As you may or may not know, Michael Phelps - he of a gazillion gold medals at the Bejing Olympics- has been photographed taking a hit from a bong on some college house party recently. Outrage followed, leading him to apologize for doing the hit etc etc.

I'm not much of a doper, but it's crazy. How the fuck does anyone think they have the right to criticize the man's personal life when it's clear as daylight that he's not some crazy-ass pothead. He lives for years for nothing but his sport (cannabis shows up in the dope tests athletes have to take), does a hit at a party following his almost superhuman olympics performance, and suddenly we're supposed to feel all outraged? Puh-lease.

I found this opinion piece (in the form of a fictional letter by Phelps), great stuff.

http://www.theagitator.com/2009/02/01/a ... -but-wont/

Or how about this gem

Just because someone has done something that was in the news (ok, a pretty 'big' something to hit world news) why do we all give a shit about his personal life? If it was his third cousin doing drugs, no one would care. If you tried to tell someone, they'd just look at you and change the subject. But no, because he's known, all of a sudden we all have to give a crap about him. These things piss me off for two reasons. First of all the fact that these peoples lives get dragged through the mud at every opportunity, and second of all that they're elevated to being something more 'special' than everyone else, and therefore worthy of this treatment.

Sorry, ended up on a celeb rant there. I hate 'em. lol. Or at least the idea of them.

hehe...yea, I heard about that. Good for him. It's nice to see he can still be a regular dude and have some fun in college even after winning a ridiculous number of olympic gold medals.

It's also a hell of an endorsement for pot. Especially if he comes back and wins more medals in the future. Personally, I don't know a single person that's outraged...except the media because it's not getting them the ratings they were hoping for.

Better be careful with these revolutionary statements, they might assassinate you for speaking such truth

Anyhow drugs are bad and now if his swimming career should end suddenly, he can always preach to youngsters about the dangers of drug use and he can say that he has tried them.

And the author of the article probably pulled his face out of a coke pile the same morning (a certain scene from hitman: codename 47 comes to mind).

Well, I feel you on some celebs (movie stars, most authors, etc) but in this case the man did do something almost superhuman. That doesn't mean we should worship him or consider him the Idol of All Humanity but it's not like he's some sort of movie star or model or musician who got lucky/slept with the right people.

Yup because musicians are losers (*cough*Bach*cough*) and so are politicians (*cough*Caesar*cough*). Ah well, whatever, I hope he still smokes dope, just not in front of cameras. I hope whoever took that picture and sold it gets their ass kicked.

Of course they're not (all) losers, but in Phelps' case one can argue that he has a pretty extraordinary talent - which is more than can be said of a Britney or a Bush.

Bottom line: you don't win 14 golden olympic medals if you're not talented. But you CAN become a world famous singer or politician without (much) talent.

If that makes sense.

heh, yes, I agree, I was mainly just baiting you.

important questions on the issue

http://www.slate.com/id/2210441/