Lance Armstrong challenges Jan Ullrich in the 2001 Tour de France

Yep, Lance was a doper. Which I could actually forgive (even though the seeking-Oprah’s-benediction thing is totally transparent), because the fact is the whole sport does it.

But Armstrong went out of his way to smear and try to destroy people who told the truth about him, and even won several large court judgments that we now know were obtained through fraud.

Some of those people are now suing him to get those judgments back. Floyd Landis has filed a federal whistle-blower suit against Armstrong for defrauding the US Post Office. His life has become … complex.

He’ll still come out of this with a lot of money, but nobody will ever forget the things he did to try to protect his kingdom of lies.

It’s also still a fact that he was an amazing cyclist, drugs or not. In a sport where — let’s face it — all the top athletes were doing everything they could to get a slight edge, Lance had much, much more than an edge.

On his best days, he dominated the field in a way very few cyclists ever have; the epic battles with Marco Pantani and Jan Ullrich, the time trials where he absolutely blew away the competition, the insane climbs in the Alps when he would get up on the pedals and dance, and just rocket away from the lead group like a cycling god.

But athletic talent and human decency don’t always correlate, and Lance Armstrong may be the prime example.

I can’t help wondering, though, if Sheryl Crow knew he was hitting the EPO.

What might America look like if the Republican Party’s anti-science agenda were enshrined into law?

For an answer, let’s look at Turkey, where religious fundamentalists in the government recently took a very dangerous, tragically misguided step, a step that many in the Republican Party would like to take in the US: Turkey’s Science State Council Halts Publication of Evolution Books.

The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) has put a stop to the publication and sale of all books in its archives that support the theory of evolution, daily Radikal has reported.

The evolutionist books, previously available through TÜBİTAK’s Popular Science Publications’ List, will no longer be provided by the council.

The books have long been listed as “out of stock” on TÜBİTAK’s website, but their further publication are now slated to be stopped permanently.

Books by Richard Dawkins, Alan Moorehead, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Levontin [sic] and James Watson are all included in the list of books that will no longer be available to the Turkish readers.

Related:
Audio: The Discovery Institute Collaborates With Turkish Creationists
American Creationists Collaborate With Turkish Islamists

Matt Barber of the anti-gay Liberty Counsel may hate gay people with every fiber of his being, but he does love him some guns, and if’n you try to take his away, Civil War’s a-Brewin’.

I love guns. Grew up with ‘em. As a former police officer with 12 years in the U.S. military, I know how to use them, too - use them well. I plan to buy more - a bunch more. In fact, who’s to say I don’t already have a veritable arsenal?

Point is, tain’t Big Brother Barack’s nor any other candy-keistered-liberal-cream-puff’s bloody business whether I do or not.

See, the left’s totalitarian brand of “gun control” has nothing to do with controlling guns - or bad guys. Rather, it has everything to do with controlling - disarming - the law-abiding masses. It’s not about protecting the innocents. It’s about rendering the innocents defenseless.

[rant…rant…rant…]

No, you won’t disarm me. You’re not going to neuter my household and tear away my ability to defend my wife and precious babies like Dad did all those years ago.

I really, really hope this president and his authoritarian cohorts in Congress will slow down, take a deep breath and realize that, right now, they’re playing a very dangerous game of chicken. If they try what I think they might, but hope they don’t, I fear this nation - already on the precipice of widespread civil unrest and economic disaster - might finally spiral into to utter chaos, into a second civil war.

But then again, that may be exactly what they have in mind.

The Republican Party continues its scorched earth war against the President, and prepares to punish the American people for re-electing him by defaulting on America’s credit and shutting down the federal government: Behind the Curtain: House GOP Eyes Default, Shutdown.

These people are obsessed with destroying the President, and if that means they have to destroy the country to do it, no problem.

House Republicans are seriously entertaining dramatic steps, including default or shutting down the government, to force President Barack Obama to finally cut spending by the end of March.

The idea of allowing the country to default by refusing to increase the debt limit is getting more widespread and serious traction among House Republicans than people realize, though GOP leaders think shutting down the government is the much more likely outcome of the spending fights this winter.

“I think it is possible that we would shut down the government to make sure President Obama understands that we’re serious,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state told us. “We always talk about whether or not we’re going to kick the can down the road. I think the mood is that we’ve come to the end of the road.”

Notice that Politico’s article says the GOP is on this crazy path “to force President Barack Obama to finally cut spending.” This is utter nonsense; with the Budget Control Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, President Obama has already reduced the deficit by more than $2 trillion dollars.

I can hardly believe we’re at this point again, but it’s a great measure of how completely out of touch the Republican Party is with reality.