Happy Friday, tip them cups

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I’m not sure how this will all play out yet. Well, no one is. But it looks like some good news from where I’m standing.

From: Michael
Subject: A win for Liberty!
At long last, some good news regarding American Liberty!

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”
ap.google.com

Extraordinary times indeed. Reminds me of this fine line commonly (and often incorrectly at that) attributed to Benjamin Franklin:

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

I’ve love an opportunity to tell that to the likes of Dennis “Everything changed after 9/11” Miller. Nothing changed on 9/11. You just forgot what this country stands for.

More from the article linked above:

The justices handed the Bush administration its third setback at the high court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The vote was 5-4, with the court’s liberal justices in the majority.

…It was not immediately clear whether this ruling, unlike the first two, would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some who have been held more than 6 years. Roughly 270 men remain at the island prison, classified as enemy combatants and held on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

This is completely ridiculous. Six years we’ve held some of these guys. If they committed crimes, put ’em before the Court, present your evidence, convict and sentence. Let the chips fall If they haven’t committed a crime, and you have no evidence to present (either because there isn’t anything to talk about or what you have is a product of torture sessions and inadmissible) you’re going to have to come up with a whole lot more than “they’re bad people” to explain it.

More at WaPo and NY Times. Dot coms, both of ’em don’t cha know.

I called Celtics in five. No money on the line with anyone as no one I know wants to be caught cheering on the Lakers. Dangerous squad, but they just squandered a 24 point lead at home. There is a special place in hell for those in Laker yellow. And I hope they implode again on Father’s Day. Best. Gift. Ever.

I don’t know where this comes from, but I’ve heard it time and time again. “Jonny’s so much different after he got hitched” and other variations on the same theme.

This guys from flagstaff: drunkcyclist.com

and a real ‘safe cycling’ advocate as well as an exceptional blogger. His blog used to be a lot funnier, but then he got married and had a kid.
Source: atheism-vs-christianity.blogspot.com

I was married before I started this website. The wife precedes the blog. The kids came later, sure, but why group ’em together? Ya’ll have only known me as “married”. Why reminisce about the glory days that never existed?

Sorta like when I used to race and was young and fit. Never. Fucking. Happened.

More on Boonen’s nose candy issues over at cyclingnews.com:

“It is not easy to be Tom Boonen: the pressure on him is great,” according to Patrick Lefevere, team manager of Team Quick Step. “Tom has made a mistake,” he acknowledged on HLN.be, “but there is a difference between the person Boonen and the cyclist Boonen. The man Boonen has made a mistake.”

That is Quick Step’s position in a nutshell: Boonen’s positive test for cocaine is a personal matter and they will not allow it to interfere with his cycling career. Cocaine use is a sporting violation only when used during competition, and this was an out-of-competition control. Therefore, according to the team, there is no doping violation and thus no reason to sanction their star sprinter.

Not everyone agrees with that philosophy…

I for one am pretty much on the fence about it. Really. KG, you can start flaming immediately.

So he apologized without ever mentioning the word “cocaine”. And the Tour excluded him.

ASO would have liked the Belgian team to decide to leave Boonen at home in July. However, the team’s different decision forced the organization to ban the winner of Paris-Roubaix from the July Grand Tour…

However, ASO is not considering last year’s green jersey winner as a doping cheat. “We are not confronted with a doping case,” Prudhomme said about ASO’s outlook. “He didn’t take forbidden substances in order to win races. It’s a private affair. But Boonen is a great and emblematic champion. He has to behave in an irreproachable way.”

With all the shit sportsmen are doing these days, I’m just not sure I care that much what a guy does on his own time. Sort of tuning up his wife or molesting children, something along the lines of recreational drug use might just be his own business. Or, her own business, if we’re talking about female athletes.

Of course, one can also argue that this would suggest he’s not above drug use all together. It’s more of a question if he can separate “party” from “cheating”. A good question, and one I do not have an answer for.

And, please remember, I was a big fan of Frank Vandenbroucke back in the day. That guy was off the hook. And, assumedly, still is. Or at least off his rocker.

So here I am, sitting no this fence railing… And it seems I have some company.

Today’s video offerings:

Late of The Pier – Space and The Woods

Late of The Pier – Bears Are Coming

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