२ फेब्रुवारी, २००९
So, Phelps photographed with a bong? A problem for endorsements? I have an idea.
Poor Mikey. But: crisis = opportunity. Think of the possibilities. Cheetos. Fruity Pebbles. Funyins... Be creative! Bring back Screaming Yellow Zonkers.
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He should get photographed getting braces. Frickin poster child for British dentistry he is.
Saw his face on a box of cereal last night while at the grocery store. Will they get pulled this morning? Maybe I should have picked one up as a potential collector's item.
@Peter Hoh Aw, come on now. Cereal is a favorite of potheads everywhere. It will help sales.
"I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment"
Weird.
That's almost an exact quote from the words I said, to the person I used to be married to for 25 years, regarding the proposal, the vows, and purchasing the house.
And I wasn't even high at the time.
Michael Phelps: cereal killer.
Looks like the perfect time to bring back Pizza Spins. You could put large ones on ribbons and have him wear them like he did his gold medals.
Every time I see him, I laugh like Herman Munster. I just did it and freaked out my dogs.
ricpic said...
"Michael Phelps: cereal killer."
That is very funny and I'm not even stoned on my ass.
or how about even: Michael Phelps: killer cereal killer... dude.
I remember a SYZ tv spot from the late 1960s that was designed to make black-and-white TVs show color images.
Does anyone else remember that?
The ad, not black-and-white TV.
(SYZ, that's Screaming Ye...you get it....)
Bad judgment was allowing himself to be photographed with the bong.
When do we reach the point when it is recognized that pot smoking 1s rampant among elites, middle class, and peasants alike.
It is pretty much concluded that our last 3 Presidents have at least tried it a few times.
It is really difficult to make the argument that it is especially harmful - even to a future career.
Oh, that's a bong in the photo.
I thought he was servicing someone on the diving team.
Phelps at least got a summer of love out of his achievements. James Harrison made the greatest run in Super Bowl history and then sabotaged it a few minutes later by thuggishly slapping around an opponent. He could have been MVP....The last pitcher to win thirty games was some Detroit player whose name I can't recall. He went on to commit some truly nasty crimes. That's why I can't remember his name. Squalor is cool in Raymond Chandler novels but not in sports at the elite level.....Libidinal excesses of all types are forgiven. Babe Ruth with his hot dogs and whores is the model. But cheaps shots and grubbiness befoul Olympus.....I don't think a bong will hurt Phelps' image all that much. But Harrison went from OJ in Hertz to OJ in a Bronco pretty quick.
Woah dude! . . . you want to get, like, totally stoned to the stratosphere, man?
I mean, like, the highest high ever?
Get, like, five million dollars and load up your bong, man.
Then toke up, brother.
Like, totally awesome, dude.
Awesome.
Okay, Franco, but can you honestly deny that marijuana is a gateway drug?
*Come to think of it, Captain Crunch is a gateway drug.
He is fucking hot. I love him. I want to do him so bad. I bet he is good in bed. That body, got to have that body. Get hard just seeing pictures of it.
Maybe with Phelps' daily diet requirement of ? calories, he just needs something to help him want to eat more in spite of the usual Mid-western dining hall fair. He needs a personal Chef perk.
Actually, tobacco is the gateway drug if you pay attention to the science.
I wonder how much of a gateway drug marijuana would be if it were legal? Officially sanctioned and propogated lying about marijuana for the last 45 years has made it a gateway drug (if it is), it is the policy not the dead plant in a baggie.
We were all told that pot was just like acid or cocaine. When we tried pot and nothing bad happened, we thought they were lying about acid and coke too. Well, I thought they were! So I tried those as well. The acid caused no problems and was a bit of an ordeal what with 8 to 10 hours without much in the way of cognitive control, but the coke turned me into a selfish jerk. Can anyone relate?
I wish someone had the respect for the truth to say "This is pot, it will get you silly and a little hungry, this is cocaine, it will try to steal your soul. Any questions?"
Oh and talk about a stimulus package, you legalize pot and reduce government expenditures toward eradication at all levels of governemnt, you save money from less incarcerations, more tax receipts from the formerly incarcerated, and you tax the dead plant in the baggie at 50%.
It makes absolute sense and will likely never happen.
Trey
[B]ut the coke turned me into a selfish jerk.
Not me. Cocaine turned me into the kindly and generous owner of a rock hard atomic pile driver that could punch holes in steel armor plate for hours on end.
But I could be misremembering that.
Let’s not forget Robin William’s advice on how to tell if you’re a coke addict:
If you have this dream where you're doing cocaine in your sleep and you can't fall asleep and you're doing cocaine in your sleep and you can't fall asleep . . . and you wake up . . . and you're doing cocaine . . . bingo.
Denny McClain is the last 30 game winner and he was busted for selling drugs I think. The last time I saw him on TV, several years ago, he was old, fat, and looked like a hundred miles of bad road.
Smoking pot for some one the age of an olympian isn't surprising at all. I think the picture turns up the volume on a predictable, forgivable, offense.
Franco - It is really difficult to make the argument that it is especially harmful - even to a future career.
Unless you happen to be a celebrity endorser with a by definition short shelf life that applies to ephemeral celebrities like Olympic athletes, Joe the Plumber - who signed a contract with a "zero tolerance morals clause relating to drugs".
Then the companies that signed a plush contract with Phelps back in days when "the American economy is completely sound and on solid footing" (See Bush, McCain, Dodd, Barney) can cite the morals cause to legally rid themselves of another financial burden.
**************
Oh and talk about a stimulus package, you legalize pot and reduce government expenditures toward eradication at all levels of governemnt, you save money from less incarcerations, more tax receipts from the formerly incarcerated, and you tax the dead plant in the baggie at 50%.
It makes absolute sense and will likely never happen.
Trey
Absolutely not, as hundreds of thousands of jobs in America and across our Borders - both legal and underground - rest on perpetuating the "War on Drugs".
The DEA is really no different than the Mexican Cartels. Their jobs depend on the status quo.
Along with tens of thousands of prison guards, lawyers specializing in drug busts, drug counselors, social services reps.
Credit the DEA with updating their advertising to the Bush Era: "The Heroes that Keep America Safe From Narcoterrorism. We Have to Be Perfect Every Day". (I guess perfection is defined as letting 21,000 tons of marijuana, 140 tons of coke and heroin, 38,000,000 illegal pills through....but no more..not a single additional gram of pill vial!
While this certainly does harm Phelps's image, I would imagine that in contemporary America, it needn't irreparably harm his career. After all, it could be argued that Phelps has a more impressive record of accomplishments than the fellow in these photos did before his latest promotion, and yet those photos (and that history) didn't keep that fellow from that big promotion.
The problem with all drugs is that they can steal your soul, albeit in different ways.
Pot is a thief of time and initiative. Maybe not for Phelps, but for many young people, it becomes an antidote to the pain of life, and soon a substitute for actual living. "wasted" is a most apt description.
The problem with most drugs is that you do not know ahead of time if you're going to be able to use it briefly or occasionally, or if it will become your master.
We already have enormous problems dealing with legal alcohol and tobacco. What's the upside to legalization (as opposed to decriminalization away from the current nuttiness)?
Bissage
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... ah!
Pogo - We already have enormous problems dealing with legal alcohol and tobacco. What's the upside to legalization (as opposed to decriminalization away from the current nuttiness)?
The US military says it is only worried about the possible collapse
of two countries at present, which would have grave implications for US national security.
The more likely and more worrisome is Pakistan.
The less likely, but still profoundly serious in it's effects on America is the collapse of Mexico to narcoterror rings. (Which the US military judges are now so organized and well-funded and armed - with corruption tenacles so deep into Mexican Gov't, military, and law enforcement - that they pose an existential threat to Mexico functioning as a nation).
Combine that with the enormous costs to US society of criminalizing various drugs, as detailed by TMink.
Yeah, Mexico would have long ago become a first world paradise if only drugs had been legalized.
Pogo, your post raises interesting questions. I am not surprised, but I do thank you for doing so!
I am not in favor of legalizing cocaine or other drugs, just marijuana.
I think that much of the upside would be economic, but it would also help idiots like me (well, idiots like I was) from wasting time and money using drugs that have a serious potential down side. Acknowledging that marijuana is not so similar to dangerous drugs like alcohol and cocaine would greatly reduce the gateway potential by dealing with pot from a scientific rather than a hysterical basis.
Now, I agree that pot has a downside, and I think you did an accurate and thoughtful job of pointing out how using any substance is dicey due to potential addictions.
I think the main upside would be reducing the confusion about how similar to other drugs pot is and saving heaps of money in the ways I mentioned.
I wonder too how many people whould eschew alcohol and all illegal drugs if they had an opportunity to use marijuana legally.
Trey
TMink,
I can relate. I smoked about an ounce of pot a day for about 7 years and tried all that other stuff but never put a needle in my arm. I joined the military and quit smoking pot.
Quitting cigarettes was another story. It was the hardest thing I ever did. I was still craving them two years later.
I think marijuana should be decriminalized but not legalized.
A minor fine would be in effect a tax, but some small legal stigma would remain. It's stupid to waste money chasing after this drug, but when combined with other crimes, like car accidents and theft, it should figure in.
But it's difficult to shore up my point anymore now that the POTUS is a confirmed toker and cocaine user. What argument do you use with kids, 'do that, and some day you may be President?'
I have never used. I think I am the only person I have ever met who hasn't. I have had I think the single most boring life on planet earth yet lived. Meade suggested maybe my death would be interesting, so I still have that going for me.
I hope it involves explosives, vaseline, and nudity.
I wish someone had the respect for the truth to say "This is pot, it will get you silly and a little hungry, this is cocaine, it will try to steal your soul. Any questions?"
Well said. I'm with you.
Pogo - the internet, this blog even, steals my time and initiative. I don't begrudge this guy a bong hit. He's obviously shown initiative and devoted an inordinate amount of time to doing something really, really well. And since we know pot isn't unfairly enhancing his ability to swim fast, then I don't care if he's stoned sometimes. None of my business, and none of the business of big sports and advertisers.
Smoking marijuana carries the same (and perhaps greater) risks as smoking tobacco. Regardless of the psychoactive effects or "gateway drug" status of either drug, the delivery system, inhaling smoke, is a known and polyvalent health risk to the user and those in the vicinity of the user.
"And since we know pot isn't unfairly enhancing his ability to swim fast, then I don't care if he's stoned sometimes. None of my business, and none of the business of big sports and advertisers."
It's not the business of the sporting industry and advertisers to be concerned about the public image of one of their biggest spokemodels? Really? Phelps is not some ordinary frat boy. He's in another plane of existence, one in which even casual choices have consequences. He fucked up and hopefully his public franchise will suffer. Them's the breaks if you're trying to play the game.
" I don't begrudge this guy a bong hit."
One hit?
How about 50?
How about one every day for years on end?
Is "a little silly and hungry" the only bad side effect from pot? Really? What were all the wastoids I knew in high school and college who did nothing all the time taking then, because it surely seemed to drive them into a prolonged disinterest in real life, and I mean for years?
Does it affect driving? Operating machinery? Teaching? Performing surgery?
I know so goddamned many high school kids who 'dropped out' (flunked out) of college because all they did when they left home was get high all the time.
But as I said, all arguments are moot now that the POTUS was a pothead and cocaine user. So I give up. Smoke 'em if you have 'em.
And knowing the Democrats, they'll want to provide access to drugs for thems whats on the dole, drugs being so expensive and all.
A pot in every chicken.
Pogo thinks POT KILLS.
"Does it affect driving? Operating machinery? Teaching? Performing surgery?"
Uh, probably...but no one suggests smoking pot while actively performing surgery, et.
*Does your doctor or surgeon ever...drink? Does he or she do it before performing examiniations or surgery?
DUH.
And it certainly didn't hurt Phelps performance any. (How many gold medals do YOU have?)
On another note:
Santore/HuffPo:
A study released [in April, 2008] reported that between 1998 and 2007, the police arrested 374,900 people whose most serious crime was the lowest-level misdemeanor marijuana offense.
That is more than eight times the number of arrests on those same charges between 1988 and 1997, when 45,300 people were picked up for having a small amount of pot...
...Nearly everyone involved in this wave of marijuana arrests is male: 90 percent were men, although national studies show that men and women use pot in roughly equal rates.
And 83 percent of those charged in these cases were black or Latino, according to the study. Blacks accounted for 52 percent of the arrests, twice their share of the city's population.
Whites, who are about 35 percent of the population, were only 15 percent of those charged -- even though federal surveys show that whites are more likely than blacks or Latinos to use pot.
Smoking marijuana carries the same (and perhaps greater) risks as smoking tobacco. Regardless of the psychoactive effects or "gateway drug" status of either drug, the delivery system, inhaling smoke, is a known and polyvalent health risk to the user and those in the vicinity of the user.
And?
"Smoking marijuana carries the same (and perhaps greater) risks as smoking tobacco."
It might if anyone smokes as much tobacco as those who smoke cigarettes...but they don't.
Show me any statistics that suggest smoking pot has had a dramatic effect on the health of Americans.
You know...like the 1,000 people who smoke cigarettes, etc...that die every day of the week.
As I said, I am in favor of decriminalizing.
Outright legalization is too large a step for now, I feel. A blind eye to a minor illegality is one thing, tacit approval, regulation, and distribution are quite another.
Plus, if smoking marijuana carries anywhere near the same risks as smoking tobacco, how can the gummint on the one hand prohibit one and then legalize the other. it makes no sense at all.
Moreover, who would be stupid enough to sell it, given the legal risks incurred?
Growers and dealers have it better now than in a regulated pot schema.
Product liability for marijuana?
Oh, that will never happen.
Pogo: Just for the record, I too hope that your death involves explosives, vaseline, and nudity... and that it is far far from imminent.
Also, how about some groovy psychedelic colors and maybe live rock & roll?
Agreed, Meade.
'Atmosphere' by Joy Division, turned up to 11, would do nicely. Maybe sung live by Interpol.
And it looks like by that time a bong hit will be mandatory.
Plus, if smoking marijuana carries anywhere near the same risks as smoking tobacco, how can the gummint on the one hand prohibit one and then legalize the other. it makes no sense at all.
We haven't prohibited smoking, at least not yet. We've just prohibited it from being done in various circumstances.
Others have pointed out that nobody smokes as much pot as tobacco users do tobacco. I would add that you don't have to smoke it to get the benefits. Brownies, you know?
Growers and dealers have it better now than in a regulated pot schema. Product liability for marijuana? Oh, that will never happen.
I would think that commercial enterprises would probably stay away from pot, both for public image and for product liability reasons. Also, I don't see how they would make much money. Marijuana is called "weed" for a reason. Any idiot can grow it if they have access to an outdoor environment to do it in. Were it legal I could (if I wanted to, which I do not) scatter some seeds in a corner of my backyard, throw down some fertilizer, and pretty much have an unending supply. I don't see how private enterprise can compete with something people can so easily do for free. The profit margins would be low, and the risk of lawsuits high.
"Agreed, Meade."
What, are you competing with ricpic now?
He's going to suffer greatly. His apology will be rejected by many but not by enough. I disapprove of illicit drug use, it has no benefit and little to no value. The lives that are wrecked by the fiendishness and insidiousness of it far outweigh it's decriminalization of drugs. Look at the abuse of prescription medication and we really want to have a serious discussion about decriminalizing these substances so we can project our empathy at those that are suffering in jail for their drug offenses whether as buyers, pushers, sellers, or users? They don't produce anything good now, they won't produce anything good later. The only thing they will produce is endless addiction and misery. The big picture is always about money isn't it, but how about the cost of misery these destructive substances extol on all of us?
"What, are you competing with ricpic now?"
Heh. That went right by me for a sec.
Oh come on, who's actually surprised by this.
I mean honestly the man's a swimmer and I have yet to meet any serious male swimmer/diver/water polo player who is not a pothead.
One hit?
How about 50?
How about one every day for years on end?
No, I don't begrudge those either.
Pogo, I don't doubt you've met some wasted potheads, but I don't know what that says about pot use other than some people you've met are unmotivated and unaccomplished. I've met many people who smoke pot occasionally, others who do regularly, and who are just fine. If you want to relate it to tobacco, I'd assume if pot smoking were legal (I think decriminalization is more likely), it would be prohibited in the same places tobacco is banned. And have similar strictures as alcohol - don't drive after drinking/smoking, don't perform surgery drunk/stoned.
I have much more disdain for the weenie frat boys who made their little mark of fame by snapping Phelps in action and selling it to the sleazy tabloid press.
I do agree on one point, Pogo. It's true that this matters much less since we all realized Bush spent his 20s and 30s coked to the gills. Let's assume Phelps when mature when he hits 40, too.
jayne_cobb said...
Oh come on, who's actually surprised by this.
I mean honestly the man's a swimmer and I have yet to meet any serious male swimmer/diver/water polo player who is not a pothead.
You left out the granddaddy of water humans, the surfer, namely the california surfer.
Smoking marijuana carries the same (and perhaps greater) risks as smoking tobacco.
Minus the cancer.
Plus the bullous lung disease and a host of other respiratory problems
Equals: people who smoke pot are just as stupid, impulsive and self-destructive as people who smoke cigarettes. Plus they tend to think they're really clever and spiritual.
Plus the bullous lung disease and a host of other respiratory problems
Which is why physicians who recommend use of medical marijuana suggest using a vaporizer, rather than smoking it, to consume it.
Oh, and note too that the host of respiratory problems that Palladian points to apparently does not include emphysema. (My brother died from that just last year — but as a result of many decades of tobacco smoking, not marijuana.)
Yep, keep piling on Bush, but keep in mind, Obama smoked crack, dope, and lord only knows what else, and still smokes cigarettes. All hail our stoney CIC.
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