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	<title>StarrTrek</title>
	
	<link>http://owstarr.com</link>
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	<pubDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:41:59 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>Final Shot at Impeaching the Criminals:  Will Bush Pardon Himself?</title>
		<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~3/448362496/</link>
		<comments>http://owstarr.com/2008/11/10/final-shot-at-impeaching-the-criminals-will-bush-pardon-himself/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:36:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[abuse of constitution]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Bush]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Cheney]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[criminals]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[freedom]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Impeachment]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[imprisonment]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[indictment]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[owstarr.com]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[presidential pardon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://owstarr.com/?p=272</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m going to put big money on an affirmative.  That is unless we, the people, do something to prevent it.  From &#8220;The Pen&#8221;

Impeach Bush Before He Pardons Himself 
According to Seymour Hersh there is a conga line of insiders waiting
until January 20th to spill the beans on the gross criminality of the
Bush/Cheney administration. Waiting . [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://owstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/bush-turkey.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-273" title="bush-turkey" src="http://owstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/bush-turkey-264x300.jpg" alt="" width="264" height="300" align-"right"/></a>I&#8217;m going to put big money on an affirmative.  That is unless we, the people, do something to prevent it.  From &#8220;The Pen&#8221;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #800080;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><br />
Impeach Bush Before He Pardons Himself </strong></span></p>
<p>According to Seymour Hersh there is a conga line of insiders waiting<br />
until January 20th to spill the beans on the gross criminality of the<br />
Bush/Cheney administration. Waiting . . . because if they did it now<br />
the two of them would be tarred and feathered on the way out the<br />
door.</p>
<p>But we the people do not have to wait. We can and must demand the<br />
immediate impeachment of both Bush and Cheney for what is already<br />
known. At the very least the defiance of congressional subpoenas at<br />
the behest of the White House is an open and shut case for<br />
accountability now.</p>
<p>Impeach Now Action Page: <a href="http://www.usalone.com/impeach_now.php " target="_blank">http://www.usalone.com/impeach_now.php<br />
</a><br />
Because as his final constitutional insult, his final spit in the<br />
face to the American people and all rule of law, it is transparently<br />
obvious that Bush is planning the most wholesale and wrongful pardon<br />
of the worst political criminals in American history, his whole<br />
criminal gang, INCLUDING himself.</p>
<p>And don&#8217;t think that is not their precise plan. Please, what power<br />
has Bush NOT abused? What heinous, self-serving, shameless and<br />
dishonest act has he ever shied away from, when he was torturing and<br />
eavesdropping and lying us into wars of corporate aggression. Does<br />
anyone doubt that is what he is planning on doing?</p>
<p>And when you submit this action page, you will have one last chance<br />
to get one of the &#8220;Impeach Both!!!&#8221; caps, which after January 20th<br />
will no longer be available from us for love or for money.</p>
<p>Impeach Now Action Page: <a href="http://www.usalone.com/impeach_now.php " target="_blank">http://www.usalone.com/impeach_now.php<br />
</a><br />
Will Congress now act? That is not the yardstick of the worth of our<br />
activism. We speak out because we must speak out, whether we are<br />
heeded or not. Let history record that we spoke out until the last<br />
minute to the eternal shame of those who did not. Because when enough<br />
of us speak out at once, the worst thing that can possibly happen is<br />
that we are building the progressive base for the REAL change of the<br />
future.</p>
<p>So Bush most certainly is planning on pardoning himself. And all the<br />
right wing lock down ideologues in the corporate controlled media<br />
will call it &#8220;healing&#8221;. Let&#8217;s all make nice with war criminals? Shall<br />
we all make nice with the gang rape of our economy, our environment<br />
and our Constitution? We think not.</p>
<p>And one more thing. You know that come January 20th the right wing<br />
will start calling for the impeachment of our new president, over a<br />
endless litany of the most ridiculous of trivial trifles. In fact it<br />
has already started even though he has not even taken office. If they<br />
are so hot on impeaching someone, let them speak out now, when it<br />
truly is called for, or shut the hell up in 73 days.</p>
<p>Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed<br />
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.</p>
<p>If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at<br />
<a href="http://www.usalone.com/in.htm" target="_blank">http://www.usalone.com/in.htm</a> </span></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~4/448362496" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Is Forbes Against Gay Marriage?</title>
		<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~3/438936425/</link>
		<comments>http://owstarr.com/2008/11/01/is-forbes-against-gay-marriage/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:21:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Blog Power]]></category>

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		<category><![CDATA[Biased and Fear Based]]></category>

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		<category><![CDATA[Christian Nut Jobs]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Discrimination]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Fear and Hate Mongering]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Forbes]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Gay Marriage]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Gay Marriage Ban]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Irrational]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[owstarr.com]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Proposition 8]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Unconstitutional]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Witch Hunt]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Wrong]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://owstarr.com/?p=267</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This just hit my in box from the Forbes/Adify Blog Advertising Network:
I am writing to you with some urgency because our partners at Adify have proposed a short-term campaign for us to run across the Forbes.com Business &#38; Finance Blog Network.
The campaign is very unique in that it is political in nature and may potentially [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://owstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/no-pr8-for-you.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-268" title="no-pr8-for-you" src="http://owstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/no-pr8-for-you-300x299.jpg" alt="" width="275" /></a>This just hit my in box from the Forbes/Adify Blog Advertising Network:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #800000;">I am writing to you with some urgency because our partners at Adify have proposed a short-term campaign for us to run across the Forbes.com Business &amp; Finance Blog Network.<br />
The campaign is very unique in that it is political in nature and may potentially be objectionable to some readers.  We ask that you please take the time to consider whether  you’d like this advertisement to run on your site. It is up to you to decide whether you will accept this campaign.<br />
Some details on the campaign:</span>
</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #800000;"><strong>The campaign advocates a “Yes”  vote on California Proposition 8, which touches on some potentially sensitive  issues related to familial values and marriage.  Specifically, a “Yes”  vote on Proposition 8 advocates a ban on gay marriage in California. </strong></span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #800000;">The campaign will run only in the  300&#215;250 ad size and will feature a video similar to a political television  commercial.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #800000;">The campaign is Geo-targeted  exclusively to the state of California.</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #800000;">The overall CA-only campaign CPM  is  $2.85 to you.<br />
We are hoping to set this campaign live ASAP as it only runs until November 4th – election day.<br />
To provide you with an opt-out/reject opportunity for this single campaign, Adify has rejected this campaign across our Network. It will appear in your rejected area, at which time you could choose to accept it. We’ve been assured by Adify that the ad WILL NOT automatically serve on your site.”  You can preview the video for this campaign in your Adify account as well.<br />
Please let me know if you have any questions- feel free to call my cell phone listed below.<br />
Have a nice weekend.</span></p>
<p>My Response:</p>
<p>I do not wish this advertisement or any like it to run on my site.  I believe that all people should have equal rights under the law and any law that discriminates on the basis of gender, age, race or sexual preference is both wrong and unconstitutional.  Further I find the advocacy for such a law personally abhorrent.  People should not be limited in their rights simply because other people don’t like their choices.  Whom a person chooses for their partner whether be it for sex or for life has no impact on others so why should those other people that are not impacted in any way have the right to make a determination about the rights of anyone else?</p>
<p>I personally think that Sarah Palin is an imbecile. I simply cannot imagine a country with her as its Vice President let alone its President.  In fact I think this would be enormously detrimental to all Americans in so many ways it is difficult to imagine, much less quantify in any rational way.  This however, is simply my opinion and I do not grudge others their own opinions even if it is different than mine.  Further, I don’t strive to limit the rights of those with a different opinion their opportunity to exercise their right to choose the candidate of their preference even though this choice will have much greater bearing on me and my life than anyone’s choice about whom they marry.</p>
<p>Why this is even a question boggles my mind.  What small minded fear-based bigoted self-righteous meddling moron would spend time, money, or waste the public’s limited attention span on something so totally inconsequential as limiting the rights of people that make different choices to choose whom they wish to lawfully engage in matrimony?  Don’t we have bigger problems than a couple of men or a couple of women choosing to live in a respectful and loving relationship?</p>
<p>This is a modern day witch hunt.  Make no mistake about it.  These same do-gooder right wing Christians are the exact same morons whom a century or two ago were the ones having witch hunts and burning blacks on crosses and before that they were the ones that were holding the inquisitioner’s hearings in Spain.</p>
<p>Shame on Forbes for even considering this ill-intentioned campaign and shame on any blogger whom either out of misguided beliefs or worse, simply for a few dollars would choose to display any of the rhetoric this group espouses.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Oliver W Starr</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~4/438936425" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Most Amazing UFO Footage to Date</title>
		<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~3/428379811/</link>
		<comments>http://owstarr.com/2008/10/22/most-amazing-ufo-footage-to-date/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:09:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Oliver</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Ufology]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Video]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[alien]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[flying disc]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[flying saucer]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[MOD]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[NASA]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[OVNI]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[space]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[space craft]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[UFO]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Unidentified Flying Object]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Visitors]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://owstarr.com/?p=264</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Britain&#8217;s &#8220;The Sun&#8221; is reporting on some of the most amazing UFO footage recorded to date.  From the Sun:
The 42-year-old and a number of residents claim the UFOs were spotted over a  four month period between May and September near the compound in Istanbul.
He said: “I don’t know what these things are. We [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="350" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ViOOHv9Efjg" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ViOOHv9Efjg"></embed></object></p>
<p>Britain&#8217;s &#8220;The Sun&#8221; is reporting on some of the most amazing UFO footage recorded to date.  From the Sun:</p>
<p class="article" style="padding-left: 30px;">The 42-year-old and a number of residents claim the UFOs were spotted over a  four month period between May and September near the compound in Istanbul.</p>
<p class="article" style="padding-left: 30px;">He said: “I don’t know what these things are. We filmed them several times and  they are totally unknown to us. I was very excited when I saw them and I  want the world to know that UFOs do exist”.</p>
<p class="article" style="padding-left: 30px;">Almost two-and-a-half hours of footage was filmed featuring a variety of  objects ranging from incredible flying saucer-type &#8216;craft&#8217; to clustering  orb-like lights hovering in the night sky.</p>
<h4 style="padding-left: 30px;">Genuine</h4>
<p class="article" style="padding-left: 30px;">The clips were handed to the Sirius UFO Space Science Research Centre in  Turkey who interviewed witnesses and painstakingly combed through the  footage frame by frame.</p>
<p class="article" style="padding-left: 30px;">International UFO researcher Haktan Akdogan said: &#8220;In this amazing video  footage, physical forms of UFOs and their metallic structures are clearly  noticeable.</p>
<p class="article" style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>&#8220;What is more important is that in the close-up of some footage of  the objects, <strong>entities in them can be distinctly made out.&#8221; </strong></em></p>
<p class="article" style="padding-left: 30px;">He continues: &#8220;We have spoken with all of the witnesses and had detailed  analysis conducted on all two-and-a-half hours of footage.</p>
<p class="article" style="padding-left: 30px;">&#8220;After conducting all of the analysis we came to the conclusion that this  video footage is 100 per cent genuine.</p>
<p class="article" style="padding-left: 30px;">&#8220;The objects filmed are structured objects and are not the result of  misidentification or natural phenomena, aircraft or astronomical objects.</p>
<div class="float-right width-300 padding-left-10 padding-bottom-10 padding-top-10" style="padding-left: 30px;"><noscript></noscript> <!--SECTION:parameter parameter="dart.server" /--></div>
<p class="article" style="padding-left: 30px;">&#8220;They are not the results either of any kind of computer animation. Now  is it a time for world governments to acknowledge the reality of UFOs.&#8221;</p>
<p class="article">From what I can discern from the video, it appears that this craft is what Bob Lazar referred to as a &#8220;sport model&#8221; only even smaller.  In fact to me it looks all the world like a sports car cockpit with a clear bubble over the center space where it appears that there is something controlling the vehicle - pehaps the alien pilot??</p>
<p class="article">I paused the video numerous times during the segments where this clear section is visible and it even appears that you can see some luminous controls on a dashboard.  I kid you not.</p>
<p class="article">So, is this real or is it a well executed hoax?  So far the experts are proclaiming the footage to be genuine but we will have to see if it withstands future scrutiny.  If it is legitimate then it is clear that we are getting closer than ever to disclosure, either because it is the right thing to do or because the extraterrestrials are tired of waiting&#8230;</p>
<p class="article">
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~4/428379811" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>What to Expect from a Palin Presidency</title>
		<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~3/417376480/</link>
		<comments>http://owstarr.com/2008/10/10/what-to-expect-from-a-palin-presidency/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:19:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Oliver</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Blog Power]]></category>

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		<category><![CDATA[humor]]></category>

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		<category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Shrub]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[stupid people]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[USA]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ViCe President Palin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://owstarr.com/?p=258</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We all thought that Shrub was the stupidest person to ever ascend to the Oval Office but it now appears that it is possible - likely even - that some time in the next four years we will be victim to someone even dumber than the current presiding potted plant actually inheriting the position of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://owstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/palin_the_retard.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-259" title="palin_the_retard" src="http://owstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/palin_the_retard-219x300.jpg" alt="" width="219" height="300" /></a>We all thought that Shrub was the stupidest person to ever ascend to the Oval Office but it now appears that it is possible - likely even - that some time in the next four years we will be victim to someone even dumber than the current presiding potted plant actually inheriting the position of Commander in Chief.</p>
<p>Now, I&#8217;m not writing to discuss the reasons why this might happen - save to say that if the democrats are so stupid that they don&#8217;t get their shit together and put an end to the republican voter fraud this time around then they deserve to lose this election.  No, I just want to prep you for what we ought to prepare for under a Palin Presidency.</p>
<p>Nations with morons as heads of state have long been the butt of jokes based upon the idiocy of their leaders so with a leader so clueless that she doesn&#8217;t even have a clue that she&#8217;s clueless (so clueless it turns out that McCain staffers have revealed that she didn&#8217;t know that Africa was a continent!) we should expect no less from our friends abroad.</p>
<p>With that in mind I thought I&#8217;d give you just one example of the sort of humor that we should be prepared to &#8220;enjoy&#8221;.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a funny:</p>
<blockquote><p>The leaders of China, Russia and the US are discussing their space programs.  The Chinese leader says &#8220;in two years we will put a man on the moon.&#8221;  Russia&#8217;s leader, Putin, ups the ante by saying &#8220;Really?  In five years Mother Russia will put a man on Mars.&#8221;  President Palin, not wanting to be outdone by either man says &#8220;Well, Gosh Darn it Boys, that&#8217;s real impressive, but&#8217;chya  know what we&#8217;re gonna do?  The Good &#8216;Ol USA is gonna put a team of men and <em><strong>women</strong></em> on the sun!&#8221;</p>
<p>The Russian and Chinese leaders are stunned.  Putin looks at President Palin and says &#8220;But certainly you know this is impossible.  It would be a suicide mission!&#8221;</p>
<p>Palin derisively rolls her eyes, winks at the audience and says &#8220;Well Mr. Smarty Pants, that shows what you know.  We&#8217;re going to land at night!&#8221;*</p></blockquote>
<p>Oh the horror!  Somebody wake me please and tell me this is all a bad dream.  With so many smart people in this country is this lineup really the best we could possibly do?  Sad, sad, sad&#8230;</p>
<p>*Yes, this is my own original humor.</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~4/417376480" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>It’s True! Anyone Really CAN Become the President!</title>
		<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~3/410024539/</link>
		<comments>http://owstarr.com/2008/10/02/its-true-anyone-really-can-become-the-president/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:19:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>

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		<category><![CDATA[biden]]></category>

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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://owstarr.com/?p=252</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If there was any doubt that in this country anyone can become President that doubt was dispelled tonight during the Vice Presidential debate. I&#8217;m still shaking my head at the inane responses that Sarah Palin delivered in between mangling words like nuclear (God help us, a second person in the white house saying &#8220;nookular&#8221;), and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If there was any doubt that in this country anyone can become President that doubt was dispelled tonight during the Vice Presidential debate. I&#8217;m still shaking my head at the inane responses that Sarah Palin delivered in between mangling words like nuclear (God help us, a second person in the white house saying &#8220;nookular&#8221;), and inventing names - who&#8217;s General Maclleland?</p>
<p>I wish that I could believe that the American people are smart enough collectively to realize that this robotic toady who doesn&#8217;t know what the word &#8220;maverick&#8221; means even though she said it forty five times tonight, is so completely incapable of leading this country that if McCain has any decency at all he has left orders to the secret service that should he die she should be taken out for the good of the country.</p>
<p>I know that sounds terribly callous but my god, I am more qualified to be President than she is if for no other reason than that I realize that I am completely unqualified for the position.  I accept this even though I know what the Bush Doctrine is, I&#8217;ve been to more than one country outside the US, I can say &#8220;nuclear&#8221; correctly and I don&#8217;t attend some wacky church where people speak in tongues, fall down in spiritual trances or go on actual witch hunts (seriously, check this out <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VtF7Ypr1hY">Palin&#8217;s Kooky Church - is it a cult or just a freak show?</a> )<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VtF7Ypr1hY"><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="350" height="288" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6VtF7Ypr1hY" /><param name="align" value="right" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="350" height="288" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6VtF7Ypr1hY" align="right"></embed></object></a></p>
<p>The moderator of this debate should be taken out behind the chemical shed and put out of our misery too.  Since when, in a debate, is it acceptable to simply ignore the questions that are being asked and to go off on irrelevant tangent after irrelevant tangent.</p>
<p>Do people really care what she did when she was Mayor of Wasilla? It&#8217;s ironic that she chided Biden for pointing out McCain&#8217;s mistakes by stating that he was focusing too much on the past when virtually every concrete thing she said was a reference to something that happened (or that she did) during her term as governor or mayor.</p>
<p>Her fake folksy down home lingo and pantomimed theatrics up on stage  (good God do we want a president that will wink during a State of the Union address?) were beyond ridiculous.</p>
<p>The fact that she had the temerity to mock Joe Biden to speak to him in a condescending way or to correct him (and be wrong in so doing) was just preposterous.</p>
<p>I find the idea that she could potentially become President to be so incredible, so inconceivable, so utterly ridiculous that it should guarantee that McCain loses this election.  Anyone that had any doubts about his judgment should now know all that they need to know, his judgment is a joke.  His running mate is a joke and his presidency will likely be the stuff about which jokes are someday told once we get beyond the pain and cost that having her in office will doubtless cause.</p>
<p>I can only hope that folks are smarter than I give them credit for and that like me people see Palin for what I can only describe as a charicature not a real person and a completely and totally inappropriate choice for either the Vice Presidency or worse, the Presidency.  Vote NO on Palin, Vote NO on McCain.  Save this country, save yourself, save our face in the world, keep that charade of a politicion out of office.</p>
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		<title>Frightening Facts About W3C and Truth, Free Speech and the Net</title>
		<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~3/409703439/</link>
		<comments>http://owstarr.com/2008/10/02/frightening-facts-about-w3c-and-truth-free-speech-and-the-net/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:02:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Biotech]]></category>

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		<category><![CDATA[big brother]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Big Pharma]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Censorship]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[conspiracy theories]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Mercola.com]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[newsletter]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[W3C]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://owstarr.com/?p=250</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Editor&#8217;s Note:  The post below comes direct from one of the best newsletters you will ever have the opportunity to receive for free:  Mercola.com.  This publication by Dr. Mercola covers health, politics, food safety and other topics that should be of interest to anyone concerned about living a long healthy life.
As someone that has worked [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note:  The post below comes direct from one of the best newsletters you will ever have the opportunity to receive for free:  <a href="http://mercola.com" target="_blank">Mercola.com</a>.  This publication by Dr. Mercola covers health, politics, food safety and other topics that should be of interest to anyone concerned about living a long healthy life.</em></p>
<p><em>As someone that has worked in the pharmaceutical and dietary supplement industries and has a long history of getting published as well as consulting for many of the top companies I have some pretty firmly established opinions on this topic.  Dr. Mercola is the first MD I&#8217;ve come across with whom I actually agree.  Seriously, this guy gets it and he even brings stuff to the forefront that I hadn&#8217;t seen before. I am continully impressed with his newsletter.</em></p>
<p><em>Below is <a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/10/02/big-pharma-ties-wants-to-shut-down-vaccine-conspiracy-theories.aspx?source=nl" target="_blank">an article</a> that should scare the crap out of all of us.  Since when is the W3C supposed to be the arbiter of truth or the &#8220;decision maker&#8221; about what is and what is not a &#8220;conspiracy theory&#8221;?  I can&#8217;t tell you how big brotheresque I find this thought to be.  If it comes to pass that we have the opportunity to voice an opinion we must make it clear in no uncertain terms that we view the W3C as a web standards body and not as an entity charged with determining the validity of content.</em></p>
<p><em>The public does a perfectly fine job of voting with their clicks and page views and Google&#8217;s PageRank (among other things) is a good indicator of what the public thinks. We doin&#8217;t need a couple of biased individuals cow towing to the highest commercial bidder to be telling us what is or isn&#8217;t valid online.  We are certainly capable of making these decisions for ourselves thank you very much.  WC3 keep your influence where it belongs if you over reach you&#8217;re going to get spanked.</em></p>
<p><strong><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong>Big Pharma Ties Want to Shut Down Vaccine &#8216;Conspiracy Theories&#8217; </strong></p>
<div id="DrVideo" class="PostBody"></div>
<p><img style="width: 249px; height: 309px;" src="http://articles.mercola.com/ImageServer/public/2008/October/10.2censorship.jpg" alt="big pharma, pharmaceutical, W3C, world wide web consortium, tim berners-lee, www, web, internet, freedom of speech, censorship, conspiracy, conspiracy theory, vaccines, MMR" align="right" />A foundation populated by the giants of business, banking, government and military wants to “vet” websites and limit the spread of information that it says creates “conspiracy theories”.</p>
<p>The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) says it is worried about the way the web has been “used to spread disinformation”. They want to introduce a new system that would give websites a label for trustworthiness or unreliability.</p>
<p>One “damaging conspiracy theory” they want to shut down is the notion that MMR vaccines are harmful. Of course, this “conspiracy theory” stems not from paranoid forum postings and misquoted blog entries, but from scientific research into the mercury based preservative thimerosal.</p>
<p>Thimerosal was developed by Eli Lilly, and Merck is the world’s largest supplier of the MMR triple jab &#8212; and it is little wonder W3C considers such information to be “damaging” given that Eli Lilly and Merck are both paid up and approved members of the Consortium! If anyone should be labeled with an “unreliable” rating, it is the WC3.</p>
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		<title>Want to Write Your Congressional Representative?  Just don’t use their email address…</title>
		<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~3/409437642/</link>
		<comments>http://owstarr.com/2008/10/02/want-to-write-your-congressional-representative-just-dont-use-their-email-address/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:17:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://owstarr.com/?p=247</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
I recently wrote Jane Harman, one of the state congressional representatives from California.  I got a reply to my original letter - a form response that was dated four months prior to the date I sent the letter.
This bothered me and finally I decided to respond to that form letter with something a bit [...]]]></description>
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<p>I recently wrote Jane Harman, one of the state congressional representatives from California.  I got a reply to my original letter - a form response that was dated four months prior to the date I sent the letter.</p>
<p>This bothered me and finally I decided to respond to that form letter with something a bit more direct.  It seems that Mr. Harman cares a great deal about what her constituents have to say.  So much so that her email address doesn&#8217;t even work.  Nice.  That&#8217;s one way to turn a deaf ear to the voter.</p>
<p>I hope you&#8217;ll all join me in showing her and those like her like that loud-mouthed do-nothing Nancy Pelosi that have squandered their political capital and our good faith by completely failing to accomplish anything that they promised and for which we voted them into office that we won&#8217;t tolerate being lied to and that we don&#8217;t give second chances.</p>
<p>When these folks come up for re-election let&#8217;s send them packing.  It&#8217;s just too bad we can&#8217;t fire them on the spot.  Politics are amazing.  There are few jobs on the planet where you can fail so spectacularly for so long and still collect your pay check every month.  It seems to me based upon the last few years that we need a new system that gives the voters a more immediate means of removing from office non-performing individuals.  Anyone have any ideas?</p>
<p>Anyway, for those that are curious, below are my choice words for Representative Harman:</p>
<blockquote><p>This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.</p>
<p>Delivery to the following recipients failed.</p>
<p>CA36IMA.PUB@mail.house.gov</p>
<p>￼<br />
From: Oliver Starr<br />
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:02:15 -0700<br />
To: &#8220;Rep. Jane Harman&#8221;<br />
Subject: Re: your message</p>
<p>Dear Representative Harman,</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your form letter in response to my original statement of<br />
concern for a number of issues that are profoundly influencing every man,<br />
woman and child in this country.</p>
<p>At this point all I can say is that every one of you should be fired.  You<br />
have failed to do your jobs, failed to protect our troops, failed to<br />
regulate wall street and failed to support the working middle class.</p>
<p>Now you are all pushing for a bail out of the richest one percent in this<br />
country simply because they made bad bets and now can&#8217;t pay what they owe.</p>
<p>How ironic that those of us that pay our taxes, pay our mortgages on time<br />
and scrape and scrimp to make ends meet and maybe have dinner out or go to<br />
the movies once in a while are being forced - not asked mind you but<br />
required to bail out a group of executives that spend more on lunch each day<br />
than some families can afford to spend on food for a week.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s amazing that as a group these executives who ran their companies into<br />
the ground are so incapable of accepting responsibility for their own<br />
actions that they would rather see their companies bankrupted and closed<br />
down then take one dime&#8217;s cut in their multi-million dollar golden parachute<br />
severance plans.  Don&#8217;t people that ruin their companies get fired for<br />
cause?  When fired for cause should a person still be eligible to collect a<br />
multi-million dollar severance?  To me that seems ridiculous.  If I screw up<br />
and mess up my company do I get a severance package?  Does the government<br />
come and bail me out?</p>
<p>Does congress hold a special session and try to figure out how to save me<br />
and my business and guarantee that if I have to walk I will do so with<br />
enough money that neither I nor my heirs will ever have to work another day<br />
in this lifetime?  Ha!  Don&#8217;t make me laugh.</p>
<p>Doesn&#8217;t it seem strange to you that the person architecting this bailout<br />
used to run one of the firms that has gone bust?  Or that his personal<br />
fortune from that firm is in excess of 700 million dollars?  Did you not<br />
think that perhaps some of the decisions that actually caused his firm to<br />
blow up were made on his watch?  And now you expect us to hand over roughly<br />
a trillion dollars - that is $2300 for every man, woman and child in this<br />
country to this same incompetent idiot who is insisting upon no oversight?</p>
<p>Why is that?  What is he so afraid of?  What will be hidden from the eyes of<br />
the world if he gets his way?  Just how stupid do you think we are? (I guess<br />
that last is a redundant question, after all, collectively we are dumber<br />
than cattle having elected Bush (twice though both victories are highly<br />
questionable), Pelosi (though I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ll be seeing her for a second<br />
term) and even you - who can&#8217;t be bothered to reply to letters even with a<br />
form letter that is up to date.  Pathetic.)</p>
<p>In any case I don&#8217;t expect that you&#8217;ll actually read this - I&#8217;m sure that<br />
you pawn this sort of stuff off to some lackey of yours, most likely a<br />
college intern that knows about as much about the real world as anyone<br />
subsidized by mommy and daddy is likely to.</p>
<p>So if I know that you won&#8217;t read this and that even if you do the only<br />
response I&#8217;ll get is another piece of crap form letter, just why am I<br />
writing this at all?  Because I intend to republish it on several blogs that<br />
get upwards of a million visitors a month.  Collectively they add up to<br />
several million unique viewers, certainly enough to have an impact on a<br />
vote.</p>
<p>So now the question you should be asking is &#8220;what can I do to make these<br />
people decide not to vote me out of office?&#8221;  Well, I&#8217;m not going to help<br />
you out with that one Ms. Harman.  After all, we hired you to do a job you<br />
promised us you were capable of doing.  So far you haven&#8217;t demonstrated the<br />
sort of competency that we require which makes you look pretty dishonest in<br />
the eyes of most of the public.</p>
<p>At any rate, if you want another term I sincerely suggest that you start<br />
showing us some of the things you promised during your campaign.  We&#8217;re<br />
tired of this war, we&#8217;re tired of our rights being trammeled and the<br />
Constitution and the Bill of Rights being shredded by the President&#8217;s<br />
poisoned pen.  We&#8217;re tired of a limp wristed majority leader that looks like<br />
the biggest liar since Nixon and we&#8217;re tired of our money being used in ways<br />
that we never approved and don&#8217;t believe is right.</p>
<p>Today if you ask the average person if they feel like their government is<br />
acting in the best interest of the people or in their own selfish well being<br />
and that of their fat cat friends I think you know what most of us would<br />
say.</p>
<p>Once a long time ago people got sick and tired of their taxes being used in<br />
ways contrary to their interests.  They called it taxation without<br />
representation.  Eventually they got so pissed off about it that they had a<br />
party and started a revolution.</p>
<p>Ask yourself this?  How much longer do you think we&#8217;re going to take this<br />
crap before we start a revolution of our own?  And who&#8217;s heads will be on<br />
the pikes first do you think?  We are tired of the duplicity and we&#8217;re sick<br />
to death of the good ol&#8217; boy war profiteering network.  We&#8217;re sick of the<br />
lobbyists and the no bid contracts and of handing out our hard earned<br />
dollars to the most selfish and least deserving.  We&#8217;re tired of a<br />
do-nothing congress that cow tows to an out of control pseudo dictator that<br />
has no respect for the people the Constitution or this country, and we&#8217;re<br />
pretty sick of photo copied responses to letters like this.</p>
<p>You have been warned.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Oliver Starr</p></blockquote>
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		<title>Matt Damon on Sarah Palin: “It’s like a really bad Disney movie”</title>
		<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~3/391197708/</link>
		<comments>http://owstarr.com/2008/09/12/matt-damon-on-sarah-palin-its-like-a-really-bad-disney-movie/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:19:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://owstarr.com/?p=244</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Matt Damon is disturbed.  He doesn&#8217;t like the latest proposed reality show title &#8220;Hockey Mom Goes to Washington&#8221; and frankly, I can&#8217;t say that I blame him.
You would think that after the past eight years  the populace of this rapidly fading world power would have grown wiser and not just older. Perhaps, after the last [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="350" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="play" value="false" /><param name="loop" value="false" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/anxkrm9uEJk" /><param name="align" value="right" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#4e2ed1" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/anxkrm9uEJk" bgcolor="#4e2ed1" align="right" loop="false" play="false"></embed></object>Matt Damon is disturbed.  He doesn&#8217;t like the latest proposed reality show title &#8220;Hockey Mom Goes to Washington&#8221; and frankly, I can&#8217;t say that I blame him.</p>
<p>You would think that after the past eight years  the populace of this rapidly fading world power would have grown wiser and not just older. Perhaps, after the last eight years of war and economic failure and federal deficits rising at unheard of rates they might have realized that when you hire a regular guy, the kind of guy you want to watch the game with or meet to go shoot some pool and have a beer - well that regular guy might not necessarily be the right guy to steer the ship of the most powerful nation on earth.</p>
<blockquote>
<h2 style="padding-left: 60px;">I need to know - does she really think that dinosaurs were here on earth 4000 years ago?</h2>
</blockquote>
<p>But it seems like the general public hasn&#8217;t learned a goddamn thing because if they did then this unexceptional, inexperienced, dishonest, backstabbing, manipulative, &#8220;hockey mom&#8221; who believes in creationism, burning books and that Alaska should secede from the United States would be about the least appealing choice for a Vice Presidential candidate at old man McCain&#8217;s side that one could possibly imagine.</p>
<blockquote>
<h2 style="padding-left: 60px;">It is likely that Sarah Palin could become President and I can just see her trying to face down Vladimir Putin using the folksy rhetoric she learned at the hockey rink&#8230; it&#8217;s absurd.</h2>
</blockquote>
<p>If the public wasn&#8217;t basically retarded the only thing that McCain&#8217;s choice of Palin as a running mate would have galvanized would have been a massive stampede away from that terrible twosome of a ticket. But that clearly hasn&#8217;t happened which can only mean that the bible thumping morons that voted for Bush still haven&#8217;t had enough pain and suffering, haven&#8217;t lost enough of their children to this ridiculous war in Iraq, haven&#8217;t lost enough of their jobs to overseas corporations that can get away with paying employees a dollar an hour, haven&#8217;t read enough about the catastrophic effects of global warming that have been all but ignored under Bush and are certain to be under the Mac-Pain ticket, haven&#8217;t had enough of the government corruption that provides no bid contracts for companies chaired by members of the administration or owned by administration members or their families directly, haven&#8217;t had enough of overpriced medications and under performing school teachers working for substandard wages.</p>
<blockquote>
<h2 style="padding-left: 60px;">I think it is important to find out if she banned - or tried to ban books.</h2>
</blockquote>
<p>Because if the general public had even a luke-warm IQ they run screaming from any ticket with this duo on it. But no.  Instead - based upon the comments the people of ths country don&#8217;t mind the same corrupt and ideological thinking running things for another 4 years.</p>
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		<title>How to Survive a Nuclear Attack</title>
		<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~3/389564245/</link>
		<comments>http://owstarr.com/2008/09/11/how-to-survive-a-nuclear-attack/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:05:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Oliver</dc:creator>
		
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://owstarr.com/?p=226</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[TED Talks are among the most incredible, valuable and interesting resource I&#8217;ve yet to find online.  With visionaries from all walks of life sharing their knowledge of physics, engineering, religion, music and more they never fail to inform, inspire, expand our worldview, and sometimes, as in the case of the talk I&#8217;m about to share [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://owstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/mushroom-cloud.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-227" title="mushroom-cloud" src="http://owstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/mushroom-cloud-300x239.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="239" /></a>TED Talks are among the most incredible, valuable and interesting resource I&#8217;ve yet to find online.  With visionaries from all walks of life sharing their knowledge of physics, engineering, religion, music and more they never fail to inform, inspire, expand our worldview, and sometimes, as in the case of the talk I&#8217;m about to share with you, scare the hell out of us.</p>
<p>In the talk you can see below Irwin Redlener educates us about the evolution of the nuclear threat from the days when only the US had &#8220;the bomb&#8221; through present when there are at least nine countries with nuclear capability and when as much as half of the former Soviet Union&#8217;s terrifying arsenal is either insecurely stored or has actually gone missing.</p>
<p>From the days of &#8220;duck and cover&#8221; and &#8220;mutually assured destruction&#8221; to the present day threat of a single detonation of a low yield &#8220;suitcase bomb&#8221; or even a conventional explosive impregnated with depleted uranium, Redlener explains the survivability of a nuclear event (an all out nuclear war, Irwin says, is not survivable) and what to do to improve your odds as much as possible.</p>
<p>I rate this video a &#8220;must see&#8221;, but if you don&#8217;t have the 25 minutes to spare or you can&#8217;t handle some of the rawer truths of this material here are the bullets:</p>
<ul>
<li>Nuclear War is not survivable, a single Nuclear Attack is</li>
<li>If you are in the vicinity of a nuclear attack do not look towards the blast - if you do you will be blinded either temporarily or permanently</li>
<li>Keep your mouth open to avoid having your eardrums blown out by the pressure of the blast</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">If you are within the immediate vicinity to within half a mile of the blast, your chances are essentially nil, the temperature at the blast site is tens of millions of degrees Fahrenheit.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">If you are from one half to two miles from the epicenter your odds improve to about a 50% chance of surviving the initial blast</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">From two to eight miles from the explosion your odds improve to about a 90% chance of survival</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Within the first 15 to 20 minutes after a blast it is critical to get further away from the epicenter.  traveling just 1.2 miles further from the blast in a perpendicular direction from the blast generated wind can have a profound impact upon your survival and your long term health due to fallout exposure.  This is because the fallout from the mushroom cloud is going to come straight back down on the site of the blast.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">If you cannot get away from the epicenter it is critical that you get sheltered.  Best is underground (an old school fallout shelter, a deep basement, or anyplace where earth and concrete separate you from the environment.  An alternative is to be above the ninth story above ground (for a ground level detonation)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Once you find shelter, whether inside or outside the radius of the initial fallout, stay there for at least 72 hours or until you are told by remaining authorities (assuming any exist) that it is okay to venture out.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">As soon as it is possible, remove any clothing that you might have had on during or immediately following the blast and shower to remove residual fallout from your hair and skin.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cover as much of your self as possible with clean clothing and bag and bury the clothing you had on during the blast.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Survivability is largely determined by your willingness to leave the area and stay out of harms way.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The only way to guarantee survival is to abolish nuclear weapons completely</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCPH4p-Zp1Q"></a><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="350" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="play" value="false" /><param name="loop" value="false" /><param name="salign" value="bl" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gCPH4p-Zp1Q" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#4b1be3" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gCPH4p-Zp1Q" bgcolor="#4b1be3" salign="bl" loop="false" play="false"></embed></object></p>
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		<title>Lance Armstrong’s Second Comeback: stuff of legends or death of one?</title>
		<link>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/starr/~3/389050433/</link>
		<comments>http://owstarr.com/2008/09/10/lance-armstrongs-second-comeback-stuff-of-legends-or-death-of-one/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:03:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Oliver</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[Well, it appears it is official, Lance Armstrong, the uncontested best Tour de France rider ever with 7 tour victories has announced his intention to return to the sport with the goal of competing in the 2009 Tour de France.
According to Armstrong spokesman, Mark Higgins, Lance isn&#8217;t racing to &#8220;win second&#8221;.    I know Lance and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://owstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/42228040.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-224" title="42228040" src="http://owstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/42228040-300x168.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="168" /></a>Well, it appears it is official, Lance Armstrong, the uncontested best Tour de France rider ever with 7 tour victories has announced his intention to return to the sport with the goal of competing in the 2009 Tour de France.</p>
<p>According to Armstrong spokesman, Mark Higgins, Lance isn&#8217;t racing to &#8220;win second&#8221;.    I know Lance and I don&#8217;t think he would race for second.  Lance hates losing more than any person I have ever known.  And as someone that has spent the better part of my life in very competitive environments from the pressure cooker of the Olympic Training Center for four years to the world of venture capital funded high-tech start-ups I have been around some of the toughest competitors you can imagine.</p>
<p>Some pundits are already suggesting that Lance can&#8217;t win and that it is possible that he won&#8217;t even be the protected leader of his likely team, Astana - I suggest that these pundits need to brush up on their Lance history.  He won the tour just a year after nearly dying of cancer.  Hardly the sort of preparation that one would call ideal for optimal performance.</p>
<p>They say that 37 is an impossible age at which to win the tour citing the statistic that the oldest winner in tour history was 34 and he won the race before the second world war.  They forget that Joop Zoetemelk, a Dutch rider, finished 2nd in the tour during his 38th year and that in this same year Joop also won the Amstel Gold Race and the World Professional Road Championships - not too bad for a guy that would have been eligible to race in the &#8220;Master&#8217;s&#8221; category here in the states!</p>
<p>Frankly I don&#8217;t think that Lance would make this decision in a cavalier fashion.  Most likely he did so in consultation with his coach, Chris Carmichael and maybe his doctors (whomever they are at this time).  My guess would be that it wasn&#8217;t just talking either that yielded the decision.  Lance probably did some pretty heavy duty physiological testing and found that his own biological capabilities are still better than any other current cyclist.</p>
<p>I can&#8217;t imagine that Lance would put his record on the block so casually.  After all, the athlete that retires at the top of his game (and stays out of the sport from then on) is vanishingly rare.  I&#8217;m sure there are many folks like me out there who hope that if Lance is going to be in the TDF starthouse in July of 09 that he has every reason to expect to do what he has done in every one of his last  tours; dominate from start to finish.</p>
<p>In many respects the tour may well be easier than in prior years.  Depending upon the riders still serving out suspensions for doping violations Lance may face a field as compromised as the one that we watched in the most recent edition, a race I&#8217;d characterize as a shadow of the races Lance had won in years past.  In fact I could hardly reconcile this past year&#8217;s tour with a professional event at all.  The caliber of the top riders has been so reduced due to the doping penalties doled out seemingly en mass.</p>
<p>At least I hope that Lance has been so careful in his decision-making.  Nothing is sadder than to watch a great champion come back to the sport that made him famous and see the same individual humbled by age, by younger athletes, and by the human weakness of wanting just once more to stand in the limelight of that white shining moment and know what it feels like to be number one at something just one last time.</p>
<p>Good Luck, Lance, and God Speed.  If you&#8217;re going to go for it please let us see the Lance we remember and not one we wish we could forget.</p>
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