Vladamir "The Man" Putin

"Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union
has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored
has no brains." (Putin, 2007)

It's August and time for old Vlad to show some skin and/or partake in some adventurous Russian shit. Okay, we know he's former KGB, which means he must've tortured and killed a lot of people, but you know, Vladamir Putin is The Man. Holy Cow! This guy is fucking amazing and can do ANYTHING. Here are just a few pics of him doing his thing.

Here he is as Wildlife Biologist tagging Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Swimming the Butterfly Stroke in a cold Russian river. Bracing! Is like spring day in Minsk.



Ah, the softer side. Here he is indulging his inner Da Vinci.



But do not fuck with him! Black belt in Judo! Plus, the whole KGB thing we mentioned earlier.





Just another day in the field, duck hunting. Unlike Dick Cheney, we bet Vlad never shot his load into another mans face.



Deep Sea diving anyone? Who knew he was the Russian equiv. of Bob Ballard?



Or could fly his own fucking chopper?



His other chopper. Do they have Hell's Angels in Russia?



He's great with all animals, but loves his horsey.



He loves his doggy, Koni, too.



He's a top-notch skier. In fact, he's the Jean-Claude Killy of The Motherland. Here he is ready to tackle the Urals.



Oh, and he used to RUN AN ENTIRE COUNTRY.



Not even close to last or least but never forget, he's a Ladies Man.

It's a shame we feel more more "awe" (sarcasm) for this guy than our own Pres, but hey, that's the way the Borsch rolls.

Animals Rule

Bawang, a female gorilla, got to play a Nintendo game the other day when a visitor to the San Francisco Zoo accidentally dropped it in to the enclosure. To everyones delight Bawang picked up the contraption and was fascinated by the screen display.

Her equally gorgeous adopted son, Hansai, waits to play his turn but Mommy isn't having it.

No word on whether or not zoo keepers let her keep the game. We hope they did. These intelligent creatures need stimulation and what better than an handheld video game. She'll probably get a better score than the stupid kid who dropped it!

Get Your Choppers Ready!

It's the 70th anniversary of the Sturgis Bike Rally!

Organizers expect record breaking numbers, over 750,000 bikers, for this years big 7-0 celebration.

Entertainment includes Ozzy Osborne, ZZ Top, Kid Rock and ..... Pew-Wee Herman performing the world's largest "Tequila Dance."

The event runs 8/9 through 8/15.

Sturgis.com

"Little Boy"

The crew of the Enola Gay in their "manly" shorts

65 years ago today, after refusing the terms of surrender laid out to them by Allied forces, the United States of America dropped the atomic bomb known as "Little Boy" on the defenseless Japanese city of Hiroshima. It was followed 3 days later by another atomic bomb called "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki.

Lest we forget:

Did you ever see ten thousand dead bodies in one shot?
Well, this is it.

Then

Now. This bombed out building is all that remains of that day
and it stands as a Memorial to all that were lost.

Has Lance Armstrong Been Lying All These Years?

"Say I doped again...Go ahead. I double dog dare you!"

The witch hunt known as the Federal USDA probe into Lance Armstrong doping accusations is Living Strong. Not only will it not go away, it's going ahead full steam.

Armstrong's attorney's accuse the USDA of offering a "sweetheart deal" to any and all cyclists who will testify that Lance is a doper.

So far, there have been bites! Rumor has it that at least one person has come forth and spilled his guts. He alleges that not only did Lance take illegal performance enhancing drugs, but that he encouraged the entire Postal Team to dope as well and that the funds raised from selling racing bikes went solely into this "doping regimen" program.

Hearsay and rumor so far, but how long or how in general is Lance going to defend himself?

Well, to start he has about 15 years worth of doping tests that ALL - EVERY SINGLE ONE - CAME BACK CLEAN AS A WHISTLE. Negative for testosterone, EPO, HGH..., you name the initials and the tests can PROVE that Lance had a clean system.

So? Well, disgraced and pariah cyclist Floyd Landis alleges that the athletes literally inject themselves with clean blood moments before doping agents take their sample.

Really? Ewww...

If that is true, then cycling has more to worry about than doping.

Matthew Shepard - We Remember

Today's overturn of the horrendous Prop 8 that banned same sex marriages reminds us once again of Matthew Shepard. Elton John said once that he kept a picture of Matthew to remind himself every day that for the grace of God goes thee. Elton knew that if he had been a gay man in Wyoming that year, he too might also be dead.

Matthew died as a result of vicious anti-gay hate mongering. He was brutally beaten and left for dead in a Wyoming field tied to a fence post. This was a modern day lynching.

Matthew's legacy is one of hope. We hope that one day, young men like Matthew aren't beaten, tortured and killed for just being what they are.

We encountered this in our youth in high school and just couldn't imagine where the hatred, so thick you could cut it with a knife, was coming from. We told our male homophobic "friends" at the time this bit of wisdom we thought up on the spot: "You should go to bed every night and pray to God that he turns most men gay so that you'd have a shot at getting some women to actually have sex with you."

The look we got was priceless and we never heard another word again.

If you are a religious person who feels that being gay isn't just evil, but the perfect way to lose your soul to Satan, good for you. But keep it to yourself, your web blog, your little world. Do not go forth and try to purposefully ruin other people's lives because you don't believe in it.

We are vegetarian. We learned A LONG TIME AGO, that you can't tell people to go vegetarian. It's a personal choice that people have to make for themselves. Well, a gay person doesn't have a choice. God made them that way. And we don't think He makes mistakes.

Matthew Shepard.org

VICTORY!!! PROP 8 OVERTURNED!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!!

And kudos to Judge Walker, a judge who finally used common sense: "The evidence shows conclusively that moral and religious views form the only basis for a belief that same-sex couples are different from opposite-sex couples." He continued by saying that the freedom to marry "is recognized as a fundamental right protected by the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution."

"Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriage on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional," Walker, in San Francisco, said in his ruling. "

That's right. Love is love, discrimination is discrimination and discrimination is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

It's hard for us to understand how a country founded on religious freedom could discriminate so harshly against people who only want to be married. Gay people ARE NOT SECOND CLASS CITIZENS.

Drop the M word and call it a Union then, but just let the people themselves decide who they want to be with for the rest of their lives.

As Michelle Rodriguez said, and yes, we are quoting Michelle Rodriguez, this is "one step for democracy, one giant leap towards humanity.”

The "Mosque" at "Ground Zero"

Something about this entire debate makes our blood boil. We just don't have any patience for it. We have been getting email after email from irate people who want to bitch about this "mosque" and get everyone all riled up again about 9/11 and how hurt we were.

We know this. Just thinking of that day, makes us want to cry, because it was so devastating in every way, but you know what?

Boo-Hoo! We're sick of the lies.

9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB. OSAMA BIN LADEN IS IN A CAVE SOMEWHERE OR DEAD. 9/11 WAS THE CATALYST TO JUMP START 2 WARS AND MAKE A FEW CORPORATIONS AND A FEW PEOPLE VERY VERY RICH - HELLLLOOO HALLIBURTON! Hi Dick Cheney!

The so-called "mosque" is a building. It's not an Islamic attack force moving in to plot to kill and destroy all Americans!

As far as we know almost every hospital in the country has a prayer interdenominational chapel. Does that mean that hospitals are churches? That's the perfect analogy for every time people refer to this building as a "mosque." It's a building with a prayer room in it, which does not a mosque make.

Where is it exactly? On Ground Zero? At Ground Zero? Near Ground Zero? NO. It's 2 blocks away and can't even be seen from Ground Zero.

This argument is fucking ridiculous. There are so many things wrong with this country right now and all people can think to do is protest a fucking building in New York City. A building, by the way, which would put Americans to work building it and then staffing it.

This country was founded on religious tolerance and we swear we can't find any tolerance anywhere. So a bunch of Islamic terrorists bombed us and "tried to make us pay" for our draconian foreign policies. SO WHAT??!! Do you have ANY IDEA AT ALL how many bombs we drop on foreign soil a year? Do you have any idea how many children are killed by us, The good 'ole USA, annually? Get off your high horse, your pedestal and wake the fuck up. What are you going to do - hate Islam forever? All 600 million of them because 12 of them killed 3,000 almost 10years ago?

News flash - we kill over 3,000 Iraqi civilians - men, women and children - A MONTH. EVERY 30 goddamn days like clockwork.

We don't really want to make light of what happened on 9/11 but we have to. New York is the freedom capital of the world. Anything goes in NY. So if NY votes to tear down a building to put up a $200 million new building, owned by Islams, that sounds like NY's problem. Not America's.

Grow up. Get a life. Join a fucking tea party or something but shut the hell up about this building in NYC already. We have no tolerance for your intolerance or ignorance.

Standing at Ground Zero all you would see is the Roman Catholic Church across the street. Go figure!

Mayor Bloomberg's Article at HuffPost today...

Better yet check out Russell Simmons'
piece. It's poetic in it's eloquence.

We Love Weiner!

Congressman Anthony "Bad-Ass" Weiner for President!

This fucking guy is screaming for MEDICAL CARE FOR 9/11 EMERGENCY RESPONDERS.

Remember the first hours and days of 9/11? Remember when they said "Everyone is a New Yorker now" and remember how people came from far and wide to clean up the debris? Well, WEREN'T THEY SUCKERS! The government won't pay for your hacking respiratory illness that you have from World Trade Tower Dust. You're screwed!

And that's why Weiner is speaking up. Those soft and fuzzy, don't you just love 'em Republicans, in their undying passion for conservatism don't want to pay for medical care for "the idiots" that showed up to NY to help. It's too hopey, changey and too unamerican to pay for someone else's bills.

Happy Birthday, Graham!

Our favorite author and iconoclast, Graham Hancock, turns 60 today.

His books are a remarkable, awesome and life-changing look at archeology and it's current restraints. In the majority of his books, Hancock sets out to change the norm which is the pathetic paradigm that our society as we know it is the apex of civilization as it ever was on the planet.

His latest work, Supernatural, is his best yet. This book deviates from the archaeological "norm" of his prior works and explores the Shamanic Legacies around the globe, their common elements and connections with the other worlds "within". This book is the "Gateway Drug" that can open your mind to serious new potential. We had never heard of DMT before and now we want to know everything.

1992: The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant
1995: Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization
1996: The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind. Published in the United Kingdom as Keeper of Genesis: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind
1998: The Mars Mystery: A Tale of the End of Two Worlds
1998: Heaven's Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization
2001: Fingerprints of the Gods: The Quest Continues (New Updated Edition
2002: Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization
2004: Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith
2005: Supernatural: Meeting with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind

Hancock's basic theory is that we are "a civilization, a species with amnesia". Here is a quote from Fingerprints of the Gods:

"..., there is a common legacy of all these world wide ancient civilizations that they do not even address. This legacy lies not in the 'modern' myth of Atlantis, but in the myths and legends of each of these civilizations which make common reference to cataclysms, especially floods, similar gods or god experiences, and precessional and other astronomically significant numbers, etc, etc. The writing, architecture, and agriculture of these ancients are by products of their development which had its roots in a lost civilization of 12,000 years ago."


Graham Hanock.com

What's Up Doc?

Happy 70th Birthday Bugs Bunny!

Bugs made his debut in the animated short film "A Wild Hare" on July 27, 1940. It's in that film that he first pops out of his rabbit hole and asks Elmer Fudd "Eh, what's up, Doc?"

Tour Update: The Final Results

Andy Schleck #2 - Alberto Contador #1 - Dennis Menchov #3

TOUR de FRANCE 2010 Roll of Honor
Results after stage 20

YELLOW JERSEY (Overall Winner and Cheating Bastard)
Alberto CONTADOR; ASTANA 91h 58' 48"

GREEN JERSEY (Most Points)
Alessandro PETACCHI; LAMPRE - FARNESE 243 pts

POLKA DOT (Best Climber)
Anthony CHARTEAU; BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM 143 pts

WHITE JERSEY (Best Young Rider)
Andy Schleck; TEAM SAXO BANK 91h 59' 27"

SUPER COMBATIVITY:
Sylvain CHAVANEL; Quick Step

BEST TEAM:
TEAM RADIOSHACK 276h 02' 03"

TOP TWENTY OVERALL STANDINGS

1. CONTADOR Alberto 1 ASTANA 91h 58' 48"
2. SCHLECK Andy 11 TEAM SAXO BANK + 00' 39"
3. MENCHOV Denis 191 RABOBANK + 02' 01"
4. SANCHEZ Samuel 181 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 03' 40"
5. VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen 101 OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO + 06' 54"
6. GESINK Robert 195 RABOBANK + 09' 31"
7. HESJEDAL Ryder 54 GARMIN - TRANSITIONS + 10' 15"
8. RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin 77 KATUSHA TEAM + 11' 37"
9. KREUZIGER Roman 44 LIQUIGAS-DOIMO + 11' 54"
10. HORNER Christopher 23 TEAM RADIOSHACK + 12' 02"
11. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon 161 CAISSE D’EPARGNE + 14' 21"
12. PLAZA MOLINA Ruben 168 CAISSE D’EPARGNE + 14' 29"
13. LEIPHEIMER Levi 25 TEAM RADIOSHACK + 14' 40"
14. KLÖDEN Andréas 24 TEAM RADIOSHACK + 16' 36"
15. ROCHE Nicolas 81 AG2R LA MONDIALE + 16' 59"
16. VINOKOUROV Alexandre 9 ASTANA + 17' 46"
17. LÖVKVIST Thomas 37 SKY PRO CYCLING + 20' 46"
18. DE WEERT Kevin 133 QUICK STEP + 21' 54"
19. GADRET John 85 AG2R LA MONDIALE + 24' 04"
20. SASTRE Carlos 91 CERVELO TEST TEAM + 26' 37"

Big Thor Hushovd lost the Green Jersey in the last mountain stage. What a bummer for the giant Norwegian.

Andy Shleck was robbed by the cheater Alberto Contador but still wins Best Young Rider. He is the second person in history to win the Young Rider White Jersey three years in a row - the first was Greg LaMond.

The Schleck brothers - Andy and Frank
And it looks like Frank couldn't be prouder of his little bro

Lance Armstrong does not leave unrewarded. Cheers to Team Radioshack for having an intact team with the best time at the end. They were one of only 6 teams to remain intact and American Chris Horner cracked the Top Ten.

Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwen

Note to Phil Liggett. DO NOT RETIRE. You threaten us every year and if you're not back next year, we're going to find you in Paul Sherwen's African Gold mine and make you call the Col du Tourmalet one final time!

Claire Pedrono the first woman ever to be "L’Ardoisière" -
aka The Chalk Update Guy

Contador Wins the Tour...Again

Alberto Contador's 3rd Tour Win in 4 years

It's the Summer of Spanish Sport.

Spain wins the World Cup, Rafael Nadal wins Wimbledon, Alberto Contador wins The 2010Tour De France.

Come on World! We can beat these guys!

Tour Update: "I Can't See Sheep!

This Tour has been amazing. Today's you can't believe it until you've seen it event is something that hasn't happened since the turn of the century before last...a herd of sheep and goats overtook the peloton today causing another potentially serious situation for the peloton riders.

The weather today has been rainy, foggy and just awful. A fog bank at the top of Col du Soulor obscured the animals from the peoloton and vice versa until the last minute when the two had a chance encounter.

Today's conditions were brutal and dangerous as it was and then when the sheep came over the hill...it became almost comical.

From then on it was Andy and Alberto making the long, sharp, steeper-than-hell climb up the Col Du Tourmalet. All alone, just the two of them together, they battled the elements, the mountain, the schemenges and the pain.

At the last second Alberto backed off and Andy took the win. Leading by less than 1 minute it looks as if Alberto Contador may win again. Schleck NEEDS to win the Time Trial to make up the lost time.

If Contador wins, it'll be tainted as far as we are concerned. It won't be a true victory.

Andy Scheck celebrates his Stage win...

It's Good to be The King

Rafa, if you can't tell, is the one on the middle of all the girls

How's is your summer going? We'll bet it's not half as good as Rafael Nadal's life summer. When Rafa isn't hanging with his supermodel girlfriend(s), he's surrounded by women 24/7.

Who are we kidding? Even when his girlfriends are with him, he still gets swarmed by women of all kinds.

Being a tennis super-star sure has its perks.

Stonehenge Discovery

Sunrise at Stonehenge - June 21, 2010

Archaeologists hailing from England, Austria, Germany, Norway and Sweden have made a huge discovery at Stonehenge. Apparently, they have unearthed a second circular "henge" that was once a wooden structure. Perhaps the precursor of the stone circle we see today.

No word on why so many countries are involved with the archaeological dig over at Stonehenge. It's like the United Nations.

News Link

Tour Update: Fight Footage

From Sports Illustrated:
During the sixth stage, Barredo got into a rough-and-tumble brawl with Rui Costa of Portugal after the finish line, with Barredo attempting to hit the Caisse d'Epargne rider over the head with a bicycle wheel.

Costa tried to punch Barredo in the face several times before both fell to the ground screaming at each another in an incident that was caught on video and posted on the Internet. Tour organizers fined both.

He tried to hit him with his wheel! That is hysterical!

Barredo is the rider who led most of the solo bid on yesterdays breakaway. He was caught in literally the last 1/2 mile by the sprint. Lance didn't have his sprint legs and lost an awesome stage.

It's been an GREAT Tour and the final run for the 2010 Col Du Tourmalet is tomorrow!

The Big Ride To Paris is Sunday!

UPDATE: Holy Moly - what is going on over there? Now reports are surfacing of another internal team fight. Read this from CBS news.com:

Nicolas Roche, leader of AG2R La Mondiale, blasted French teammate John Gadret."If John Gadret is found dead in his hotel room in the morning, I will probably be the primary suspect," Roche said.

Roche, son of Ireland's 1987 Tour champion Stephen Roche, punctured a wheel on the climb of Port de Bales on Monday. He asked Gadret to give him a wheel but Gadret refused and cycled away. Roche had to wait for a wheel from a service car and lost time on his rivals, dropping three places overall.

"As he sat beside me on the team bus I had great difficulty in not putting his head through the nearest window," Roche added.

Roche was more conciliatory later, but said the relationship with his teammate was still frail. "I am not going to go for a pint with him yet," he told Cycling Weekly.

He wanted to put his head through the window! We can't stop laughing.

Whoever thought cycling was boring and for pussies was DEAD WRONG. There are two truths to cycling: Pain and Revenge. We're seeing both not only daily but many times a day this Tour. Wow.

Tour Update: Lance Had A Chance

Here's Lance today, trying to win the stage. It would've been glorious!

Wow! What a ride! Lance Armstrong, determined to win at least one stage and famous for his command of the mountains, took off like a motherfucker on fire today with a breakaway group of 10 riders. He tried like hell and fell to Pierrick Fedrigo at the last minute unable to keep up the sprint to the finish.

It would have been Lance's 750th Stage win (not really, but seemingly close) and a great way for him to say goodbye to the Pyrenees and Col Du Tourmalet, the legendary highest mountain on the tour.

Lance has one more chance to conquer the Tourmalet on Thursday when the days stage will end at the very summit.

Regarding yesterday's epic drama, Contador said: "Maybe I made a mistake. I'm sorry. I don't like things like what happened today, I'm not like that and I hope the relationship that I have with Andy can go back to being as good as it was before this happened."

Yeah, that and you're scared to death of the Schleck brothers coming to kick your ass!

Tour Update: Alberto Vs. Andy

Alberto getting harassed by a schmenge
moments before dissing Schleck

Today on The Tour Alberto Contador left a cycle-stricken Andy Schleck in the dust causing a Disturbance in the Force, an International Incident and creating a Faux Pas of Epic Proportions.

Andy Schleck, current leader of the Tour with the yellow jersey, had his chain pop out today and while he waited hopelessly and endlessly for his team car, Alberto rode on by and went on the attack.

Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, Alberto - that's no way to be a Gentleman on The Tour. Unspoken laws of The Tour state that attacking a disabled rider is verboten. A set of unspoken laws that should have been shouted into Contador's ear.

"Schleck, who was leading Astana rider Contador by 31 seconds in the overall standings going into stage 15, dropped his chain while launching an attack on the day's final climb and had to stop to repair the problem. Rather than waiting for his rival - in keeping with the Tour's sporting traditions - Contador and a group including fellow contenders Denis Menchov and Samuel Sanchez surged clear and stole a march to the finish."

Needless to say, Schleck is pissed off!

Luxembourg's Schleck, the runner-up to two-time champion Contador last year, was angered by what he saw as a lack of "fair play" and vowed to take "revenge" on his rival.

"In the same situation I would not have taken advantage," Schleck said, AFP reported. "I'm not the jury, but for sure those guys wouldn't get the fair play award from me today.

"I'm really disappointed. My stomach is full of anger, and I want to take my revenge. I will take my revenge in the coming days."

Contador was booed off the podium by irate Tour fans. Afterward, Contador said this:"When I knew he had the problem, it was already too late. We had taken a significant lead on him."

Yeah, right!

The good news today? The Stage was won by "Little" Thomas Voeckler. WTG!

Tour Update: Schmenges, Schmenges Everywhere

High Schmenge Alert!

The over 170 riders still in the Tour are about to hit four critical days in the Pyrenees. These stages will make or break many riders.

Today's stage was a climb so steep it's uncategorized by officials and was won by Frenchman Christoph Riblon.

The Col du Tourmalet is this week!