Free Republic

The 21st century has made clear the inadequacies of various institutions that were once the bedrock of American society. In government, in business and in media, there has not just been a collapse in trust, but a sense that the systems we’ve got in place cannot cope with our present challenges. The perfect microcosm of all this is the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Shelby Houlihan, the middle-distance runner who currently holds two U.S. records, says she's been banned from the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for the steroid nandrolone. Houlihan says she's clean and is blaming the test result on a pork burrito she got from a food truck. Anti-doping officials don't agree with the runner. They've handed Houlihan a four-year ban, just before U.S. Olympic trials for the track and field team will begin in Eugene, Ore., this weekend. "I feel completely devastated, lost, broken, angry, confused and betrayed by the very sport that I've loved and poured myself into just to...

The World Anti-Doping Agency committee that has been investigating Russia has recommended the country face a four-year ban from global sports, Tariq Panja of the New York Times reported Monday. WADA confirmed it would recommend the punishment in a release later in the afternoon. The news came after the committee discovered Russian officials had erased failed doping tests from the submitted database it was required to release. If Russia is banned four years beginning Jan. 1, 2020, it would end up missing three straight Olympic Games. The country was banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, though individual athletes...

Xue Yinxian is a 79-year-old former Chinese doctor seeking asylum in Germany after revealing that "more than 10,000" Chinese athletes were taking performance enhancing drugs in the 1980s and 1990s as part of a systemic doping scandal by the country, he tells German broadcaster ARD. The doctor claims that systemic doping had its roots with athletes as young as 11 years old and was used in major Olympic sports including swimming, diving, track and field, table tennis, soccer, volleyball, basketball and more. Xue worked closely with Chinese national teams in the 1970s. Xue said she was dismissed from her job...

I am like legit going through some issues, political and personal, and I can’t tell you how much I have been enjoying the Australian Open. What is it about slices and lobs and serving down the “T” that makes everything better? As we discussed yesterday, Serena Williams and Venus Williams are going head-to-head in the Australian Open final tomorrow/today (tomorrow morning for us Americans). And now this: Rafael Nadal made it to the finals. Which means that we’re getting an old-school Roger Federer vs. Rafa Nadal final, like the good old days!! Here’s the moment when Rafa won the nearly...

https://www.everipedia.com/spirit-cooking-marina-abramovic/ Never heard of everipedia but ran across it in a search for "Spirit Cooking" Spirit Cooking 2,063 VIEWS Spirit Cooking is an event started by Marina Abramović, who is an artist known for her gory performances and occultist rituals. Origin The origins of Spirit Cooking can be found in Cake of Light, a sacrament in the religion of Thelema which was founded by Aleister Crowley. The ingredients of the Cake of Light partially include menstrual blood and sperm. The sacrament is meant to symbolize the union between the microcosm, Man, and the macrocosm, the Divine, which is a representation...

A new book about New York Yankees' third baseman Alex Rodriguez's use of performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career includes revelations about another sports superstar: Tiger Woods. Released Tuesday, Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis and the Quest to End Baseball’s Steroid Era, co-authored by Tim Elfrink of the Miami New Times and Gus-Garcia Roberts of Newsday, claims that the Canadian sports doctor Anthony Galea who treated Rodriguez also visited Woods 14 times between January and August 2009 and charged Woods a total of $76,012 as he recovered from knee surgery following his 2008 U.S. Open victory. Previous reports had identified only...

The Hall of Fame says it's up to baseball writers to propose any changes in the selection process. The Baseball Writers' Association of America has voted on Hall of Fame candidates since 1936, and elections have become more controversial in recent years as stars tainted by accusations of steroids use have fallen well short of the 75 percent needed for entry to Cooperstown. Writers are limited to a maximum 10 votes, and some say there's a logjam as Barry Bonds, Rogers Clemens and Mark McGwire remain on the ballot at a time new players are added.

The Justice Department will notify a federal court Friday that it is joining one of his former racing teammates in suing him for using performance-enhancing drugs during the Tour de France, legal sources told NBC News. The government is signing on to a lawsuit filed two years ago by Floyd Landis, one of Armstrong's former Tour de France teammates who has already admitted cheating. Among its claims: Landis saw Armstrong store and then re-inject his own blood to boost his performance, and Armstrong twice gave Landis banned hormones before races.

Federal authorities have reportedly obtained an important piece of evidence linking Lance Armstrong to performance-enhancing drugs. Greg LeMond (pictured), a three-time Tour de France winner, secretly recorded a telephone call six years ago with a woman close to Lance Armstrong who was in Armstrong's hospital room in 1996 when he told cancer doctors about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, the Los Angeles Times reported. Armstrong, who won a record seven consecutive Tour de France titles, has repeatedly denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs or doping. The recording and a transcript of the telephone call are expected to be presented to a...

Tiger Woods has been interviewed by federal authorities investigating a Canadian doctor accused of distributing human growth hormone, a person familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation of Dr. Anthony Galea is ongoing. Woods previously acknowledged that he's been treated by the Toronto-based doctor but insisted that he did not receive any performance-enhancing drugs. "Tiger willingly spoke to the authorities and cooperated fully," Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, said in an e-mail. "It was confirmed that because he did nothing illegal, he is not the subject of...