Let's make a list...

I was out on a ride today, and I was thinking about making a list. So here we go...

1. Floyd Landis
2. Roberto Heras
3. Alex Zulle
4. Eddy Merckx
5. Ivan Basso
6. Johan Museuw
7. Frank Vansebroucke
8. Tyler Hamilton
9. Lance Armstrong
10. Alejandre Valverde
11. Jan Ullrich
12. Tom Simpson
13. Joseba Beloki
14. Raismandas Rumsas
15. Bjarne Riis
16. Richard Virenque
17. David Millar
18. Marco Pantani
19. Laurent Brochard
20. Oscar Camenzind

Now, there are 20 names of cyclists up there on this page. What do they all have in common? They've all been singled out for doping in their cycling careers. Review that list. Take it in. Look at it again. There are some seriously big names in there, and I mean really big names in there. Some of them have been proven out to be dopers, others were suspected of it, and some were found out after their careers were over. This is by no means a full and comprehensive list, this is just the names I came up with thinking about it for a few minutes. Can anyone add some more to this list?

My point with this, is that, look at the names. Look at the races that they won. Now, do you honestly think that there are any racers out there at the highest level of the sport who are not doping? To be certain, I'm sure and certain that there are a few folks out there who are not doping to ride their bikes, but I firmly believe that they are the exception, rather than the rule. With testing catching up to riders, and their "techniques" for enhancement, this is why we're seeing more and more riders pop positive these days. This is why folks keep getting nailed, and it will continue. I don't know if we'll have any pro cyclists left after Puerto is all said and done, there will be a few less boys in the peloton for sure. I think that we're in a dark time as far as cycling goes and we don't know what's going to happen to the sport. I for one, haven't been paying any attention to the Giro D'Italia, which is odd for me, since I love that race, but this year, I'm disinterested. I'm interested in racing, and riding my bike, but now more on a local level as opposed to watching the big time pros too much. I still watch some races, but I'm tired of opening up cyclingnews.com, or velonews.com in the morning, and seeing who got busted for what today. It's maddening, and sad at the same time.

You have got to see this movie...

So seriously. I watched this movie this evening, and this stuff is seriously messed up. It was called Jesus Camp, and it is seriously freaky deaky shit. It makes me think that indeed, an entire generation of kids have been brainwashed by Christian Evangelicals. You know the left behinders that we see around the country. They are also looking to install a Christian theocracy within the United States, you know, take back the country for God, whatever that means. This film for me reinforces a few things, and they are as follows:

1. I never want to live in Kansas, Missouri, or North Dakota.
2. Ted Haggard was really super high in his scenes in the movie.
3. These kids are entirely brainwashed.
4. These kids are indoctrinated, and not educated.
5. I know now why these fundamentalists are so scary.

The best thing about this whole mess to me though, is that with the changing political scene, and with George W. Bush selling out the people who got him elected (the second time) there is a good chance that a lot of these evangelicals will stay home during the next Presidential election. Why? Let's assume that Rudy gets the nomination for the republican party. Not an unlikely scenario. Immediately, he is running headlong into a bunch of items that the Christian right isn't going to vote for. Namely, he's pro-choice, and he's had what? 6 or 7 different wives now? OK, probably not that many wives, but he's run through quite a few, and he is estranged from some of his children. The evangelicals aren't going to vote for him, which is good. And in listening to a story on NPR this evening, and with the passing of Falwell this week (who is presumably burning in Hell right now if there even is a Hell), there is a younger group of Christian evangelicals who are actually looking at other issues aside from abortion, and gay marriage. There are groups of them now that are looking at other actual real issues that should have been important to Christians all along. Things like the environment and how they should be good stewards of the planet that they live on, as well as things like battling poverty and actually taking care of people. Or as one person who was being interviewed put it, they are starting to get more involved for things that they're for, as opposed to things that they're against, which makes me smile a little bit. Mostly because it does appear that with Georgie old boy selling them all out to win just one election, he has broken the stranglehold that the evangelicals have held on the republican party for a long time. And with Bush screwing everything else up, and his approval ratings going lower, and lower, and lower, there is a really good chance that a democrat, whoever it may be, will take the White House in 2008, even with the republicans playing their dirty little games that they will undoubtedly play once again. But I do believe that most of the American people can now see past this, or at least I hope that they can, although there are still strongholds of people who will believe anything Limbaugh, Savage, Boortz, Hannity, and or O'Reilly will tell them (most of that stuff they spew is a lot of misinformation and lies of course, if you're really listening, which most people don't).

There is one other thing that is bothering me today. It is this whole appointment of a war Tsar thing. Umm, excuse me if I'm wrong here, but don't we have one of these already? Namely someone named the Commander in Chief. You know, the President, the dumb ass who got us into this mess in the first place? Jeesh. Is this another sign of how checked out Bush is from actually doing his job? I think that it might be indeed. Now I'm not saying that Bush doesn't have other things to do in his job, aside from running this "war" (I put it in quotes because we're technically not at war per se, as there has been no official declaration of such a thing). He does. But why do we need a war Czar to oversee this fiasco? Don't we have a Secretary of Defense? A SECNAV? A Secretary of the Army? And so on? I mean, we have a whole defense department with which to run this "war" with, but he has to expand the government again, and appoint someone to oversee the entire deal? What a maroon. What an ignoranamoose. And this guy is the leader of the free world and he is abdicating his responsibility to the country and the Constitution. What a shmuck.