For Francis...

Hmph, this is quite an endeavor; what does Jasper think of the Tour De France? I think that cycling is a a legitimate athletic activity and that the way in which they are trying to milk the most respected of events in this sport for cash. It may be a stretch, but it seems as if they are using things like hitting dogs or steroid scandals for publicity since Lance left. But the state of of the sport is pathetic - I hate to say it, but I think Jim Rome was right when he said that it needs to take time off then come back in a few years whe maybe we've forgotten.

Now, inevitably, the conversation of th Tour leads into the conversation of doping in sports in general, and as you can imagine, I am entirely against it. If an athlete is meant to push the physical limits of the human body he is doing something that is literally not human by taking steroids and therefore is no longer an athlete, but an all out moron. My response to doping is probably predictable, but in certain scenarios it takes on different roles. In baseball with Barry Bonds, I could care less, all the power to him; with baseball being of a contrived nature, as opposed to running, with rules and regulations that happened to permit the use of the steroids which Bonds, McGwire, and others were accused of using then it is the unfortunate blunder of proffesional baseball. They are presented with two options that will actually resolve the situation - one, accept that Hank Aarron, as well as many others COULD have taken these steroids and hit 850, but they didn't think of it, it wasn't cheating yet, and unfortunatly that sort of morality that Aaron may have had was not appropriate for a game that did not call for it (whereas a runner has always had and always will have a place for that morality because the rules of running are simple, be a human and move your legs quickly) - or two, ban any use of steroids and apply the rule in retrospect as well, removing the records of Bonds and McGwire, and eliminating the significance of the steroid age, and admitting their folly in not banning the substances earlier, when they damn well should've been banned; in this case, the League is being stupid, no two ways about it, the steroid age is a construct of the officials who are too lazy to shake it up and actually end it once and for all. But in other situations it is much more of a grim story, as in professional wrestling. Chris Benoit was just one of the average four steroid related deaths per year for proffesional wrestlers, not to mention how ever many people they take with them. Here I must obviously take a much firmer stance on these people being absolute fuck-heads - combat sports are meant for an intelligent audience, one that can comprehend the concept of the strongest man and strongest will winning in a battle of flesh and muscle, not for people who want to see others injured, this only leads to (surprise!) a further lack of respect for humanity, especially when the suicide of one of it's stars and his killing of his own wife and child are accompanied by glorified images of his obviously steroid pumped physique. This makes me sick that so many people are so deeply involved and entertained by one of the worst showings that people on this planet are capable of. Moronic, violent with no reason, it screams destruction of these childrens minds. It scares me to think of the crowds of people who would probably kill me if I were to try and convince them of their own ignorance, or even if I got one to listen how adamantly they would deny what I had to say. To think of how brainwashed the majority of our country is is terrifying. The most popular sport in the world isn't even a physical activity, it consists of watching machines going around in circles hundreds of times in different cities - machines that intelligent and reasonable people like myself (ones with considerably higher IQ and technical ability) invented and perfected. Ignorance sucks, let's stop it...


I forgot to add this in the original post, but now here it is...

The discussion after steroids must turn to technology in sport in modern times. Like aluminum bats in baseball, although they managed to ban those, many other things are coming between sports and actual human athletic ability. Shoes in running, isticky gloves in football, etc, but the one with which I have the closest experience and possibly the most problem is the high-tech bathing suits used by swimmers today. Speedo - who, it turns out, doesn't just make the little suits referred to as "speedos" - has just released a new racing suit that was described to me as feeling like it lifts your legs out of the water. I'm sure you can guess what I have to say about this; Swimming is one of those sports which are inherent to the human being - like running or jumping or fighting - and should not be swayed or changed, as it is the most base form of human athleticism of its type (as opposed to water polo, for example). But instead of considering that it is a human activity, and that humans are in fact not any part nylon (or whatever the suits are made of) and that including such things in this kind of athletic display is in fact inhuman; it soon comes to the realm of a spectator sport like football - people watch because they want to see things of a different reality (a hyper-reality perhaps?) in which humans can achieve feets impassoble to the actual human, feets that require steroid-enhanced muscles, sticky gloves, 1/4 inch cleets, and 4 inch thick pads so that they become inhumanly durable as well. I love to watch football, and there is no doubt that there are amazing athletes on the field, but like I said in one of the first posts, it isn't worthy of the praise that the core sports are worthy of, these sports, and swimming is quickly becoming one of them (especially so since the coming of Michael Phelps), are principally commercial displays for entertainment, the athletic ability takes a back seat to the viewers inability to accept the limitations of the human body and the reality in which they live.