Carbon Fiber Road Frames - $280

Contact me for details. Three models to choose from. De-badged top-of-the line frames. Kinda like those paper back books you could buy at the supermarket with the cover ripped off for $.25, though these come with a 1-year warranty.

Berlin in Our Times

For another perspective on the 2008 Olympics, consider the writings of Manuel A.Tellechea:

"The kindest way to describe what is going on in China today is global amnesia. In a nation where "prosperity" hinges on the enforcement of the genocidal "One Child Policy," famines rage unnoticed in the countryside and workers are exploited by plutocrats more powerful than the robber barons because they do not have to contend with ballot boxes or assuage public opinion, the world has converged -- ostensibly in the name of sport -- to celebrate the debasement of man by the State. It has happened before and will likely happen again. It is a pleasing fiction that sport promotes harmony among nations. Sport, in itself, is neither nobler nor more inspiring than any other human pursuit. It is the purposes to which sport is put that can be noble or inspiring, or, as in the case of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, base and despicable..."

That is the post I would have written if I was as accomplished an author as MaT, but since I'm not, I reproduce his words here.

Mike Friedman says something intelligent

U.S. Cyclists Are Masked, and Criticism Is Not

By JULIET MACUR

"The cyclists were the first athletes to be seen wearing masks or doing anything proactive to combat the effects of pollution."

Mike Friedman, quoted in the NY Times:

“This is really a surprise, because I didn’t think it was going to be such a big deal,” Friedman said. “Why we wore the masks is simple: pollution. When you train your whole life for something, dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s, why wouldn’t you be better safe than sorry?"

Exactly. Regardless of how much production China does for US companies, I don't understand why we would risk our Olympians' health and performances in order not "offend" the Chinese government. I mean por favor - this is the same government that developed the mobile execution bus to more swiftly kill its citizens and harvest their organs for sale on the black market...

(Note: photo above is of Bobby Lea, and not Mike.)