BLACK EYED PEAS - WHERE IS THE LOVE?

What’s wrong with the world, mama
People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas
I think the whole world addicted to the drama
Only attracted to things that’ll bring you trauma
Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here livin’
In the USA, the big CIA
The Bloods and the Crips and the KKK

But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you’re bound to get irate, yeah
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that’s exactly how anger works and operates
Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love, y’all, y’all

People killin’, people dyin’,
Children hurt can you hear them cryin’?
Can you practice what you preach?
Would you turn the other cheek?

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’
Where is the love (Love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love?

It just ain’t the same, always unchanged
New days are strange, is the world insane
If love and peace is so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don’t belong
Nations droppin’ bombs
Chemical gasses fillin’ lungs of little ones
With ongoin’ sufferin’ as the youth die young
So ask yourself is the lovin’ really gone
So I could ask myself really what is goin’ wrong
In this world that we livin’ in people keep on givin’ in
Makin’ wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends
Not respectin’ each other, deny thy brother
A war is goin’ on but the reason’s undercover
The truth is kept secret, it’s swept under the rug
If you never know truth then you never know love
Where’s the love, y’all, come on (I don’t know)
Where’s the truth, y’all, come on (I don’t know)
Where’s the love, y’all

People killin’, people dyin’,
Children hurt can you hear them cryin’?
Can you practice what you preach?
Would you turn the other cheek?

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’
Where is the love (Love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love (The love)
Where is the love
The love, the love?

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I’m gettin’ older, y’all, people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin’
Selfishness got us followin’ the wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema
Yo, whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality
Instead in spreading love we spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading lives away from unity
That’s the reason why sometimes I’m feelin’ under
That’s the reason why sometimes I’m feelin’ down
There’s no wonder why sometimes I’m feelin’ under
Gotta keep my faith alive ’til love is found
Now ask yourself

Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’
Where is the love?

Sing with me y’all

One world, one world
(We only got) One world, one world
(That’s all we got) One world, one world
And something’s wrong wit it (Yeah)
Something’s wrong wit it (Yeah)
Something’s wrong wit the wo-wo-world, yeah
We only got (One world, one world)
That’s all we got (One world, one world)

VeloNews | Riccardo Ricco tests positive.

The French anti-doping agency (AFLD) confirmed Thursday that Italian climbing sensation Ricardo Ricco (Saunier Duval) has tested positive for new variant of the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO).

Ricco, winner of two mountain stages and ninth in the overall standings, provided a urine sample which contained the banned substance CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator).

Ricco was questioned by gendarmes before the start of Thursday’s 12th stage between Lavlanet and Narbonne. He was then driven away by them in a Saunier Duval team car.

Ricco was one of the riders particularly targeted by the AFLD during the race and had been tested at least four times, including his victories on stages six and nine.

Like synthetic erythropoietin (rEPO), CERA was developed to as a treatment for the anemia that results from chronic kidney disease. Unlike single injections of rEPO, CERA interacts with erythropoietin receptors and has a longer-lasting effect.

The often brash and outspoken Ricco finished second in this year’s Giro d’Italia and has won stages six and nine at this year’s Tour de France. He finished Wednesday’s stage 2:29 behind Australian Cadel Evans in the overall standings, putting him in ninth place.

Ricco becomes the third rider to fail a doping test in this year’s race after Spanish riders Moises Duenas (Barloworld) and Manuel Beltran (Liquigas) both tested positive for rEPO.

Much was made of the fact that Ricardo Ricco worshiped Marco Pantani, and he certain climbed like the now dead Italian. Now it appears that Ricco’s legs were not entirely natural talent …

Now, while I’m not sure about ASO and AFLD’s tactic of testing a rider over and over and over again, as it comes across as a witchhunt … sometimes, when what you’re seeing seems too good to be true, it probably is. If this sport is to survive, we need to get rid of the dopers, but it has to be done in a way that protects the rights of the riders.

More news from around the net:

• BBC
• The (London) Times
• The Guardian

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT - GOING TO A TOWN

I’m going to a town that has already been burnt down
I’m going to a place that has already been disgraced
I’m gonna see some folks who have already been let down
I’m so tired of America

I’m gonna make it up for all of The Sunday Times
I’m gonna make it up for all of the nursery rhymes
They never really seem to want to tell the truth
I’m so tired of you, America

Making my own way home, ain’t gonna be alone
I’ve got a life to lead, America
I’ve got a life to lead

Tell me, do you really think you go to hell for having loved?
Tell me, enough of thinking everything that you’ve done is good
I really need to know, after soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood
I’m so tired of America

I really need to know
I may just never see you again, or might as well
You took advantage of a world that loved you well
I’m going to a town that has already been burnt down
I’m so tired of you, America

Making my own way home, ain’t gonna be alone
I’ve got a life to lead, America
I’ve got a life to lead
I got a soul to feed
I got a dream to heed
And that’s all I need

Making my own way home, ain’t gonna be alone
I’m going to a town
That has already been burnt down

Yeah, sure, this song may technically be about about the fight for Irish freedom, fighting against an oppressive British regime, but the sentiment is valid in every nation being oppressed by its government, including our own.

For if anyone believes that the citizens of the United States are truly free anymore, they are seriously deluded. Thankfully, we only have another 6 1/2 months under our current oppressors, who will then retire off to Texas and Wyoming with taxpayer protection for the remainder of their lives.

One can only hope that our next President will help restore that which the current has taken away.

FLOGGING MOLLY - WHAT’S LEFT OF THE FLAG

His eyes they closed
And his last breath spoke
He had seen all to be seen
A life once full
Now an empty vase
Wilt the blossoms
On his early grave

Walk away, me boy
Walk away, me boy
And by morning we’ll be free
Wipe that golden tear
From your mother dear
And raise what’s left of the flag for me

Then the rosary beads
Count them: one, two, three
Fell apart as they hit the floor
In a garb of black
We must pay respect
To the color we’re born to mourn

Walk away, me boys
Walk away, me boys
And by morning we’ll be free
Wipe that golden tear
From your mother dear
And raise what’s left of the flag for me

In his place there grew
An angry festered wound
Filled with hatred and remorse
Where I pick and scratch
‘Til the blood amassed
To silent rage now that fills my lungs
For there are many ways
To kill a man they say
With bayonet, axe or sword
But son a bullet fired
From a shapeless guise
Just leaves the shell of a Thompson gun

Walk away, me boys
Walk away, me boys
And by morning we’ll be free
Wipe that golden tear
From your mother dear
And raise what’s left of the flag for me

From the east out to the western shore
Where many men and many more will fall
But no angel flies with me tonight
Though freedom reigns on all
And curse the name for which
We slaved our days
So every men chose Kingdom Come

But sure as night turns day
It’s the passion play
Oh my God
What have they done
With madmans rage
Well they dug our graves
But the dead rise again you fools

Walk away, me boys
Walk away, me boys
And by morning we’ll be free
Wipe that golden tear
From your mother dear
Raise what’s left of the flag for me

Walk away, me boys
Walk away, me boys
And by morning we’ll be free
Wipe that golden tear
From your mother dear
And raise what’s left of the flag for me

A NATION’S STRENGTH

What makes a nation’s pillars high
And it’s foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly…
They build a nation’s pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

  — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), American author, poet, and philosopher

From the New York Times:

Study Shows Problems With Olympic-Style Tests

Although athletes have said EPO is in widespread use, few have tested positive. Most of the athletes who have been linked to doping in recent years have been caught not through drug testing, but rather through criminal investigations. In the August 2006 issue of the journal Blood, the American lab accredited to conduct EPO testing reported only 9 positive tests out of 2,600 urine samples.

The new study may help explain why: the test simply failed.

The study, to be published Thursday in the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology, was conducted last summer and fall by a renowned lab in Denmark, the Copenhagen Muscle Research Center. The investigators gave eight young men EPO and collected urine samples on multiple occasions before, during and after the men were doping. The men’s urine samples were then sent to two labs accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and EPO tests were requested.

The first lab found some samples positive and a few others suspicious. (A suspicious result does not bring sanctions for doping.) The lab also declared a sample positive, although the man had stopped taking the drug and it should have been gone from his urine. His previous urine sample, obtained when he was taking EPO, was negative in this lab’s test.

The second lab did not deem any urine sample positive for EPO and found only a few to be suspicious. The two labs did not agree on which samples were suspicious.

… [Investigators] realized they had an opportunity to investigate the validity of the EPO test. So, without telling the anti-doping labs what they were doing, the investigators sent the men’s urine samples for EPO testing.

One of the two labs, which the researchers refer to as Lab B in their paper, never declared a sample positive, even when the men were taking high doses of EPO every other day. Lab A was inconsistent. It found EPO during the high dose phase. But in the maintenance phase, it found EPO in only 6 of the 16 samples.

Great news, eh?

Not like “I never tested positive” meant a whole lot before, but with this news, anyone who claims not to have doped and “never testing positive” can have the “yeah, but the tests detect it every time” argument thrown back at them …

And clean athletes will never be able to prove that they haven’t doped … all winning riders are going to fall under suspicion.

“You won the race? You must have doped.”

NEW PORNOGRAPHERS - THE LAWS HAVE CHANGED

It was crime at the time
but the laws, we changed ‘em
Though the hero for hire’s
forever the same one

Introducing for the first time
Pharaoh on the microphone
sing all hail
what’ll be revealed today
when we peer into the great unknown
from the line to the throne?

Awakened to cheers after years on the fault line
we are shocked to be here
in the face of the meantime
Pharaoh, all your methods have taught me
is to separate my blood from bone

It will all fail
feeling what I feel today
when we peer into the great unknown
from the line to the throne

Form a line through here
Form a line to the throne

Alone in the chain
it remains to be seen how
How well you can play
when the pawn takes a queen now

It was crime at the time
but the laws have changed
Yeah