Just a quick note...

I think spitting on Lance Armstrong is a really cruddy thing to do.

No, I'm not accusing you directly of actually spitting on Lance Armstrong (though shame on you if you have), I'm referring to a bit of news I heard this morning. The report said that many native French attenders of the Tour de France have spit on Mr. Armstrong as he climbs the treacherous sixth leg through the French Alps. The report said that the small pathways are packed with fans who are, at times, only a couple of feet away from the athletes, and that Lance had taken quite a few good dollops of French saliva to the cheek during this leg. (Lance Armstrong is, by the way, leading the Tour de France at the time of this blog entry).

Now, I'm not a super political guy. I tend to think George Bush is a bit of a dimwit (by world leader standards), and something about John Kerry makes me feel like I need to take a shower. I must concede, however, that I am wholly underinformed on each, and I'm one of those jerks that tends to rely on my "gut feeling." So, this isn't a political tirade against the French.

There is, however, something inherently nasty about spitting on a person simply because they're from another country. I wouldn't do it to a Frenchman, a Turk, an Iraqi, a Canadian or a Swede. This makes me mad at French people, and now I start to get political. I get mad because a few French morons spit on a five-time-in-a-row Tour de France winner...then I get mad because I remember a lot of people I know telling me that France bails out of every war worth fighting. Then I get really mad when I hear people tell me that the French have tried to exhume the bodies of American soldiers buried in France WHILE FIGHTING TO KEEP IT FREE, because they don't want Americans on their soil. That may not be true, but I've seen enough desecratioin of American graves in American miliatry cemetaries in France to make me believe it might be. Then I get really really mad when I think of Celine Dion who, given, isn't French but French Canadian, which puts her in league with Alex Trebek, and isn't that worse?

So, all this to say, I'm mad at the French today. I hope I don't stay that way...it's certainly ironic that I would call THEM racists for spitting on my bike rider, and then get mad a whole country full of people. But I thought a little self-disclosure was in order.

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Also, we had a wicked storm in Cincy last night. I've never seen CONTINUOUS lightning. I'm not kidding, and I'm barely exaggerating. It went for more than an hour CONTINUOUSLY...no waiting between flashes....it was like staring down the runway at the latest fashion debut while the shutters around you snapped continuously. Very bizarre. Scary, really. I almost went to the basement.

Peace,
Justin