The Conservative Bulwark

Two cases have popped up in the last week or so that astound me to no end. The first one is a very well known incident...primarily because it involves the Olympic Hero of 2008, Michael Phelps.

The fact that the guy did the ol' "puff-puff-give" on a bong isn't the issue here. Whether or not drugs should or shouldn't be legal is a debate for another day. Personally I've never understood the fascination with willingly relinquishing control of your body through drug use...but I digress. The problem I have with this little episode is the amount of sheer stupidity displayed by Phelps.

Over the past summer, Phelps established himself as an Olympic god. He shattered several world and Olympic records and forever cemented his place in Olympian lore. At the age of 23, even if he had never jumped into a pool again, he had punched his golden ticket for life.

However, last week, after apparently having forgotten that we live in a digital age where everyone has a camera on their cell phone and YouTube is waiting right around the corner; Mr. Phelps decided to attend a college house party and perform his dirty dirty deed. How stupid do you have to be? Everyone knows who you are. 99% of the patrons could care less about damaging your global image. Reputation and millions of dollars of advertising contracts be damned. I certainly hope he reached a 'high' never before seen in all of bongdom.

The second incident didn't recieve an iota of the press that Phelps' did...and for obvious reasons. Jamal Anderson was a running back for the Atlanta Falcons in the late 90s and, until recently anyway, is now employed by ESPN as an analyst. He's a seemingly pretty intelligent guy. He's well-spoken and knew his stuff when it came to sports analysis. However, early Saturday morning he was caught sniffing lines of coke off the back of a public toilet in an Atlanta tavern. Really?? How much arrogance or stupidity does it take to convince yourself that this is a great idea. If one has the itch to do a few lines of blow...is your own toilet at home to sacred a place to perform the feat? Why in the name of all that's holy would you put yourself in a position to ruin everything you've obtained? Were the few minutes of 'good times' worth it?

Everyday that passes, more and more evidence is compiled showing that the vast majority of humanity shouldn't be allowed roam free...much less breed. Where's a global reset button when you need one?