God Has Spoken, Marion (It Don't Sound Good)

Marion Jones Sentenced to Six Months in Prison

UPDATE: TMR just saw Marion's post-sentencing press conference and thought she did well.

Newspaper Bullshit Vs. Common Sense

Newspaper bullshit on Marion Jones, from Ron Rapoport, in the L.A. Times:

"Why did she do it? I think it was her determination to do something nobody else had done,...I think it was those five gold medals she wanted to win,...I think she and Graham looked at the Olympic schedule and saw that in a period of 10 days she would have to run three races at 100 meters, three at 200 meters, compete twice in the long jump, run heats in the 400- and 1,600-meter relays and then run the relay finals less than two hours apart. I think they decided she would need help. I think they bought into the widespread notion among athletes that steroids would help her recovery time."

Common Sense Says:

Come on, the bitch didn't think she'd get caught. She thought she was "special" and we were all stupid. "Flaxseed oil" was the cover story. Throw her, and Barry Bonds, under the jail for their arrogance. Next:

Newspaper bullshit on Tyler Peterson (above) from Megan Twohey, in the Chicago Tribune:

"CRANDON, Wis. - A bloody picture of how a 20-year-old police officer gunned down his ex-girlfriend and five other young people began to come into focus Monday, but residents of this small Wisconsin community were still asking questions more than a day after the gunman died in a police standoff."

Common Sense Says:

Of course, America's heart goes out to all involved, but TMR's goes out, especially, to Tyler Peterson and his family. It's a terrible thing when a young man feels so much - only to discover others are capable of feeling so little. How his victims were raised is the only question that should haunt the citizens of that small Wisconsin town. Tyler Peterson's motives are all too clear: Those loser kids he killed used the fact he was "a cop in love" to be cruel to him - basically turning our value-system upside-down. (Because of their cruelty, they may be as guilty as he is.) Evil begets evil. And the emotions, especially the lack of compassion Tyler Peterson recieved, was real and powerful. Maybe the next time someone needs help, or to be heard, the people around them will decide to do something other than teasing, and heaping on ridicule, to make themselves feel big. Being cool by caring, generically, about the animals or "saving the planet" isn't nearly as important as knowing how to care for the souls right in front of you. Somehow, people who buy into new age thinking forget that. It's really a terrible shame.

God Ain't Talking

"There's only one person who knows the truth—God."

- Marion Jones, to Newsweek, back in 2006

"Marion Jones,...tarnishes more than her own reputation,...It shows the demonstrated willingness of many,...to lie through their teeth,...Many,...have turned out to operate in an ethics-free zone.""

- John Hoberman, a University of Texas professor and expert on steroids in sports

"She had to say the words 'shame' and 'betrayed' with her mother standing beside her and dozens of cameras clicking away,...the only remaining potential for disillusionment lay in Jones' chances of getting away with it all - especially the incessant, adamant lies. They were worse than the doping itself.

She practiced spin control as if it were an Olympic event, going so far as to hire Bill Clinton's post-Monica cover-up artist, Chris Lehane. Their playbook was thin: Attack your opponents, lie, lie, lie, and try to look good doing it,...she called the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency 'a kangaroo court',...and,..she illicitly missed (or skipped) a drug test 15 years ago, as a high schooler, but avoided sanctions because Johnnie Cochran stepped in as her lawyer. She was still a victim.

She had survived an avalanche of evidence. She kept issuing angry denials even after working with two coaches deeply connected to steroids; after marrying one busted doper and having a child with another; after using a lawsuit to silence [Bill] Conte, the former "nutritionist" who told the truth about her; after skating away from the BALCO files that brought down many of her colleagues; and after twice escaping from problematic drug tests.

She seemed more unbeatable in this arena than she did on the track. But in the end, she lost."

- Gwen Knapp, the excellent San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist, getting it right, once again, as always

"Her former husband, C. J. Hunter, the shot putter and fellow cheat, claimed that she injected herself with human growth hormones, while Victor Conte, the founder of the Balco drugs factory, said she used performance-enhancing drugs 'before, during and after the 2000 Olympics'.

Both are discredited figures, however, and Jones had always maintained her innocence, filing a $25 million lawsuit against Conte in 2004 for his claims that he supplied her with drugs.

Jones claimed that in 1999, [her coach] advised her to take a 'nutritional supplement' that he called flaxseed oil,...'he told me not to tell anyone about our workouts or supplementation program.' She agreed because she did not want to give her competitors any edge.

Her relationships with [her ex-husband], who was once found to have 1,000 times the normal level of nandrolone in his system, and [the father of her child], whose world 100 metres record has been expunged, invited cynicism."

- Rick Broadbent, Athletics Correspondent for the Times of London

"Invited cynicism"? Well. And here I was thinking non-new agers were just being mean.

Isn't that what believers always say?