LEGALIZE SPORTS DOPING.

http://hplusmagazine.com/digitaledition/2009-summer/

ANDY MIAH: SPORTS, DOPING AND THE ENHANCEMENT ENLIGHENMENT!

History of swimactivism - in progress v.2.0

History of swimmactivism
Category: News and Politics English ar wydely con.sidered fust modan
Society to develoop swimmin’ aza spirt
And, Poiklitics, i might add
As a tea tile bag of English tail

2008 – Coseley Baths Earmarked for closure by Dudley MBC
Can you tell that i bin trested in swimmin’ i ave’
April 1, 1974: The con. Mosh up a' former cownty borough of
Dude-ley, wiv the Burroughs of Alesowing
And flouridge. 2009: 2000 people join facebook group to saiv Coseley Baths
1837: Fust paddlin comps held in London's spashing pools.

July of 1967: Doodley con. ban folks from swimming in Lodge Farm Rezza
Because swimmers were becoming obstructions to boats on the water
Councillor Les Jones said protestors needed to be realistic. June 2009: Councillor Les Jones:“We have made a clear commitment
To closing the baths on safety grounds,”
“We believe our structural engineer’s report stands up
– we don’t use ‘fly by nights’.

1987: Teaurbridge Swimmin’ Club wuss demolishevelled by Mudley Clownsil
Cuz it was riffy, structurally unsafe, and beyonda fixin’ up. and them went an’ replaced it wida leisure pond fur the fancy pant 1990's Leisure con. and disinvestment industry
Very noyse, but unsuitable fur competitive swimumin’ me thinks.
7th January, 1869: furst meating of Amateur Slimming
Association.

4th June, 1901: Sturbridge Swimming Club founded as
31st 2005: Untied kingdome gives o'er
Her presidency of the Con. Of the Europeeing Youngyin.

2nd August, 1900: Foundry stone of Stourbridge Public Baths wuss laid by Isaac Nash.
Bath water come from a well cut in local sandstown.
Annual subscription fix'd at fiyv shillyns
Juss 25 pence, a bargain for a 12 yerolt kid
Werkin 60 hours a week for 2.d down a death mine.

1939-1945: Stourbridge baths closed fur public due to word war II.
17th May 1923: Open air swimming bath built at Stourbridge
June 2009: Victoria Baths – Portsmouth is closed, against local wishes.

3:30, 31st December 2005, Brierley ill Leisure Centre
Closed. By DudMetBo Council (Dudley MBC)
72 con.cillors, representing 24 wards
Both an election boundary and
A division...

1894: Brierley Hill comes an urb.an di.strict
Under the yocal yobernment Akt ov 1894.

2006: There are 23 olympic sized cuts in the YUK. England 15,
Scotland 4, Ireland 2 and Wales 1.
1 iz under con.struction in Dudley?
Poiklitics seems lyk a pools lottery in 2006x

An Oilympic Pool is 25m wyd
Depth ov 2.0m minymum
50m in length, while the 25m width
Allows for 8 laynes, each 2.5m whyd
With an extra 2 spaces of 2.5m wyd outside oss rowds 1 and 8.
2.5 x 8 tracks = 20m + (2.5m x 2) = 25m in total as

1896 and 1906, women could'nt participate in
Oilympic games due to Baron Pierre de Coubertin holding firm to the conservative
Dogma of the Victoryian eara, that women wuz too Frail to engage in competitive sports. June 2009: Sherwood Baths in Mansfield Woodhouse undergoes a £5m refit
And is renamed the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre, Becky meets
The Queen for her OBE for services to swimming.

Conlablibortive Burroughs talktics:
Slaving urban language Sub-contracts with precise
Gaffers waffle. June 2009: Campaign to save the historic Tyneside pool, NEWCASTLE
Kicks into action.

1960: British boyernment's Beeching Axe hijacks
The costs ov running the British tram system by pullin'
The plug, on what them considered to be unprofitable riffy’ trams.

Ow ya transfurring propertea
From public ownership to private merchant ownerships?
And/or, both/and... transfiguring the monagemint
Of a service or activitea from an arf soaked gaffernment...
To the private pocket secta
Who issues it, ow?
Rekkids are set crooked
With some Doodley Burroughs accense

1917: S.F.C Motto crafted upon the S. Coat of donnies.
Bridge and 2 gold'n froots,
Gold Fleace suspunded by black Chains of Skin
And Leather Dressing LTD.
Chayn Cable Industries, and them hanging sheeple.
'1 heart, 1 why', singleness of mind and
Purpoise. To steer, shepard, pilot, escort, swimmer.
1 pool, 3 million folks. No wey serviam.
Are yow billdin pools in Iraq for babee lovers that yow liberated?

March 1990: After many swummers protest throughout Thatchers layt 1980's
With signs and LOUD chanting
The grystal Leisure Centre wuz born, twice
Pun historic baths jed corpse
It re:open.ed con.plete wid gravy machine,
Ellefonts, Bond.i beach beats and
A Non-competitive swimming pund.

Will a swimmer be free'd from yampy chains ov capitalist slaverewind
When they docked away our baths for them's private
Pools, private betting and private gaming crackers
Save ALL the baths you have

Britomartis Triton Leucothoea Posedawone
[WORLD CLASS START QUALIFIER]

A SWIMMING COMMUNITY STUDY

I have witnessed many swimming facilities - from my home, near where i was born - torn down - and redeveloped, in a way i find unsound and which leaves the community - and the SWIMMING COMMUNITY - with a paddling pool and/or sophisticated private/council run - leisure complex. Complex being the operative word here.

I hope to bring some clarity and add footnotes to the subject of swimming community that i have been writing about fanatically - since the closure of Brierley Hill Leisure Centre - that used to stand by the mighty Merry Hill Center, an event i watched closely, documented and tried to communicate further by writing poetry and writing some letters, i even jumped in the local river and pulled out a shopping trolley - expressing my wishes to the baboon reporter that he mention the closure of Brierley Hill Baths - which they carefully left out from the final article (The Top Image of this Blog.) smile!

One raving letter i sent regarding swimming community was reproduced, with some pictures, in an on-line magazine - you can read it here if you like? (I have since called down and no longer wish to race anybody, although it was tongue in cheek) Still, the council and the private enterprise business enterprise business complex seem to be slowly removing most of the original swimming baths left dotted around the U.K. But who are they, the staff are not responsible, the M.P's hands are tied, the Newsmedia seems to be the only force moving the MESSAGES around. And so a kind of deadlock ensues between a complex of forces, political, economic - mediated by the news, which for the most part is under the management of their corporate owners, and so the cycle of deciet continues and we loose our swimming pools. This is just one model, maybe i am getting old at 33 and not up with the new schemes regarding leisure center's and swimming facilities?

Still, right now, in Coseley - a very similar scenario is taking place, where a swimming baths has been EARMARKED for closure by the Council, against the wishes of many within the local community, and all within the swimming community (with a 2000 + strong facebook group to boot!) I figure that some writing and questioning are a good idea and a contribution to the others, the others who wonder what the hell is going on in Councils across the U.K shutting down swimming baths. (not to mention the other facilities and public spaces being sold off and out by some gambling M.P's and some council members.


Save Coseley Baths? From what or whom? Are people the problem here or is this a matter of circumstances connected with the economic machine? Is everyone just throwing their hands in the air and saying “The pool must close, sorry, we are so sorry but the pool is not safe, and we (who precisely?) do not have enough money to keep the swimming pool open. For what reason do you not have enough money? Have the voting public any say whatsoever in the way non-local government spends their money? Just what are their values? What comes above a swimming baths in their value-system of public related leisure facilities? Does the author or editor (who exactly) really have the authority to say what will or will not happen? Based on whose sources? And written in whose newspeak lingo? Are the authorities really going to make a final decision before ALL THE DATA HAS ARRIVED, like very bad scientists? Is Coseley swimming baths a PUBLIC baths or a PRIVATE baths?

Who defines these things? How many M.P’s or council members do you know? Do you know if they swim? Do you think that it is important for politicians and councillors to swim? Study philosophy and/or Neuro Linguistic Programming? How much more complicated does it seem to say that COSELEY BATHS IS TO STAY OPEN, and to give the scenarios and reasons WHY the baths must STAY open, opposed to repeating the baited headline COSELEY BATHS WILL CLOSE? Can we expect the newsmedia and the news journalists to be of any help when they are owned by huge private corporations? Why can’t the people of Coseley who want the baths to stay open start a private corporation to privately repair and run the pool? Who brokers the deals between leisure services, councils and wrecking crewes? Enough questions? After all, i do not propose to know any of the answers, unlike the Express and Star and the Council and many others, i mean, to be Frank how many of you are really thinking that the swimming baths will close and be reduced to a pile of rubble?

How many of you readers can build - in your imagination - A vision, yes, a vision of a thriving Coseley swimming baths in 2010 and on into the future, a baths with a new or repaired roof and happy familiar staff and a baths with reduced rates. Surely we must keep optimistic thoughts? Optimistic Thoughts are the key to keeping the swimming pool open in Coseley. Don’t let the newspress and the stinking cheats and liars they panda too influence your reading, your own research and intelligent use of the internet? Don’t let me dictate any more questions to you, write some of your own, just do it, Michael Phelps would want you to. Micheal Phelps will help us. He wants the pool to stay open. Jesus would have wanted Coseley baths to stay open, maybe for anointments and walking practice? Mohammed would want the baths to stay open, maybe to enable cleanliness and clarity of mind? The Rabbi’s would want the swimming baths to remain open, maybe because they have some sense of social justice and fairness? Buddhist Monks and the Dali Lama might like to see the baths stay standing? Shakespeare would want the baths to stay open? Mark My Spits.

Coseley Baths is available for community ASSET transfer? (see Worrel Swiiming Baths). Coseley Baths is not the only baths under threat – find the others? What did other swimming clubs do? Do swimming clubs keep in touch about plots and schemes to close down swimming facilities? Maybe a swimming clubs guide to council attack: a case study, or something like that is in order? “Council bosses say their hands are tied by a structural report.” The noose that ties these hands maybe loosened by an independent structural report. IF THEY CAN WAIT FOR ALL THE DATA TO COME IN. And not make a pre-emptive strike on the baths in haste? The community of Coseley and the greater area of Dudley shall not fight to keep the baths open, or protest that the baths (is) closing, no, we shall celebrate the vision of a healthy swimming baths, throw a party, any party - under the moniker of Save The Swimming Baths.

It’s not just Coseley Baths under threat but many around the country, similar forces pushing and pulling down swimming baths for re-development, often not suitable for club swimming, and for private interest. My advice must be to find the others and gather your data. Internet can be your friend.

I am doing an event in aid of Coseley Baths this Thursday - all proceeds going to (a box with “Coseley Baths” written on it) - i await further instructions of what to do with that money, who and what to send it too.


-- Steve Fly.

--The following was written just hours after Brierley Hill Baths was closed and demolished.

31st December 2005

Brierley Hill, Black Country, West Midlands, England, Europe, Earth. 4.57 PM

I just now literally had the plug pulled on me at my local swimming baths in Brierley Hill. I was also literally "caged in" like a dangerous shark by very large steel barricades while they emptyed the pool. The water drained from the pool either was or was not drained into the local beautiful Brierley Hill cannal.

My thoughts today are with those who will not get to experience the pleasure of swimming at the baths, its a great refreshing feeling. People having good clean fun and also learning an important skill, which someday may even save their life if they fell into the canal, or got into deep water while on holiday in the ocean.

As i was a past fully qualiflyed lifeguard at Stourbridge Crystal leisure center nearby, i fully understand and beg for forgiveness from the Dudley Metropolitan Borough staff slaving away at Brierley Hill swimming baths, and i swear on my Midland district title that this will not happen again. Ever again. Unless they refill and reopen the pool. Sorry for questioning your authority and not following your orders to leave the pool, i also would like to apologize for diving in the shallow end and petting once or twice in the pool some years back. I also apologise for squeezing and massaging some female breasts at Brierley Hill baths, forgive me farther for my sins.

I am a big supporter and interested participant in health and fitness around the black Country, West Midlands and In Great Britain generally. In fact i would like to see the whole world become more able to experience the pleasures and envigerating qualities of such sports as swimming, football, cricket, basketball, track and field etc. I hope in the future that our so called representatives from all nations around the world will factor in the need for investment and facilities for sport and leisure activities.

Today happens to be the last day that Great Britain holds the presidency of the council of the Knu-European Union. To commemorate this historic event in passing i would once again like to draw attention to the closure of our local leisure centre and swimming pool and contrast it, if you will, with the ever expanding economic growth and retail industry that has been born from the corporate capitalist venture called Merry Hill shopping and business center.

Phelps is yet another great role model for cannabis

To cont...(snipped from the west Oakland Leaf)

Phelps is yet another great role model for cannabis

By Paul Armentano* NORML

Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps joins a growing list of successful Americans who enjoy marijuana during their down time. This tabloid news story made international headlines. Phelps is hardly alone in his herbal inclinations. According to national and federal surveys, nearly one out of two Americans have tried weed.

Consumers include people from all walks of life. America’s current President said he smoked cannabis regularly as a young man. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, former Vice President Al Gore, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and astronomer Carl Sagan all admitted cannabis use.

According to the US government, 70 percent of current cannabis users are gainfully employed. Statistically, most cannabis users are successful academically and financially. A National Bureau of Economic Research study even reported that cannabis use is associated with earning higher wages.

Some former and current users — like Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson, Progressive Auto Insurance founder Peter Lewis, and New York State Mayor Michael Bloomberg — are even multi-millionaires.

Perhaps our fascination with this story is because Phelps is recognized as one of the most talented and successful athletes today. He holds the record for the most gold medals won by any athlete in history. Phelps isn’t an anomaly in this regard either. Many top athletes use cannabis off the field — noting that it helps them to relax after the excitement of sports competition and alleviate the pain from nagging injuries. It won’t leave them with a hangover or adversely impact their performance the next day.

A 2007 New York Times investigation estimated that up to 70 percent of pro-basketball players occasionally indulge in the use of pot. Many high profile football players — most notably Miami Dolphins star running-back Ricky Williams, former Dallas Cowboys all-star Mark Stepnoski, and even Super Bowl XLIII MVP Santonio Holmes have spoken candidly about their off-field cannabis use. Canadian snowboarder and 1998 Winter Olympics gold medal winner Ross Rebagliati tested positive for cannabis use in the days prior to his history-making performance.

There will always be some who will criticize Phelps because they believe the 14-time gold medalist is sending a poor message to young children—that you can smoke cannabis and still be successful in life. Well, sorry that the truth hurts.

According to a recent University of Alberta study, the majority of adults who use cannabis do so as a pastime to “enhance relaxation.” Researchers concluded that their use is intended to enhance leisure activities and manage the challenges and demands of living in contemporary modern society. Participants reported using cannabis because it enhanced relaxation and concentration, making a broad range of leisure activities more enjoyable and pleasurable.

No doubt Michael Phelps indulged in the use of cannabis for these very same reasons. He ought not to be condemned for it nor branded a criminal for his actions. For that matter, neither should anyone else.

* Armentano is Policy Analyst for NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

Phelps, hypocrisy ... and the Kellogg’s boycott

By Bruce Mirken* Marijuana Policy Project

Cereal giant Kellogg’s announced in early February that it won’t renew Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps’ endorsement contract because he’s been photographed apparently smoking marijuana. While hypocrisy is hardly rare in American life, this struck many as a particularly egregious example.

It’s causing thousands of Americans to swear off Rice Krispies and other Kellogg’s products. A boycott endorsed by the Marijuana Policy Project, Drug Policy Alliance, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and others was launched in February.

“Michael’s most recent behavior is not consistent with the image of Kellogg,” a company spokesperson told Ad Age.

Bear in mind that in 2004, Phelps pleaded guilty to drunk driving. But apparently that offense — also illegal, and it actually might have resulted in someone being hurt or killed — was not an issue for Kellogg’s.

As of this writing, baseball star Alex Rodriguez had not lost any of his endorsement deals even after admitting use of banned steroids -- an overt attempt to cheat at his chosen sport.

That athletes drink is hardly news. If Phelps had been photographed hoisting a beer, no one would have said a word. Yet, there is simply no question that if one wants to relax with a mood-altering substance, cannabis is far safer than alcohol.

Alcohol is more addictive. According to the Institute of Medicine, 15 percent of those who ever drink become dependent on alcohol; for cannabis, it’s said to be nine percent (and for tobacco, 32 percent).

Alcohol is massively more toxic. Every year, people die from alcohol overdoses, too often in college drinking parties and the like. And the chronic effects of heavy alcohol use, like liver damage, kill thousands upon thousands more. There has never been a medically documented cannabis overdose fatality, and the chronic effects of even heavy cannabis use are relatively mild and decidedly non-lethal.

Unlike cannabis, alcohol tends to make users reckless, aggressive and violent. As a review in the journal Addictive Behaviors explained, “Alcohol is clearly the drug with the most evidence to support a direct intoxication-violence relationship. ... Cannabis reduces the likelihood of violence during intoxication...”

So a boycott is on. The reaction to MPP’s initial email alert about it was huge.

Realistically, boycotts are hard to pull off, and many more fizzle out than succeed. But cannabis consumers are a huge market: According to federal surveys, 100 million Americans acknowledge having used it, and nearly 15 million admit using it in the past month. And millions more who don’t use cannabis agree that prohibition is irrational and far more dangerous than cannabis itself.

If that sleeping giant has been awakened, it could get interesting; and Phelps could find new products to endorse.

* Mirken is director of communications for MPP , mpp.org