Friday, September 13, 2002Nobody can even get up next to him for the last two. An awe inspiring show of power by him and Acqua e Sapone. The Lion King will leave the Vuelta on Sunday to rest and get ready for The World Championships.
your note [] A great story in L. A. Times on Warren Zevon.
He is facing death bravely and planning on leaving a few suprises. The doctors are talking weeks or months. Hopefully the new James Bond movie will be released shortly. It still sucks that he is leaving us.
your note [] Is Blair Bush's Poodle?
I was thinking more that Blair is Bush's bitch. I can hear W now, "Hey Tony, can you run down to Dick's office and get my red pen back from him? I want to draw a flag." Tony says, "Sure, George!"
your note [] Handicapped Swimmer Allowed to use Prosthetic Swim Fin
This summer Hunter Scott was banned from using a special swim fin during competition in a local summer swim league. As is the standard in these litigious times, a lawsuit was threatened. Fearing personal financial costs, the swim league board resigned en mass.
The Georgia High School Association, which is in charge of high school athletics for the state, has said Hunter may use the prosthetic fin while competing for Woodward Academy, a private school. They feel he gets no benefit from the special fin
As a former swim coach, and a triathlete, I was tracking this story during the summer. Any fin will benefit the user. The human leg, as it is shaped, is not efficient at getting propulsion from kicking. Most propulsion in freestyle comes from the arms. A fin is shaped to be flat and thin, because it is very efficient. In my opinion, any prosthetic not shaped like a human leg, will give an unfair advantage. The GHSA failed to consult me on this, however.
I do applaud Hunter's desire to swim and compete, and wish him the best of luck. I do think a prosthetic could be designed that would not give him an unfair advantage.
On a side note, I have competed in a triathlon with an athlete in the Carolinas who had only one leg. His leg was missing at the hip, so his cycling and running was not comparable to non-handicapped triathletes. He was a very good swimmer, without any type of prosthetic. He swam in the main pack easily. My training partner ended up drafting off him, and complained that the guy was accidentally kicking him. I told my buddy that if he had moved and swam on the other side of him, he would not have been kicked.
McKinney is now blaming the Democratic Party for her and her father's losses in the primaries. The party's response was basically, "If the people voted for your opponent, and not you, that is not our fault."
Speculation is the McKinney will leave the Democratic Party. We are just hopping she will leave.
your note [] Thursday, September 12, 2002MSNBC is reporting that Warren Zevon has inoperable lung cancer.
This really sucks! Warren Zevon has been a great recording artist, before, during and after his battle with alcoholism. While he is most widely known for his song "Werewolves of London," he has released over a dozen great albums. I have always felt that his 1981 release, "Stand in the Fire," was one of the best rock albums released in the early '80's. The record companies do not agree, as they have never released it on CD.
"I'm okay with it," Zevon said, "But it'll be a drag if I don't make it until the next James Bond movie comes out."
Nobody in the Celebrity Dead Pool's Top 40 has him listed, so this is quite a shock. What is worse is that after he dies, N-Sync will come out with a new album.
Strangly, his new release is titled, "My Ride's Here." Again, this really sucks.
your note [] Yes, maybe this does explain why they were such poor dressers
WWE (or F or maybe G) will have their Gay Wedding on Smackdown tonight. Actually, they did it live on Tuesday, so many people know what will happen. Well actually, many people knew what was going to happen long before that, because they read the script!
As ratings continue to plunge for professional wrestling, we can expect to see more ploys from the WWE. The wrestling is sometimes incredibly athletic, but the acting always makes you realize just how good the acting was on "Different Strokes."
Spoiler: They wedding turned out to be as real as the wrestling itself.
your note [] Everybody likes a little extra head!
The odds are, however, that a predator will be chewing a snack and thinking, "This tastes just a little bit different than the last little green thing I ate. It is just a tad crunchier, perhaps."
your note [] I did not start this blog with the intent of having a political blog. Many of my concerns in life seem to gravitate that way right now. So I will let the blog go where it does. Hopefully lighter stuff will present itself shortly.
I really avoided all the 9/11 stuff yesterday. To see Bush, a president who went AWOL from his National Guard duty, or better yet a president who ran away from his duty, honoring those who ran into a burning building to do theirs, just turns my stomach. To top that, he now wants to send soldiers to a rundown country to start a war we don't need or want. As Bush has shown, wealthy children do not go to war (or finish their service), so wealthy men have no problem starting one.
But we just got rid of her! Let's not keep feeding her ego!
Cynthia McKinney for President? What a laugh! She would certainly never win. I do not think anybody form the Green Party would ever win. Do we need to keep seeing her on TV, however? I have this scary feeling that she is going to keep coming back like bell bottoms. Then again, seeing how much more of a bumbling idiot her father can become during interviews in two years could be interesting.
An interesting Libertarian Party Press Release!
While I am not a big Libertarian Party guy, I did find this release rather interesting. It talks about the special treatment Noelle Bush is getting concerning her drug problem. Her father, Jeb Bush, is well known for throwing all 'drug criminals' in jail. He would like his daughters problem treated as a 'family matter' instead of a criminal one. I guess having a father who is an elected official and a hypocrite is rather helpful.
I am not coming down on Noelle too hard, however. She is going through a horrible time. Most addicts never get sober. Most addicts die addicted. However, if they are not held accountable for their actions, and are always bailed out by daddy, they have a less chance of getting sober. Jeb thinks he is helping his daughter, but he is not.
I am coming down on Jeb! To imprison countless others for the same offense your daughter has committed, and not treat her is the same is abhorrent. The Libertarian Party is correct here. All citizens need to be treated the same.
your note [] Wednesday, September 11, 2002A story on the U. S. naming its team for the 2002 World Road Cycling Championships
The great part is that Guido Trenti, of Acqua e Sapone, made the team! Who is Guido Trenti? Well, he is a guy who does not speak English, who has never raced in America, and who has never even lived in the U. S. He did however visit the U. S. once when he was very small. How the hell did that happen? Well, his mother was an American who married an Italian. So he does hold citizenship in the U. S. He also began racing under a U. S. license in 1999, so he could ride for our team at the World Championships.
your note [] A story of a triathlete living life large!
Ever dream about catching a game winning pass in a playoff game? How about a HR in the National league playoffs? While that will be impossible for most athletes, sometimes triathletes can make it happen in their sport. Amateurs and pros usually compete together in Ironman triathlons. While the pros usually pull away from the amateurs, sometimes a swim specialist can beat them out of the water. They live that dream for a short time.
A swim specialist is usually a college swimmer who comes into the sport of triathlon. While needing to learn the bike and the run, they have the swim down pat. Robbie Allen got into the sport when masters swim meets became just too boring. At Ironman USA in Lake Placid this year, Robbie decided to catch the pros who had a 10 meter start in the 2.4 mile swim. He caught the ones at the rear, and kept trying to catch more. He reached a point when he could not see anymore up ahead of him. Thinking the lead pack was getting away, he slowed an got a good look. He then realized that he was leading an Ironman. Like most swim specialists, he faded on the bike. He had a great day however, and got face time on the TV coverage of the event. A great story!
your note [] Was at the Braves game last night, AJC coverage here.
A very good game, with many home runs, a run down, a batter getting hit, a pitcher getting tossed, Chipper Jones playing Lucy under a fly ball and much exciting action.
Getting to the game seems to be quite a challenge now. Parking is not the problem. There is much parking within walking distance of the park. The problem is getting past the panhandlers and scalpers. I had two people per block shaking a cup at me, or asking for money outright. I had one person per block offering me tickets. If I had tickets, I was told, I could upgrade them!
The upside to seeing the scalpers is knowing that the game is not sold out. The stadium is only half filled. So I know the people annoying me are eating tickets for dinner.
The AJC reports on the elder McKinney getting booted out of office by the voters yesterday.
McKenney got maybe one third of the votes in his Democratic primary runoff. He now joins his daughter Cynthia McKinney at home, and can maybe help write her thesis. After all she did not get elected on her own. Her father had to help her by creating a heavily democratic district for her during redistricting. Now she may need help with that thesis.
What did the anti-Semitic racist say about his loss?
"I did not expect this because I expected black folks to turn out for me. They did not turn out for me. They wanted a Klansman, a son of the Confederacy."Not many people will miss him.
your note [] Tuesday, September 10, 2002Mario Cipolinni (pic) wins a second stage in the 57th Vuelta a España.
The Lion King's team, Acqua e Sapone, launched him perfectly for the win. The leadout was fast and dangerous as the final kilometers of the race were filled with traffic circles the pack had to navigate at 40+ miles per hour. The team members just blew apart one-by-one as they stretched out the pack keeping Super Mario at the front. What excitement this team adds to a tour. They have dominated the sprints in two of the three grand tours this year, the Vuelta and the Giro. They probably would have dominated in the Tour de France also, had the organizers not excluded Cipolinni for what looked like personal reasons. Not all of the best cyclists in the world were at the Tour this year.
The Vuelta can be watched on OLN TV.
your note [] Hillary speaks her mind and I agree!
"Well, I think if we're in a war and we're thinking about expanding that war to Iraq, you know, the nation, and particularly those of us who are in the top 1 to 10 percent of our country's earners, we have to be willing to put our money where our mouths are."
Hillary also hammers Bush on the solution to all problems being tax cuts. I am so glad people are finally willing to call Bush's policies a rehash of Reaganomics.
"We've seen this before. This is what was done in the 1980s and it took about eight years to get out of the deficit ditch and to get a surplus so that we could be prepared for rainy days and even terrible tragedies like what happened to us on 9-11."
Although I truly hate this phrase, "You go girl!"
your note [] When civil rights leaders get old.
The sad thing is that he was a good civil rights leader at one time, and one of Atlanta's first black police officers. He is a shadow of the man he used to be. Hopefully he will lose the primary runoff and join his whacked out daughter Cynthia McKinney at home. Cynthia, by the way, became a representative only because her father tailored a heavily black congressional district for her in 1990 during redistricting.
His most memorable quote came during his daughter's reelection campaign this year, as she was going down in flames. He blamed her loss on others.
"Jews have bought everybody. Jews... J-E-W-S.
Not that he would be racist or anything.
As a Democrat I truly hope that Atlanta, and Georgia, will continue to get more moderate Democrats in elected office.
your note [] Monday, September 09, 2002Cipollini takes the sprint while almost daring Zabel to overtake him. Hopefully in the Vuelta Cipollini will prove to the pinheads in Paris that the Tour would have been much more exciting with him. He certainly seems to be the most powerful cyclist in the sport.
your note [] This is an issue that has concerned me, and I am glad it is starting to get more coverage lately. This article covers the abuses of freedoms citizens and aliens face from the Patriot Act and Ashcroft. The Patriot Act was a rushed piece of legislation that never should have been passed in its form. Ashcroft is just plain scary, as is the idea that such a right wing nut can end up in an important office in the executive branch of the government.
your note [] Atlanta now has their own Rejection Hotline!
I remember back in the day, girls would just give out the number to the local vet. Guy wakes up in the morning sees his number, gives it a call. Of course this never happened to me. Now guys are trying to make a business out of it. The guy says he is still trying to figure out a business plan to go with it. How to get guys to pay to be insulted and rejected? Oh wait, that has already been done! (No link, just search on google.com for domme, and something should pop up.)
your note [] Sunday, September 08, 2002 your note [] This story continues to evolve in a northern Atlanta bedroom community.
Anti-evolutionists always try to point out flaws in evolution and want you to understand their reasons. When you point out problems with creationism they say you cannot understand God's will!
your note [] A unique story on the aftermath of the tower's collapse.
I had many of the same thoughts after this happened. You had the '41 Shots' NYC police being hated and then they are all heros. To hear about them bitching about free food seems to fit. I respect the police, but have seen so many with serious personality and attitude problems that I know not all of them are good people. Many of them did not go into police work to help society. A buddy of mine is a fireman, and started his career here in Atlanta. He left one county department because of all the 'Good Ol' Boys' and racism.
I also had similar thoughts to the people who were amazed at how everybody who died was your generic great human being. Some of these people must have been jerks. When I read Barbara Olsen had died I thought, "Okay, here is at least one."
your note []
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