Archives for August 2005

More charges against Lance Armstrong and claims that he used illegal substances to enhance his performance. There is no doubt that he is an exceptional athlete and I suspect that this would be the case no matter what.

PARIS (AP) — The director of the Tour de France claims Lance Armstrong has “fooled” the sports world and that the seven-time champion owes fans an explanation over new allegations he used a performance-boosting drug.

Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc’s comments appeared in the French sports daily L’Equipe on Wednesday, a day after the newspaper reported that six urine samples provided by Armstrong during the ’99 Tour tested positive for the red blood cell-booster EPO.

“For the first time — and these are no longer rumors, or insinuations, these are proven scientific facts — someone has shown me that in 1999, Armstrong had a banned substance called EPO in his body,” Leblanc told L’Equipe.

“The ball is now in his court. Why, how, by whom? He owes explanations to us and to everyone who follows the tour. Today, what L’Equipe revealed shows me that I was fooled. We were all fooled.”

On Tuesday, Leblanc called the latest accusations against Armstrong shocking and troubling.

Armstrong, a frequent target of L’Equipe, vehemently denied the allegations Tuesday, calling the article “tabloid journalism.”

“I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs,” he said on his Web site.”

My neighbor decided that he didn’t want his XBox anymore and gave it to me. Yes, he gave it to me. Oy. I love video games. Always have.

When I was a much younger lad, so much younger than today I never needed any help playing a video game, but that is not longer the case. The old Atari 2600 looked like the unit below.
It used a simple joystick and paddles. It was very basic and quite a lot of fun.
This XBox is insanely cool and complicated. Look at the controller. It has so many buttons. I feel like such an old fart. I am slowly growing accustomed to it, but it is taking time.
Tonight I purchased a game, Madden NFL ’05. The ’06 version is out but it costs an additional $18 so I said screw it and saved the money.

I am 36 and playing video games again. I love it. I feel like that little boy playing Pong or Space Invaders. I can’t wait to play with my son. I better start now while he is only 4.5 because pretty soon he’ll be better than me.

But in the meantime I’ll take advantage of my superior motor skills for what little time I can.

I shouldn’t laugh at this story, but I can’t help myself. Thanks to David for tipping me off to this one. Too bad they didn’t contact me because I could have a field day with this kind of thing. You know that I love telemarketers.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22, 2005 — Officials at JP Morgan Chase have apologized and promised to improve their screening policies, after a credit card solicitation letter sent to a 54-year-old naturalized American citizen came addressed to “Palestinian Bomber.”

The form letter for a Visa Platinum card arrived earlier this month at the home of Sami Habbas, a grocery store manager from Corona, Calif. The words “Palestinian Bomber” appear above his address and the salutation reads, “Dear Palestinian Bomber.” The document included the signature of Carter Franke, chief marketing officer for Chase Card Services.

Habbas is a naturalized U.S. citizen of Palestinian heritage. He told ABC News he is “extremely upset” at receiving the letter, pointing out that he has lived in the United States for 51 years and also served in the U.S. Army, receiving an honorable discharge in 1969.

“It’s upsetting, derogatory and slanderous,” Habbas told ABC News. “I have no idea how this sort of thing happened.”

Habbas was even more shocked when, on several occasions, he said he called an 800-number for JP Morgan Chase and spoke to operators in an effort to complain. Each time, he says the operators called up his information on a computer but apparently didn’t catch on. According to Habbas, “The operators always said, ‘Yes, Mr. Palestinian Bomber, how can we help you?’ “

Stupid telemarketers.Don’t they bother to read.

This post at Psychotoddler’s place made me smile. It reminds me of my own childhood and the hoops my parents jumped through to get all of my sisters and I to cooperate during our family pictures.

In yet another display of the lack of sportsmanship exhibited by some athletes Diego Maradona admits to using his hand. My apologies to my US readers who are already bored reading this.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Diego Maradona acknowledged that he struck the ball with his hand in the famous “Hand of God” goal against England in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals.

Speaking on his local television talk show Monday night, Maradona called one of soccer’s most controversial goals “something that just came out of me. It was a bit of mischief.”

Maradona appeared to punch the ball into the net, and officials allowed the goal to stand despite protests by the English team. Argentina went on to win the 1986 quarterfinal match 2-1 and then win the World Cup.

In his most detailed comments yet, Maradona said he was unable to reach the ball for a header when he went up against the taller English goalkeeper, Peter Shilton.

Shilton “was very tall. He didn’t see anything, and a teammate told him” afterward what happened, said Maradona.

After the score, Maradona said he quickly realized the line referee had allowed the goal but none of his teammates had rushed to celebrate with him — themselves figuring the goal would be waved off.

“I was waiting for my teammates to embrace me and no one came,” said Maradona, who was the team captain. “I told them, ‘Come hug me or the referee isn’t going to allow it.’