Michael Phelps may have a bit more to worry about than losing some of us promotional contracts, he could lose his freedom. The 14-time gold medalist was shown smoking marijuana from a pipe. In both real estate and criminal law, the key is always location, location, location. This was not a good location to go for the Acapulco gold. South Carolina prosecutors are looking into charges and in Richland County, Phelps could get as much as 30 days — though jail is rare in such cases.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said he is trying to prove that the picture came from his county and involved pot. This makes some of Phelps public comments problematic for his defense counsel. The incident appears to have occurred during a visit at the University of South Carolina. His sponsors — Speedo and Swiss watchmaker Omega — have already said that they are not troubled by the incident, but might change their minds if he is criminally charged. He has also apologized to the International Olympic Committee.
This falls under the category of “one day on the cover of Time, the next day doing Time.” With the picture, the apology, and back story, prosecutors are likely to jump on the case.
Such cases of incriminating video do occur in the age of YouTube, including the case of billionaire Henry T. Nicholas III . Obviously, you have to prove the content of the pipe, but a denial by Phelps after all of his apologies would seem a bit strange. He also does not want to get into a fight with prosecutors, who might give him a misdemeanor fine and be done with it.
For the full story, click here.
Bob,Esq.
Sincerest thanks for the John Dean link:
Understanding the Contemporary Republican Party:
Authoritarians Have Taken Control.
Altemeyer’s findings, explaining that his empirical testing revealed “that authoritarians are frequently enemies of freedom, antidemocratic, anti-equality, highly prejudiced, mean-spirited, power hungry, Machiavellian, and amoral.”
Yikes, Professor Altemeyer doesn’t come out and say it, nor does John Dean, but these people have little conscience. Their heads are disconnected from their hearts.
oh, snap! lol
Bron98:
“there are no truly opposing views on this website. All the arguments that I have seen come from the left side of the spectrum.”
Hasty generalization; seeing I tend to be as conservative as a duck’s ass in a windstorm on many issues–mainly those relating to adhering to the principles of constitutional structure. You know, separation of powers, Article IV’s guarantee of a republican form of government — all those good things that the last administration pissed on.
“There are no right wingers in here and I must say too bad for them and actually too bad for this web site. You think we are all low brow bottom dwelling scumbag, nazi…”
If by “Nazi” you mean “Authoritarian”, allow me to clarify by stating that the Republican Party has been co-opted by Authoritarians who thence ran the government like certain authoritarians of the past; e.g. Nazis.
See generally “Understanding the Contemporary Republican Party: Authoritarians Have Taken Control Part One in a Three-Part Series”
By JOHN W. DEAN
Wednesday, Sep. 05, 2007
http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/dean/20070905.html
Mike S.
I have to agree with your analysis of Rand. Were she published today, her imprint would be “Harlequin”. Most likely, she’d have had to self-publish.
“There is a whole school of philosophy that is growing around her ideas.”
I already stated that I read ALL of Ayn Rand’s books when I was a teen. Her concepts are unworkable and childish. Their ultimate end would be in a thug society run by the people with the best weapons.
Rand knew nothing of human nature, was psychologically warped and a sexual predator to boot. Anyone foolish enough to try to build a philosophy around Rand’s ideas is delusional, whether or not they have a Phd. Her childhood of privilege in Russia was interrupted by their revolution and she spent the rest of her life viewing the world through that perspective. Her only saving grace was a movie based on her book “The fountainhead” and that was mainly because Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal and Raymond Massey were great actors. The plot for both movie and book is fantastical and ludicrous.
However, I’m only responding to you because I had you pegged from your first post as an Objectivist wannabee and you spent many more posts lying about a fact so obvious from your writing. You are trying to adapt now to a more reasonable personna, but you have spread enough invective and ignorance around here to have shown there is nothing to be gained by us continually exposing your ignorance. There is not even any slapdown satisfaction to be gained because refuting you is like the proverbial “shooting ducks in a barrel.”
finally, the only real umbrage I take with you is your ongoing repetition of the false faux conservative meme that people who believe in human rights, the constitution and intellectual freedom are un-American elitists. The truth is that you represent those who do not believe in the tenets of our country and who like Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld are the ultimate anti-Americans. That you alluded to being paid to do this, even if in weak sarcasm, is an admission to lacking integrity and ethics. That of course would make you a mainstream faux conservative.
Bron,
I’m not doing your homework or showing you proofs. It’s established one of us has research skills and the other hasn’t. BTW, you continually addressing me directly? It only shows me how throughly beaten and discredited you are. You keep barking and wetting yourself at my feet like a puppy who hasn’t learned who the bigger dogs are despite getting stomped repeatedly by alphas. Including traditional conservative alphas. Why would I care about a critique of either my person or reason from someone like YOU? You have lots of opinion, most of which backed by little, none or poor reasoning and/or no or a significantly distorted factual basis. Your lack of research on most topics is self-evident. As with any OPINION, the source must be considered. Right now, my cat’s opinions rank far higher than yours or any member of the Bush administration. And speaking of poor reasoning and research, learn the definition of “apologist”. Neither the left nor traditional conservatives need to apologize for war crimes and treason. That seems to be YOUR job, Neocon. I’ve already stated I consider you and those like you a cancer on society. Not just American society either, but all of humanity.
Enjoy being a blight. The rest of us are working just as fast as we can to remove you and your Neocon type from political process and marginalizing you as a group by exposing your true nature – the second being a task which you are TOTALLY helping us with by being perpetually discredited and exposed as an evil lying myopic distortionist propaganda troll.
Thanks for helping us, your enemy, the people of reason and conscience from both the Left and the Right.
Buddha:
where did you ste.. er gather that information from?.
I can just picture you, a little guy 5-6″ maybe 5-9″ in your platform shoes. Probably were a little putz when you were young so people did not relate well to you and you were angry over the slights or maybe you grew up poor and the rich kids didnt want to hang out with you.
So you sit at your computer racing around the internet finding all of this information and then rearange it and put it out there as your own so people will think you are some intellectual god. sheeit Buddha have you ever had an original thought?
FFLEO:
what part of what I said dont you understand? Quit being an apologist for the left, this site is a cesspool of intellectual thought. They all wonder why I sound like I do, well I am just returning the bs.
MikeS:
My apologies I found the quote and you are correct you did not say the right eats babies.
“As far as Rudy’s wanting the rich to literally eat the poor in Manhattan, that’s already been done figuratively. However, in Rudy’s case I think it might be the blood, rather than the flesh he is after”
There is a whole school of philosophy that is growing around her ideas. I know you are an old timer and would not be aware of that. but a place for you to start would be a Dr. Tara Smith and her book Normative Ethics.
I believe they call Atlas Shrugged “Romantic Fiction”. But understandably you would not be interested having had a diet of Vonnegut and Kerouac, both of whom are intellectual giants.
The right doesn’t eat babies, I’ve never said that. However, the followers of Ayn Rand do. John Galt by the way was a terrorist psychopath whose chief interest was in gaining power and wealth. His chief disciple, Ragnar Daneskjold was a pirate and killer. Besides that Rand was a writer of turgid fiction, wooden dialogue and unbelievable sex scenes better suited for the modern day romance genre, rather that serious economic thought. It was literature aimed at sex-starved but dimly bright teenage boys, who she slept with to close the deal. Then too she ranked Aristotle’s equation that A = A as profound philosophical commentary. Yawn.
{Quote: “Michael Phelps was suspended from competition for three months by USA Swimming, the latest fallout from a photo that showed the Olympic great inhaling from a marijuana pipe.
The sport’s national governing body also cut off its financial support to Phelps for the same three-month period, effective Thursday.
“This is not a situation where any anti-doping rule was violated, but we decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids who look up to him as a role model and a hero,” the Colorado-based federation said in a statement.
“Michael has voluntarily accepted this reprimand and has committed to earn back our trust.” End Quote}
sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ap-phelpssuspended&prov=ap&type=lgns
FFLEO,
Agreed. He’s a exceptional athlete and seems like a good kid (I blame his mom :D). That this could cast doubt to his future performance is indeed that saddest part of this situation. I hope he does decide to compete in 2012.
Buddha,
Thank you for your effort. Mr. Phelps is an exceptional athlete. I prefer not watching him interfere with his talent and raise questions about if he is using undetectable performance-enhancing drugs in future swimming events.
And NORML?
You guys owe me a check for that.
Did I mention that hydrazine is a component of rocket fuel?
Hey Bron? Go play with yourself elsewhere. And yes, I do think you’re a cancer. So move along, troll bait.
Bron98,
Any cogent rebuttals are welcome.
FFLEO,
I’m not arguing there are NO deleterious effects. Smoking is a bad habit period. But it does have less carcinogens than tobacco ESPECIALLY after the tobacco companies get done with their “enhancement”. I’m pretty sure you won’t find a lot of pot adulterated like cigarettes. The end users wouldn’t tolerate it and many who smoke pot don’t smoke cigarettes – they are different smoking sensations.
For example, the American Tobacco Company, Brown and Williamson, Liggett Group, Inc., Philip Morris Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company ALL admit to adding the following substances to tobacco to “enhance flavor and burning” . . . and also to make them taste like ass if you put one out and try to relight it so you buy more. That’s why I smoke naturals when I smoke (which is rarely). I often smoke half a cigarette and I’m too Scottish to be wasteful. Here’s the list:
* Acetanisole
* Acetic Acid
* Acetoin
* Acetophenone
* 6-Acetoxydihydrotheaspirane
* 2-Acetyl-3- Ethylpyrazine
* 2-Acetyl-5-Methylfuran
* Acetylpyrazine
* 2-Acetylpyridine
* 3-Acetylpyridine
* 2-Acetylthiazole
* Aconitic Acid
* dl-Alanine
* Alfalfa Extract
* Allspice Extract,Oleoresin, and Oil
* Allyl Hexanoate
* Allyl Ionone
* Almond Bitter Oil
* Ambergris Tincture
* Ammonia
* Ammonium Bicarbonate
* Ammonium Hydroxide
* Ammonium Phosphate Dibasic
* Ammonium Sulfide
* Amyl Alcohol
* Amyl Butyrate
* Amyl Formate
* Amyl Octanoate
* alpha-Amylcinnamaldehyde
* Amyris Oil
* trans-Anethole
* Angelica Root Extract, Oil and Seed Oil
* Anise
* Anise Star, Extract and Oils
* Anisyl Acetate
* Anisyl Alcohol
* Anisyl Formate
* Anisyl Phenylacetate
* Apple Juice Concentrate, Extract, and Skins
* Apricot Extract and Juice Concentrate
* 1-Arginine
* Asafetida Fluid Extract And Oil
* Ascorbic Acid
* 1-Asparagine Monohydrate
* 1-Aspartic Acid
* Balsam Peru and Oil
* Basil Oil
* Bay Leaf, Oil and Sweet Oil
* Beeswax White
* Beet Juice Concentrate
* Benzaldehyde
* Benzaldehyde Glyceryl Acetal
* Benzoic Acid, Benzoin
* Benzoin Resin
* Benzophenone
* Benzyl Alcohol
* Benzyl Benzoate
* Benzyl Butyrate
* Benzyl Cinnamate
* Benzyl Propionate
* Benzyl Salicylate
* Bergamot Oil
* Bisabolene
* Black Currant Buds Absolute
* Borneol
* Bornyl Acetate
* Buchu Leaf Oil
* 1,3-Butanediol
* 2,3-Butanedione
* 1-Butanol
* 2-Butanone
* 4(2-Butenylidene)-3,5,5-Trimethyl-2-Cyclohexen-1-One
* Butter, Butter Esters, and Butter Oil
* Butyl Acetate
* Butyl Butyrate
* Butyl Butyryl Lactate
* Butyl Isovalerate
* Butyl Phenylacetate
* Butyl Undecylenate
* 3-Butylidenephthalide
* Butyric Acid]
* Cadinene
* Caffeine
* Calcium Carbonate
* Camphene
* Cananga Oil
* Capsicum Oleoresin
* Caramel Color
* Caraway Oil
* Carbon Dioxide
* Cardamom Oleoresin, Extract, Seed Oil, and Powder
* Carob Bean and Extract
* beta-Carotene
* Carrot Oil
* Carvacrol
* 4-Carvomenthenol
* 1-Carvone
* beta-Caryophyllene
* beta-Caryophyllene Oxide
* Cascarilla Oil and Bark Extract
* Cassia Bark Oil
* Cassie Absolute and Oil
* Castoreum Extract, Tincture and Absolute
* Cedar Leaf Oil
* Cedarwood Oil Terpenes and Virginiana
* Cedrol
* Celery Seed Extract, Solid, Oil, And Oleoresin
* Cellulose Fiber
* Chamomile Flower Oil And Extract
* Chicory Extract
* Chocolate
* Cinnamaldehyde
* Cinnamic Acid
* Cinnamon Leaf Oil, Bark Oil, and Extract
* Cinnamyl Acetate
* Cinnamyl Alcohol
* Cinnamyl Cinnamate
* Cinnamyl Isovalerate
* Cinnamyl Propionate
* Citral
* Citric Acid
* Citronella Oil
* dl-Citronellol
* Citronellyl Butyrate
* itronellyl Isobutyrate
* Civet Absolute
* Clary Oil
* Clover Tops, Red Solid Extract
* Cocoa
* Cocoa Shells, Extract, Distillate And Powder
* Coconut Oil
* Coffee
* Cognac White and Green Oil
* Copaiba Oil
* Coriander Extract and Oil
* Corn Oil
* Corn Silk
* Costus Root Oil
* Cubeb Oil
* Cuminaldehyde
* para-Cymene
* 1-Cysteine
Of these, many are ciliotoxic (harmful to bacteria – like Hydrogen Cyanide), carcinogenic (like Hydrazine), both (like Formaldehyde) or are co-carcinogenic promoters (like almost all of the Benzine compounds). And the stuff that’s not toxic per se? I’m pretty sure nature would have included those in tobacco if they were meant to be there.
Another more practical reduction of risk is quite simply most could not smoke nearly the same quantity of marijuana as tobacco. Not and be able to get off the couch, speak without laughing uncontrollably, or be able to stay awake very long (but I’m getting to that). In addition, you generally do not have to smoke as much to get the narcotic effect. Both tobacco and marijuana carry narcotic compounds, namely nicotine and THC.
Let’s talk toxicity. Toxicity is often talked about in terms of lethal doses to half the test population, annotated LDsub50, the median lethal dose. Don’t forget nicotine is a stimulant. It can kill you with as little as 40–60 mg (0.5-1.0 mg/kg). While it’s impossible to give yourself nicotine poisoning by smoking alone, if you were dumb enough to chew gum, wear patches and puff away? You could do it. I’ll use rats as models as THC testing on humans has generally been forbidden. These numbers come from oral ingestion. In rats, the lethal dose of nicotine is 50 mg/kg, much like in humans. The LDsub50 is the same for both sexes. In rats, the lethal dose of THC, marijuanas active ingredient (a mild analgesic and euphoric of unidentified mechanism) is 1,270 mg/kg in males and 730 mg/kg in females. That’s 25-26 times LESS toxic than nicotine in males and 14-15 times less toxic in females (difference due to body mass). If you extrapolate these numbers out to human scale, you’d have to smoke 1500 pounds of pot in 15 minutes to reach median toxicity. I’ve met some heavy smokers, but that’s just not happening. Combined with effective dosage information, THC has a 1000:1 safety ratio or in other words the lethal does is 1000 times the effective dose. Compare this to alcohol (10:1), cocaine (15:1) and heroin (6:1).
This means as far as toxicity goes, marijuana is 100 times safer than booze, 67 times safer than cocaine and 167 times safer than heroin. Yet I can go buy a pack of Pall Mall unfiltered and a gallon of Ripple and not have to travel two blocks.
No, smoking pot IS bad for you. Smoking ANYTHING is bad for you. I won’t argue that and that’s why I say children should be kept from ALL drugs. But health-wise? Marijuana is safer and probably better for you than the “socially acceptable” drugs of alcohol and tobacco.
FFLEO:
and then you have Buddha calling for the extermination of all people on the right (of opposing views), that’s egalitarian? And JT amking similar comments about Rudy G. and Marie A. and MikeS saying the right eats babies or some such thing. And you think I would entertain this as something to think about. Its entertaining and once in awhile a gold nugget emerges from the horses rectum so it is not a total waste of time.
FFLEO:
I stand by what I said, there are no truly opposing views on this website. All the arguments that I have seen come from the left side of the spectrum. While I do admit it has certainly given me things to think about and following Buddhas, MikeS and MikeA when they leave a URL has been interesting, the majority of the thought is from the left. There are no right wingers in here and I must say too bad for them and actually too bad for this web site.
You think we are all low brow bottom dwelling scumbag, nazi baby killers. I see all manor of right wing thought dismissed because the perception is that it is from the right and we are all just shy of Neanderthal on the evolutionary scale, maybe equal to austrolopithicus. MikeS thinks that Ayn Rands’ ideas are from out in the shit house and MikeA is lecturing me about Just War theory but probably not reading a link I posted on just that topic from a different point of view.
All I hear is waterboarding is torture and to oppose that proposition means I am a NAZI. Even though a friend is a Marine Lt. Col and has been waterboarded as part of his training, he said while inducing panic it was, in his view, not torture. I would have been shot by someone on this web site had they been in front of me at the time. And talk about illegal wars, the military actually calls the war against Yugoslavia the War of the Blue Dress. The idea of sending young men to die for a seeman stained dress is morally bankrupt at least Bush had 9/11. I bet some on this web site actually think it was manufactured by Bush/Chaney for some grand geopolitical ploy.
So please dont lecture me on opposing points of view, I have probably spent more time than most people on this web site looking at your opposing points of view. the only thing I agree with is legalizing drugs and its your body do what you want with it but I thought that way before I arrived here.
Quite frankly I havent read one thing that would change my mind on anything. This site is nothing more than Buddhas personal forum from the left. JT ought to change the name to Buddhas Lively Banter