Here's to more pleasantly uneventful entertainment

   I'm just getting caught up with things after my trip and realized I had scheduled it for the final week of the Tour de France and the British Open golf championship.  Those are two events I always follow and this year I didn't even miss missing them.  I heard Ernie Els won the Open, he's a great guy and it's good to see him back in the winner's circle after years of injuries. Bradley Wiggens did what was expected of him and that happened.
    I have been casually watching the Olympics and am also pleased.  I have no idea what the medal count has been.  I've enjoyed watching water polo as much as anything (I got to play that once for about 10 minutes and thought it awesome), but the impressive thing is the lack of drug scandals, so far.  We have one suspiscious sample from Frank Schleck in the TDF and only 3 minor athletes in the Games.  Kudos to the enforcement agencies.  Enough has been done to make us begin to think we are watching people rather than lab experiments.  If only the emphasis can continue.
   There is still the Lance Armstrong controversy which promises to waste our time and money for years.  I have news for the USADA;  the race (or races) is over.  The rules and tests were administered by the responsible agency for this competition (in another country I might add) some failed some succeeded and a winner was named.  If there remains suspicion of impropriety, shouldn't the investigation be focused on the agency whose procedures and security were compromised?  Focusing on one competitor of the hundreds accomplishes nothing to help the quality of entertainment in the future.
     Oh yeah, these are entertainers.  Let's not forget that.  I was thinking the same thing when I witnessed the Senate hearings about doping in baseball.  Don't the officials of our government have anything better to do with our money than hold exhaustive probes into the possible misbehavior of entertainers?   Should we take away the gold records from The Beatles because they admitted using LSD?  They openly defied the laws of every country in the world.  Let's face it, in the great scheme of things, Barry Bonds', Mark McGuire's and Lance Armstrong's records have less cultural significance than Dean Martin's standup routines.  Go after Deano for being a misogynistic drunk, it makes just as much sense.
     One thing to look forward to is this agency, funded by our tax dollars, trying to take on the court system.  They seem to be fine when they have a bunch of sub missives cowering to their "authority."  Now Lance has sued for violation of due process.  They have one attorney, he has many.  They have an annual budget of 15 million, one can only guess at Armstrong's financial value.  It's conceivable he could bankrupt the agency investigating him.
       I just wish they would do something practical with the money they have taken from me.