. They will change when the vice-presidential candidate for the Republicans is picked, but not by much. I am confident that the odds I'm giving will be good for the stretch. We are so brainwashed into believing that whomever gets elected really means something. It means very, very little. Don't buy it.

that's 3300 bips you're offering, not 33 (.0033). Good thing you're not a bond trader or you'd be in deep doodoo in a short hurry! But I'm still not going to fade your trade because it's a sucker bet.

And if you believe otherwise, take my bet! Whatever on the basis points, you understand the point!

Thanks to Bob and John for that meaningful line from one of favorite songs. Anna, I do like to bet, especially on football; however, with the US presidency on the line, I'll stick with the incumbent and offer support whenever necessary. BTW, Romney is leading in Missouri, and Kansas will be a GOP slam dunk too, as usual.

Google "Red States" and "Blue States" and you will come up with a list where they tend to vote a certain way. Usually defined as liberal or conservative. Then there are "swing states" like Ohio that can go either way. Pretty elementary stuff. If you live in the middle of a conservative belt you might think that the election is actually close when it isn't as the established media is very skewed. Hooray for the internet. You don't need to swallow it. The election this year will be decided by the swing states, which will bring in the electoral votes needed to put either candidate over the top. Obama does have healthy leads in enough of those states to be very, very confident at this time. He has the technocrats needed to pull this off. News does break on the domestic front, however, that soemtimes cannot be spun. Is it possible current events could defeat Obama? Yes. Is it probable? No. Las Vegas odds are usually pretty spot on. The race will narrow as we go to the post. Those odds look like a fair bet if you believe in Mitt Romney's ability to pull something off. If not, I'd stay out of it, whatever the odds.

I'm paying out $1.33 for every dollar bet. We can let a neutral 3rd party hold the money. Any takers? I thought not... Mitt? There isn't one single person out there willing to put a bet on your ass! How freakin' pathetic!!!

Where's Dew Lover when you need them? (OK, file this under Careful What You Wish For.)

Hope yer still bringin' the party where they need it the most!

.......you can get better odds on Mitt than that right now http://www.oddschecker.com/specials/politics-and-election/us-presidenti…

The odds will narrow. Obama is 97.% in the door right now but I wouldn't risk $1.60 to win a dollar. I'll wait for the odds to come down after the VP is announced, especially if they are from a high count electoral state. That may be the opening to make the bet with the least risk.

congratulations to Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins, taking a Gold Medal in the double sculls today.tea and cucumber sandwiches to Men's Pair of George Nash and Will Satch, and Alan Campbell in the single sculls for collecting a Bronze.

Roger Pion, a Vermont farmer, was busted for pot and resisting arrest about a week ago. In Vermont this is just harassment of citizens, The State is actually quite liberal in it's laws regarding pot. Not as liberal as California, Oregon and Colorado though. Mr. Pion seemed to feel that a very stupid and futile gesture was called for so he took his monster farm tractor with 15 foot tires and ran over 7 parked Orleans County sheriff's cruisers, more than half the department's fleet. They were parked right outside the station and the sheriffs never heard a thing. They didn't find out until somebody made a 911 call. Mr. Pion had actually finished and was gone. So, while Mr. Pion will likely go to jail and have to provide 300k in restitution for his gesture, nobody is going to forget this any time soon. Don't the sheriff's have anything better to do with their time than harass citizens for this kind of thing? Apparently not in Orleans County, Vt..

way to go Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, Greg Rutherford and the lads and lasses in Rowing.

The Olympics is supposed to showcase the best amateur athletes in the world. Meaning they are not professional, the athletes don't get paid or receive other compensation. This has never been the case in the modern era, since 1896, except for the US and a few other western countries, which stuck to the spirit of the convention. Then about 20 years ago the US and those few other countries came to the conclusion that it was ridiculous to get their asses kicked by a bunch of professionals and so we let our professionals compete. This is another example of mass denial on a global scale. The whole premise of the games is completely without meaning anymore. Too bad they couldn't compete as continental entrants and speak Esperanto...

On YouTube @ Pussy Riot-Punk Prayer.mp4 These radical feminist girlzz tore it up in a Moscow cathedral, wailing against Putin. You gotta love and admire this spirit. It's dead in America. We are so apathetic these days. Nothing moves us to do anything about anything. You Go, Pussy Riot! Hope you beat the rap.

char and crumpets for Ben Ainslie and Andy Murray.teatime scones for Christine Ohuruogu. a life for fluffanutter.

Randall Laird I think you need to see this ;-) http://gu.com/p/39fez

Ha ha! very good!Me, i'm just happy to see the youngsters do well. Although here's hoping the closing ceremony features a protracted sequence in which the Spice Girls, Take That and the alive ones from The Who are led into a giant Wicker Man. Sing a song for Summerisle everybody. And don't worry, i'll refrain from posting further congratulations to young athletes, fluffanutter. That should leave more room for armchair radicals fighting corporations from their Microsofts and Apples.

down with capitalism, smash the system...

What does Jonapi mean?

Down with the system. Smash the capitol.

Mega corporations will no longer park their money in European banks. They are too much of a risk. US T-bills and US banks are the preferred nesting place. This will rattle Europe's growth for decades to come.. The mortgage bubble was such a master stroke! Those Trilaterlalist Illuminati Knight's Templar masquerading as real estate agents at local Masonic lodges really knew what they were doing!

...I never watch soccer. When i do i wonder why? What's the big deal? I just don't see the excitement. But I think Can vs U.S in women's soccer will change my mind of all that. I hope. Let's Go Hosers!

With slurred speech, cops a plea to avoid the death penalty. While justice was certainly served in this case, as an opponent of the death penalty it is hard for me to complain. However, seeing as how Loughner was initially incompetent without slurred speech, it is hard for me to comprehend how shoving a bunch of psych meds down his throat makes him fit to make a decision, now being hardly able to talk. This is very scary. To avoid the cost of a trial, to make sure justice (as certain people define it) is done, the prosecutor gets the guilty to say whatever they want under the influence of the modern equivalent of thorazine. Even the liberal-biased media like NPR go along with the program. This reminds me of what they did to the guy who very effectively used to impersonate General Westmoreland during the Vietnam war. They kidnapped him off a train in the US and threw him in a mental hospital. THEY can do whatever they want. Now more than ever.

The US has determined that we need to keep people paralyzed with fear in order to keep their notion of the new world order in effect. Therefore we need to hate all people who are not only Muslim, but those who even LOOK like they are Muslims. So we get people like right-wing nut-job Wade Michael Page who killed 7 Sikhs in Wisconsin the other day. He is so ignorant he thinks anybody who wears a turban is a Muslim. Don't kid yourself, that probably fits the description of 70% of Americans (lumping all people who wear turbans together as "Muslims"). Irrationally paralyzed with fear, the history books will read, by 2022 children in the US started turning in their parents for disagreeing with any decision of the government, no matter how small. Under-paid schoolteachers who funneled the information over to authorities were paid a percentage of funds earned annually by the parents, according to a closely held formula of the government.

From Reuters: "Texas executed a mentally retarded convicted murderer on Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene a decade after it banned executions of such people as cruel and unusual punishment."

17 years ago you checked out. But you, of all people, should have realized you could never leave! We miss you and the ride is oh so much more boring without you, Jer Bear. Hope you are comfortable with the guitar in the hands of that new 15 year old body!

The shooting is the latest in an increasing number of incidents in which Afghan soldiers have turned their weapons against NATO troops helping Kabul fight a decade-long insurgency by Taliban Islamists. Just two days ago, an American solider was killed in the east when two men in Afghan army uniforms opened fire on their allies. A US defence official said the two suspected shooters were in custody and an investigation was under way to determine whether they were Taliban infiltrators. The death took the green-on-blue toll this year to around 30, in some 22 such incidents, according to an AFP tally. Some of the attacks are claimed by the Taliban, who say they have infiltrated Afghan army ranks, but many are attributed to cultural differences and antagonism between local and US-led allied forces. The people of Afghanistan are so ungrateful for the sacrifice of blood and treasure America has made for them. They suffer under a despotism so intense and for so long that it boggles the mind. Only America, in her infinite goodness, would have the patience and wisdom to send so many of her sons and daughters to free these long-suffering people. Perhaps one day in the not-so-distant future the will realize the error of their ways and once again beg us to come lend a hand.

Food prices are skyrocketing. Contingency plans for food riots are now hastily being put together. Mass detention centers are being identified and returning servicemen are being tapped as "special deputies" for crowd control. States are slowing the acceptance of applications for food stamp programs. Local officials in Iowa are quoted as saying that the food scarcity would be "good in combating the nation's obesity epidemic". Blacks and Hispanics have complained about being singled out for extra identification when they try to obtain the application for the popular governmental program. The drought is now expected to continue for some years to come as global warming worsens. A 'dust bowl" is expected to encompass a large part of the mid-west, roughly from Colorado to Ohio and from Texas to Minnesota. Officially, no one has any idea what the future will bring. Privately, they are planning for the worst. Rich people are beefing up their security forces and stocking up food staples in their bunkers, which are being cleaned and spruced up in the anticipation of use. The question of what to do with the servants after locking the bunker doors is now being addressed in professional survivalist seminars. A large concern is what to do in case of blow-back, namely the servants squatting outside the bunker doors and alerting marauders to the occupant's presence inside.

In a desperate move to secure the State of Wisconsin, Mitt Romney announced fiscal conservative Paul Ryan as his running mate. Ryan is a Congressman from the state of Wisconsin. Ryan's namesake budget plan would cut taxes for the wealthy and deeply slash Medicaid and Social Security. The announcement today from the battleship Wisconsin in Norfolk, Va. (another important swing state) is meant to reassure the military that it's budget will remain intact. This announcement is not going to change much. Not even the amount the Republicans will spend on the ground in Wisconsin to try and lock up the state's electoral votes. In reality, entropy has enveloped the Romney campaign and it has become a Black Hole, enveloping all intelligent life and contributions that comes within a parsec of it. No vendor will now extend credit to Romney, it is strictly cash up front for anything he needs, even a pack of paper clips. Romney's aids are now given to bouts of smoking crack in bathrooms along the campaign trail. "Doomed" is a word heard repeatedly in private conversations with the candidate. Ryan has cynically accepted the nomination with the intention of gaining national exposure to possibly be the GOP's choice for president in 2016. The choice of vice president has not changed the betting line on the election. This is a sure sign that Romney is indeed doomed. I'm still accepting bets against Obama at this time. I've upped my payout to $1.40 for every dollar bet on the Romulans. Minimum $100 bet. Any takers?

> Romney's aids are now given to bouts of smoking crack in bathrooms along the campaign trail. "Doomed" is a word heard repeatedly in private conversations with the candidate. Anna, it sounds like you're channeling Hunter S. Thompson, who I think would have had a field day with the Romney campaign. The going has definitely gotten weirder...

It seems important to understand why these attacks are happening with increasing frequency. It is because America, the lead partner in the coalition, has announced it's intention to withdraw from the country. There is no speculation that anybody other than the Taliban will come to rule there. Therefore there will be reprisals against all who helped the coalition. Therefore the efforts to show opposition. I can't even imagine the stress, tension and heartache of all concerned. The insanity of this conflict seems to know no bounds. Was McCain right in criticizing Obama for announcing the coalition's intention's in advance? Probably, though it is hard to mistake the efforts of 130,000 troops to pack up and go home, whether or not it ever got publicly announced.

USA United States G S B Total 46 29 29 104 CHN China 38 27 23 88 RUS Russia 24 26 32 82 GBR Great Britain 29 17 19 65 GER Germany 11 19 14 44 I really didn't watch but a few snippets of this year's olympics, The whole idea of a competition based on denial of the fact that all of these athletes are professionals turns me off. If they are not paid, they come from a privileged background and/or are state sponsored. I don't know, maybe it's just me... Anyway, this year's extravaganza was really unbelievable with aircraft carriers on the Thames, missiles on the top of apartment blocks and the final closing ceremonies with the octopus and fake hippies singing Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and ending with Look On The Bright Side sort of left me Clueless As to why cities spend around 100 million dollars to showcase these games and leaving hulking nightmares like the Birds Nest Stadium in Beijing hanging around. USAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSA!

They are already throwing people out of their homes to tear down whole neighborhoods in preparation of the 2016 Olympics...

Fareed's GPS failed in a major way when he plagiarized another author's thoughts and facts from a New Yorker article. He has been suspended from both Time and CNN pending investigations. His very excellent Sunday morning program Fareed Zakaria: GPS was taken off the air last Sunday morning and Kandy Krowley had a very startled look as she did her thing in his place. Sort of like "I know you're staring at me but I can't explain why I'm here instead of Fareed. Stop looking at me that way!" Mr. Zakaria has a very liberal worldview and attracts a more youthful market-share for his TV program. That is really a miracle in this day and age of the internet. My guess is that he made some enemies and he gave them an opening by borrowing some statistics and ideas of a couple of paragraphs. That is all it took for his enemies to seize on his ass. Hopefully he will be back in a month but I'm not holding my breath.

after hearing the latest "scientific facts" on a woman's body and "true cases of rape" from a world renowned ob/gyn doctor currently masquerading as a senator, it is sincerely time for an overhaul (are these assholes actually voted in or do they just sneak in)?! The entire political system from mayors on up to the pres. must now be comprised of only women (and/or deadheads). Us guys have had our time in the sun for way too long and we've seriously f!@!ed up the entire world in short order with our "Y" chromosome baggage ( and i am convinced that all of this will come about just as soon as i am voted "grand poobah of the milky way galaxy"). here's to hope and REAL change someday.

(Meaning that when they walk, their knuckles scrape the ground in their hunched over slouch) It's a Neanderthal thing, Slo. Thanks for pointing it out for us, though. Men have had their time screwing things up. Woman couldn't possibly do a worse job, even during those few days of the month. Seriously though, Todd Akin is a first-class pig of the lowest order. How could these words possibly come out of the mouth of a US Senator? Still, we do have a presidential candidate from the GOP (same party) who is part of a cult that started 200 years ago in Vermont as an excuse to his wife who caught him diddling the maid (God spoketh on to me and saith "diddle thy scrub wench"). Then of course, there is the Veep candidate from the same party who has the cowlick of the devil in the middle of his forehead. He would give more money to rich people while letting seniors die without health care or a social security check. Still, it all seems to pale in comparison to Akins remark that rape babies don't ever come to term because women's bodies have natural defenses. This one comment is enough, by itself, to have the Republican Party of filthy, damnable pigs disbanded and every last one of them thrown in jail for the rest of their natural lives. Period, End of discussion. No equivocation. Just build a thousand new jails and transfer the people of color there and reserve the worst dumps in the penal system for those politicians of ill-repute who don't have a clue about anything, least of all women's bodies!!!

F!@**ng A, RIGHT ON!!!!!!! That speech should be read/heard by all congessmen (and congresswomen)!!!!!!!!!! I love it!! (the repubs. may find a slight slant to it though; probably accuse you of working for npr...............hehe

Nice rant, Anna. We've kept the powder dry long enough guys and gals. We can see the whites of their thieving eyes... Fire at will!

I don't know what's worse: the fact that it's okay for Republicans to say the most ignorant, offensive, racist, intolerant, etc. bulls**t that comes to mind and have it be okay, or that their constituents eat it up like it's breakfast at IHOP. My favorite are those morons who say Obama wipes his behind with the Constitution when it was THEIR PARTY that did just that! It wasn't Obama/Biden that violated our Constitutional freedom of speech and threw people in Guantanamo for trumped-up charges, it was Bush/Cheney! We, as Americans, lost more freedoms between '00 and '08 than we've gained as of '09, and the Republicans are too blind/stupid/misguided to see it. I used to frequest social media sites a lot more than I do now, and it's to the point where I'm about to take a leave of absence from Facebook and the like. I rarely post anything, and it's not much when I do, but I'm so sick and tired of all the political ranting and raving from the screaming masses. Since when was it okay to treat the President like he just robbed your home, raped your wife, and killed your baby...all while you watched? Granted, I had my own things to say about the Bush/Cheney years, but what I had to say was actually based on stuff they did, not stuff the media says they did (or spun, more like). It's enough to drive a man wild! Anna rRxia makes a great point, though: it's about time a woman (or Deadhead) got elected. Just as long as it's not Palin or Bachmann. Or any Republican (especially a TEA Party member) for that matter.

Republicans meet in Tampa next week to consider pushing the Romney-Ryan ticket.Looks like a tropical storm could make an impact. Congressman Akin says he won't be there. This sure is a good time for a 3rd party to step up and either make the Republicans reclaim their moderate constituents, or surrender to the Tea Party.

Issac is coming to crash the Republicans Party next week.Isaac is the Jew in the bible who is always having his ass alternately kicked and kissed by the Philistines. Sooo, perhaps Mitt will be miffed at having his own coronation upstaged by Isaac. Even the Weathermen are in on the action: Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at Weatherunderground.com, said long-range storm track predictions five days in advance are notoriously inaccurate, often off an average of 260 miles (418 kilometers). But Masters said the climate situation has improved chances that Florida could be in the system’s sights during the GOP event that runs Monday through Thursday. I'm seeing a long line of black Cadillac Escalantes, bulletproof with machine gun turrets, their wipers pumping furiously with high beams blazing through horizontal sheets of rain as they escape the Tampa-St. Pete area on Monday morning. They're making a run for higher ground. They've rented out Disney World and thrown up a fence around the rest of Orlando. Mitt Inc. finally does get the nod but mother nature has the last word at this convention. It was a dark and stormy night when the wizened old bundler/crones wrapped their gnarly fingers around fat wads of cash needed for the non-stop saturation advertizing blitzkrieg Romney will need... I somehow don't want to know how this plays out.

So, the following may all just be coincidence, OR it may just be the case that Paul Ryan IS the Antichrist. To begin with, many have compared his pallor to that of a vampire. Similar to the Dracula movies, he has that V-shaped notch of hair in the middle of his forehead, inspiring many people to nickname him "Eddie Munster". Others have noted that his creepy appearance reminds them of "Damien" from the Omen movies. So what you may be thinking. I'll tell you what. Guess what year he was elected to Congress? 1999. Notice the 999, which is variant of 666. And remember how he reminds people of Damien. Guess what his middle name is. Hint: It starts with a D. OK, that's kind of creepy. What else you got? He "found" his father dead in bed when he was 16 years old. That is also similar to the Omen movies where everyone around Damien ends up dead. His father died of a heart attack, probably when he realized that his son was the Anti-christ. As it turns out, Ryan's grandfather also died of a heart attack. Then there is the fact that he loves Ayn Rand. He has been quoted as saying of her, "The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand". Now get this, in 2003 he gave all his staff copies of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged as CHRISTMAS presents. What an ANTI-CHRISTIAN thing to do on the most important Christian holiday of the year? Who does that? Probably the Antichrist would. You decide. HEY! It's all just creepy! I'm not purposefully demonizing Republican candidates. I would prefer another goofily friendly business doofus like Romney but we always seem to get the Dick/Darth types...

I'm flying into the teeth of a hurricane Sunday evening to watch the Romulans at Tropicana Field in Tampa with their new starting shortstop Paul Ryan the Antichrist receive the mantle of the Grand Old Party? Well, it just can't get strange enough for me. Perhaps I'll skip the flight and rent a bullet-proof black Escalante and carefully pack the black leather doctor's satchel before piling into the cockpit and setting the GPS. Yes, the press credential issued to the National Affairs Desk of the Current Affairs thread at dead.net looks all in order. I'll break out Lang's Indian head-dress and skull mask in the Hyatt bar on Monday evening. Lugubriously lubricated shall be the order of the day and the whole of the law! Perhaps I'll even send in the odd dispatch or two

Israel is handing out gas masks and conducting air-raid shelter drills in preparation for it's anticipated military strike against Iran. As long as BeBe is the PM these preparations are way serious and not to be dismissed as political theater. Although he was accused of the ultimate bluff after the expiration of the most recent three month time-line (April-June last spring) another three month window is now officially open and planes and missiles are ready to fly through it at a moment's notice. This window is the present moment through the presidential election (or possible transfer of office) Nov-Jan.. The presidential election is considered a time of flux where old, long-held positions hold sway. Israel is greatly concerned that the Obama Ad. is not as supportive as the help it has received since 1980 (though you couldn't see the difference in the billions in military aid it annually receives from US taxpayers). So, the theory being circulated goes, it's better for Israel to launch while the US is preoccupied with it's own political affairs. Israel is worried about Iran's capacity to produce nuclear weapons. It is universally accepted that within three years it is certain that Iran will have at least one warhead with the capacity to deliver it to Israel on a ballistic missile. Therefore, the urgency as Ahdmadhinjahd regularly announces that Israel will be wiped from the map. The problem for Israel is that it is certain that it does not have the capacity on it's own to wipe out deeply reinforced underground bunkers where this nuclear work, which is banned by treaty and denied to have existence by the Iranians, is being done. Therefore it needs the US to help out it's military effort. The US, for it's part, wants severe international sanctions be given more time to work. This is where Obama and BeBe part company. The fallout from a limited joint nuclear strike by the two countries is unknown. Arab countries and their allies such as Russia may rally to retaliate. Or they may do nothing. The region is in serious flux at the moment adding far more uncertainty to the equation. There is nothing good that can come from acting rashly and aggressively at the current moment. Still, we do not have the experience of Israel's exposed position and history of persecution. How much this colors their view cannot be underestimated. Even a successful joint effort would only set back Iran's nuclear ambitions a few more years. Rattling the sabers and seriously preparing for war does not seem like a good long-term strategy.

Anna, will always be the same. the innocent men, women and children who simply want to live everyday in peace,go to work, go to school,enjoy the daily company of family and friends and find hope for their future generations-just like us- will die or be maimed and suffer unmercifully while those who started and perpetuated the war drums will either be in fully stocked undergound cities, or in other countries entirely -safe and healthy along with their families-plotting their revenge (cue 'war pigs'). This cycle never, ever seems to end and it certainly knows no barriers. It certainly won't change in my lifetime. I honestly wonder if a world run by women in places of "power" would be more peaceful and intelligible. I would like to think so. I've given up hope on my gender completely. I'm convinced that there is a yet-to-be-discovered "i'll show you" gene somewhere in that y chromosome. on a lighter note, "lugubriously lubricated" made me lmao. it brought 3 things to mind. #1: this explains the $10 worth of petroleum products in his "do". #2: GREAT idea for the next pre-election ky jelly commercial...................featuring sen. ryan and the mrs.,sitting in bed and explaining to us masses of sheeple how much better it will feel to get screwed out of our future safety nets if we would just use lugubrious ky products (all proceeds would,of course, appropriately go to the "needy billionaire's fund"). #3 as for romney and ryan together, an old saying comes to mind which fits them most appropriately - "two thieves need no introduction".

The wraith-like figures of bicycle riders whizz past during the Tour de'France and one marvels at such physical conditioning. Come to find out, just like souped up pitcher Roger Clemens and home run hitter Mark McGuire, they're all on steroids. Lance Armstrong now joins that group. I guess it's a debate if athletes should do enhancing performance drugs. I feel the only real difference is an asterisk in the record book -- pre or post steroids era. Armstong got all his titles pulled and took a tactical defeat to remain a millionaire. What model did you expect athletes to adopt in the midst of a corporate delieneated economy?