Thursday, April 05, 2007

Thursday Roundup

News
Telegraph (UK) notes growing concern about the validity of Testosterone cases, in the context of Thorpe.

The Atlantic considers the Landis hearing in May an event worthy of inclusion in their calendar. Emailer Cheryl notes


"Other hot topics for The Atlantic include the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, the first transgendered pop star marriage in South Korea, the reuniting of the Police, and people making a decent living selling virtual goods for the game EverQuest II. Who knew a gnome was worth more than an elf ($214 vs. $195)?

Blogs
Backcountry.com and YouTubeNews both note the Floyd Landis YouTube video "plea for help" being presented on the FFF web site.

In an extensive piece CrsytelZENmud takes on strict liability, it's WADA definition, and how this applies to the Landis case:

Yet, such is the life under 'strict liability' for the Athletes. How many more innocent victims must be, as may be Floyd, as certainly was Alan Baxter, scathingly scarred by the incriminations offered by labs and tests that are theoretically 'cutting edge', yet often-times not assured of the reliability that one presumes to be a standard, across the medical world? Why would WADA not subject its accredited Laboratories and other Anti-Doping Organizations to the same strict liability standards by which the athletes under this authority are judged?


Which is reasonable, but we should remember a challenge to the fairness of strict liability is not a part of Landis defense, because he says there's nothing there, so nothing to be liable for.



Webinfarmation blurbs the US Open Cycling Championships to be held in Richmond,VA this weekend and a Landis appearance from 7-9 tonight at Stool Pigeons.

Bob's Web Log writes about running the Leadville 100 this summer, with this memorable note, to be savored by all Fred who wish to reuse:
And this year, Lance Armstrong signed up for the race but had to drop out, probably because Floyd Landis also signed up for the race. The three of us account for the last 8 Tour de France victories.


Rant apologizes for a headline implying knowledge of Ullrich's guilt, but says he's failed to learn the legal and PR lessons of the Landis case.

Snoopy says that Floyd Landis will be at Stool Pigeons at Shockoe Slip in Richmond , VA tonight for a meet and greet from 7-9PM.


Alan in Oz thinks that we might not necessarily want to trust all that we read, and he is waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Dugard talks about Ullrich's defense to date, and despite thinking Jan is probably guilty as sin, Marty is still tipping towards the athletes.

Thought for the Day

" Youth is not a time of your life. It is not the age of supple knees, rosy lips and chubby cheeks. It is a quality of your will, a vigor of your emotions. It is the freshness of deep springs of life. Youth means temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than in a boy of twenty. No one grows old merely by a number of years. We only grow old by deserting our ideals."



1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think CrsytelZENmud is using the concepts of "strict liability" and "presumption of testing accuracy" (flipping of the burden of proof to the athlete) to illustrate how strong the policy of "anti-doping" really is in the anti-doping disciplinary process. It appears that WADA merely gives "presumption of innocence" lip service in light of the reality of the existence of the combination of these two concepts. That makes this anti-doping disciplinary process quite unique in the universe of democratic disciplinary processes, actually adopting due process presumptions of innocence.