[scratt]

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news...abis-pipe.html

Now personally I don't have a problem with the Bong. I'd be a massive hypocrite if I did!!
If he can do that and still win medals then more power to him.

I do, however, have a problem with him being "arrogant", "out of control" etc. But heck he's still a kid, and it's not surprising when you think how much of a 'Hero' he has been forced into becoming, willingly or otherwise. Who can blame the poor kid!! What a dope!!

Of course people will now say, how can this guy be a role model to young kids? And all the other usual crap. Totally ignoring the fact that booze and grass don't exactly make you Mr Zippy in the pool so you are actually freely giving your 'clean' competitors a break.. But y'know.. Drugs R bad, n all that. *pfft*

What I would hope a story like this would do is once and for all make people see that smoking a bit of recreational weed is not going to wreck your life.. But I think people, politicians, and newspapers realizing this is just never going to happen. Or more accurately politicians admitting that they basically say whatever they think will get them elected, and having created this myth that *all* drugs in *all* cases wreck lives, and whipped the retarded voting masses into believing this, they have to keep perpetuating the lie, because it's much harder to say..

Well yeah, we have been talking crap for years. What we meant to say was: Stupid people will wreck their lives any way they can, and frankly we need alcohol $$s and can't see how to start taxing drugs after all this time and bullshit..

...and still get elected.

Cue quote from Bill HIcks...

*sigh*

[Moogs]

Assuming that is real and not some UK Tabloid BS...

...How quickly they fall from glory.

As a guy with that kind of fame, how do you think the guy handing you the bong pipe is your friend rather than someone trying to set you up for a big internet fall. Unreal. If I were him and having the need of bong I'd be with maybe one long-time friend in his or her basement / garage and with no one would could possibly be likely to photograph me while taking a hit.

[scratt]

I think I must be stupid.

When I had a bar in Tokyo the amount of celebs that partied there I probably could have retired long ago if I had taken a few snaps.

I still have a shot of the Stone Roses with a bag of grass on a table in my bar so big that it would supply a small village.. And that's all I am saying 'cos I know they won't mind me talking about that.. Good times!!

[alcimedes]

Meh, reading that story it sounds like one or two cock blocked guys trying to get revenge, painting him to be some asshole.

Sounds like he was a combination of famous, nice and attracted to the girls throwing themselves at him. I'm sure it was a game changer for a few of the young men there, and sounds like some didn't take kindly to it.

[zsummers]

TTIUWOP:



And the world yawns and remembers why we only care about swimming once every four years.

Oh, and who says that's not just some harmless tobaccy in there.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by zsummers Oh, and who says that's not just some harmless tobaccy in there.

Or that the white powder that Kate Moss was snorting wasn't just nasal decongestant?!?!?

[crazychester]

In the famous people thread, I was going to mention a psychiatrist I once heard give a lecture named Thomas Szasz (sp?). He's American. He made the delightful point that saying "drugs are bad" is like saying that refrigerator is bad or your mohair jumper is bad. They're inanimate objects for fuck's sake. It's a completely illogical statement to begin with. But people blindly swallow it without question.

Because dullness of mind was the enemy, is the enemy and will always be the enemy.

On top of that, is the big secret they keep from everyone that many illicit drugs are known to be much better substitutes for legal medications currently in use. Personally, I think there's more to it than just the egg they'd get on their faces if they changed their tune. Illegal drugs aren't the second biggest export industry in the world after illegal arms for nothing.......

[scratt]

Oh absolutely.. Look at the prohibition of Grass. In the US it had more to do with Paper Mills and lobyists than 'axe wielding homicidal women raping black men'.

[Brad]

... Michael Phelps ...

Who?









Wait, this guy is still relevant in some way?

[alcimedes]

I'm going to go personally protest this smear campaign with some tobacco of my own!

[scratt]

I'll join you.

I love protesting.

[World Leader Pretend]

Eh, nothing new. When he was still here at Kansas State, Mike Beasley was notorious for smoking the reefer. I stopped by an apartment that he usually hung around and the place reeked of pot. Rumor was that if you really wanted to be pals with him, you just had to drive to Boulder to get some of the good stuff.

He was the #2 overall NBA draft choice last year.

[curiousuburb]

After 14 Gold Medals and peeing in sample bottles for years, maybe he's up for a change.

Judging the Dope Olympics in Amsterdam?
Auditioning to be the next Cheech&Chong?

Or maybe his agent said he needs a 'fall-from-grace-then-time-in-rehab' to stay hot tabloid news and get Oprah time?

[ezkcdude]

Well, at least now he can get the cover of High Times.

[scratt]

Hmm.. In a shell suit, dark glasses and wearing his medals as bling... Cool!

[Luca]

Two words: who cares?

[Moogs]

Michael Phelps....

...or maybe not.

[AWR]

Originally Posted by Luca Two words: who cares?

Fox News. It's their lead story.



But really, is this news? At all?

[FFL]

Originally Posted by World Leader Pretend Eh, nothing new. When he was still here at Kansas State, Mike Beasley was notorious for smoking the reefer. I stopped by an apartment that he usually hung around and the place reeked of pot. Rumor was that if you really wanted to be pals with him, you just had to drive to Boulder to get some of the good stuff. He was the #2 overall NBA draft choice last year.

LOL

Makes me remember my college days, when I may in fact have been seen a time or two passing a bong to a future NBA draft pick.

I'll spare the details, both for privacy, and out of embarrassment over just how long ago it was....




 


(but, if the curiosity is really getting to you.... PM me)

[Luca]

Originally Posted by AWR Fox News. It's their lead story. But really, is this news? At all?

This just in: Twenty-something man observed partaking in Mary-Jew-Wanna!

[Swox]

Somebody set him up the bong!

Edit: No I'm not...

But I did make the accompanying pic!

[scratt]

Well the thing is..

In the current climate, our puritanical society with all the supposed values that are lectured ad-nauseam and that we should adhere to on pain of suffering eternity in the fires of hell...

Then, yes this is news, and it should be a big deal.

To sweep it under the carpet is hypocrisy at it's most extreme.
Especially on the basis that people don't want to tarnish a 'national hero'.
What does that say for the equality of society!?!?

So, yes he's a bad bad bad man for doing drugs.
By the standards of a society who's values I don't particularly believe in.
It's not going to bother me either way what the outcome of this is.
But it does give me a certain amount of perverse pleasure to imagine the machinations that are going on behind the scenes about how to "deal with this", or "make it go away".

Do I give a shit? No.

Did I give a shit about his accomplishments. Not particularly.
He's a damn good swimmer...

Does it bother me that any athlete uses drugs one way or the other?
Nope.

Until you can make sure that the thing that someone got caught for this year was not being used by the person holding the crown from last year then the whole drug testing thing in terms of performance enhancers is crap. It's like software protection. There is always a way around at the cutting edge.

As for smoking dope on your break, or even just before you go do some Olympic Snow Boarding..
Back again to Bill HIcks for that one....

[jcoley2]

Originally Posted by Luca Two words: who cares?

His sponsors. It is estimated that he has an opportunity to earn $100 million in endorsements over the next few years. This kind of publicity will cause some sponsors to pull.

[Taskiss]

As a parent of several older kids, I have the luxury of not having the responsibility of directly setting an example anymore, so I can honestly say I don't care one way or the other anymore about these kinds of issues.

When I was responsible for directly setting an example, I would have made a big deal out of this too. At that point in my life, I had to encourage successful behavior and discourage unsuccessful behavior - it was my job as a parent. They watched me like little hawks, and I had to talk the talk, walk the walk, and any hypocrisy would have been noticed in a second.

If you add up the pro's and con's of drug use, there really aren't any pro's other than "it feels good", which isn't compelling enough to outweigh the potential down side.

[curiousuburb]

Or you could set a household policy of "once you've got 14 Olympic Gold Medals, you can hit the bong, but until then..."

Originally Posted by jcoley2 His sponsors. It is estimated that he has an opportunity to earn $100 million in endorsements over the next few years. This kind of publicity will cause some sponsors to pull.

As for sponsors bailing on drug users, you could ask Kate Moss how little impact her coke-taking photos had on her latest endorsement deals. IIRC, she lost one or two, but the other sponsors renewed anyway.

[Moogs]

To me it just shows a lack of brains on his part. Between his DUI earlier in life and this, it's looking like he is not strong in the common sense department. Look, if he had won his medals and said "hey I just want to go back to my life" and didn't jump into all these ads, then I wouldn't care. Smoke up, Mikey. But the point is by making himself as visible as possible after the Olympics he's sort of saying "I want to be in the public eye / take on this mantle of role model / successful athlete / whatever"... to follow that with hitting a bong pipe (while others are there with you that maybe you don't know so well) is beyond stupid.

I hope he does lose his endorsements. I also hope GoDaddy goes out of business so I don't have to watch anymore of theirs. Retards.

[judeobscure]

Good or bad it is still publicity.

[atomicbartbeans]

Haha, um... big deal?

Sure it's not the best idea while you're training for the Olympics, but otherwise, why did he need to offer an apology? Recreational cannabis use is much less harmful than many societally accepted things and really shouldn't be 'scandalous' (not to mention illegal) in the first place.

[Moogs]

It's all relative but in the world of the media, "should" and "shouldn't" count for nothing. All that matters is the current set of societal values and perceptions. No this doesn't make him an evil dude or anything but it does make him kind of an idiot IMHO.

[Dorian Gray]

He was an obvious idiot before. This changes nothing.

Why do people look to sporting figures for moral inspiration? At a rough guess 90% of them are stupid, arseholes, or worse.