Road rage

Two relatively quick comments regarding two road based occurrences:

The Tour de France: So, for the 8th year in a row an American has won the Tour de France. I'm sure I don't need to tell you this annoys the French more than when people try to speak their language! You know what an American winning the Tour means, right? Allegations of drug use. That's right, it's in the fine print of the Tour rules: "If an American wins the tour, claim he cheated." Isn't that right, Lance?

Well, they've once again been able to enforce that rule. Floyd Landis has been accused of using a performance enhancing drug. What did they find in Landis' blood? Testosterone! Technically, the finding was a "high level of testosterone." 'Cuz that's hard. "Look, the American man had a higher level of testosterone than the French!" What a surprise!

The real joke about all this was that he was tested just before the 17th leg of the race; just after his collapse in the Alps. This was the day he had an amazing comeback to get within striking distance of the lead. The French are claiming that the testosterone is what gave him an edge during that part of the race. This is ludicrous!

He'd been tested three times before this leg of the race, all three times there was nothing found. Testosterone is like an anabolic steroid. It does not work like an upper. It takes months for testosterone to take effect, not hours. It's a strength builder, not an endurance builder. The French have again shown their desire to take back their race. But I can understand to a point. Imagine if the Aussies kept winning the America's Cup. We'd be pretty peeved, too.

The Big Dig: The Big Disgrace is more like it. Billions over budget and now we find they were cutting corners to save money? Where did that money go? Obviously not back into the project. Now it'll be millions more to fix what wasn't done right in the first place.

But I feel much safer now. Finally a politician is overseeing the project. Fwhew!

Yup, Mitt Romney ("in '08" should be following his name shortly) was able to oust Matthew Amorello (former head of the Turnpike Authority) because someone’s head has to be on a pike and Amorello already had the word in his job title!

I can't imagine how many "contributions" Romney got from the companies who dug this national embarrassment for him to go after the figurehead instead of the men actually taking the state's money!

Here's what needs to happen: The companies who made the tunnels need to fix the tunnels at their own cost. There was Federal money given to this project! Why should Joe Shmow metal working in Iowa have to pay for the greed and irresponsibility of fat cat Boston Big Dig Contract winner? After they've fixed them, they need to set up a payment plan to pay the American people back for their waste of time and money. The companies responsible need to pay back every cent they went over budget plus interest. That sounds crazy? How can they afford it? Why should Sue Blue the lunch lady be made to pay for it? The fault falls squarely on the contractors.

So while Mitt flies in as "savior" and Amorello is left holding the fake blame, the real culprits recline in their multimillion dollar houses with their indoor Jacuzzis sipping on daiquiris. Something's very wrong here.

(On a final note: several News stations have been covering the ceiling panel fall as the "Big Dig Collapse." Can we say sensationalism? The Big Dig did not collapse. That conjures images of massive cave ins and road blockages. It was a ceiling panel that fell at the wrong time of the day. Had it fallen at 4am this whole issue would be being handled quite differently.)

Where the rubber meets the road: (whatever that means) Just my opinion.