The French. Dumb?

Tour de France
So Floyd Landis was busted for doping. Well that's perfect. No really, it's a perfect story. I'm not making any opinion on whether or not he's actually guilty, but let's run down the narrative:

The Tour de France is the biggest cycling race in the world. Cycling, a sport America couldn't give two hooping funts about, but France takes almost as seriously as soccer. So for seven years the race is dominated by an American, the almighty Lance. He doesn't race in any other races in Europe, just the biggest one, and he dominates it for a record seven straight years. Finally, Lance retires. France, and probably Europe as a collective, breathe a sigh of relief, believing they have their race back. Then another American comes in and wins, Floyd Landis. Mon dieu! Let's keep in mind that when Lance Armstrong was dominating, the French brought ludicrous doping allegations against him. Is it any surprise that Landis is being attacked in the same way? Maybe they wised up and found a way to tamper with the samples. Maybe Landis was a doper and they were just waiting like vultures to swoop in. Even waiting until after he won to bring up the doping allegations. All I'm saying is that something smells VERY bad over in France. And for once it's not the lack of hygiene.

Politicians and Signage
On the drive in to work this morning, there was a group of about eight people standing on the corner of a busy intersection holding signs to vote for so-and-so. Some of these were children of no more than ten. This struck me as being another thing that's wrong with campaigning. If you can look past the fact that people essentially buy candidates (and in turn whatever office they get elected to), and you can look past the fact that you need millions of dollars in advertising to be taken seriously as a candidate, and you can look past the fact that posting signs every twenty feet for a half mile on a highway does more for being elected than any stance on any issue you take, then how can you look past the fact that children are brought into the stumping process?

I'm of the opinion that anyone who uses a child to pull out votes is automatically someone I'm voting against. (Unless the child is especially bright and can actually give me good reasons to vote for their candidate.) It's like trusting someone without a driver's license to help you buy a new car. And as I'm sitting at this intersection watching these kids wave their signs at every car that goes by, I think to myself, "Well, maybe that's the candidate right there, and these are his kids." But I still have to be appalled. "Vote for my dad, because he's my dad." That doesn't fly. Every candidate is likely to be somebody's dad. I bite my thumb at the whole thing.

School Year Starting
I'm torn. My wife's school started the year today. August 7th. That's almost a month earlier than what it was when I was in elementary school. On the one hand, we're working our kids too hard. They get only two months of summer break? I don't have any numbers, but I'm sure kids are in school more days than they used to be. On the other hand, August sucks. It really does. I remember my summer breaks, and I was always ready to be done with it by mid-August. Maybe we're doing these kids a favor.

Link!
Paul Lukas writes a regular column for ESPN's Page 2 called UniWatch. It's a meticulous critique of any and all sports uniforms. You wouldn't believe how detailed it gets. Well, he's got a blog. I'm addicted.