Are you following this controversy?

I know, I know, with the democratization of media, with the Tower of Babel society we live in, it’s hard to keep track of ANYTHING that’s not right up your alley, that you’re not pulling.  Push is completely IGNORED!

But if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you soon will.  Because Bode Miller is America’s best hope for a medal in Turin, at the Winter Olympics next month.  Only one problem, Bode doesn’t play by the rules.

Oh, there aren’t a lot of rules involved.  You’ve got to ski around a certain number of poles from a designated start to a delineated finish.  There are no style points.  And Bode does this better than anybody in the WORLD!  Last year he won the World Cup.

But, last Sunday on "60 Minutes", Bode admitted after achieving this life-long dream, after partying all night in celebration, he showed up drunk/inebriated/wasted at the following day’s race.  Furthermore, he said it might happen AGAIN!

If you haven’t shown up drunk/hungover at work, you’re a teetotaler.  Actually, I now am.  But I spent a number of days stupefied in the office.  But I didn’t lose my job, there wasn’t a national crisis over it.  Shit, drinking’s not illegal.

Then again, I didn’t have SPONSORS!

Oh, the U.S. Ski Team was letting this roll off its back.  But then the SPONSORS weighed in and now they want to kick Bode off the team.  Really.

What kind of fucked up country has this become where CORPORATIONS dictate behavior.  Last time I checked, a corporation wasn’t human.  Not even tied to one person.  Michael Eisner got blown out, but Disney continues.  Tommy Mottola’s gone, but Sony still puts out records.  How did America become about BUSINESS?

We’ve got to go to Iraq to fight for oil, at a low price.

We’ve got to relax mining standards, so the companies won’t be burdened.

The human cost is IRRELEVANT!

SUVs flip.  They could have traction control, but the auto manufacturers don’t want to pay.  Government could regulate, hell, they’re the ones that put all those airbags in the cars you love, but NO, business is sacrosanct.

Wal-Mart rules.  And the people are FUCKED!

And who are the people these sponsors are protecting from Bode.  Maybe those letter-writing assholes, that turn out to be one or two people, who force Howard Stern off terrestrial radio, who are the thorn in the side of people just living their lives.

Where the fuck did we get the MORALITY POLICE!  I mean I don’t think you should be allowed to KILL people, but what you put into your own body, isn’t that ultimately YOUR OWN CHOICE??

Bode’s a bad role model?

God, how many of those execs at Chevy Trucks tipple during lunch, or on business trips?  And last I checked, this sponsor of the U.S. Ski Team was performing a lot worse than Bode.

It’s this rugged individualism that IS the American spirit.  We do it OUR way.  We’re not saddled by convention.  Bode doesn’t look like anybody else flying down the hill, but his style WINS!

We need heroes.  My heroes are not Chevy.  Or Halliburton.  Or Comcast.  My heroes are PEOPLE!  Living, breathing people.  FLAWED human beings.  Who evidence an identity.

Don’t think this is only about skiing.  This is why today’s major label acts have no traction.  They do WHATEVER their label bosses tell them to.  Except for a few rappers.  And one always wonders if the labels drum up their excesses for publicity, since they’re SUPPOSED to be outlaws, even though, based on "Cribs", they’re just as consumerist as the head of a Fortune 500 company.

To flaunt the rules and WIN?  What could we admire more!

Jimmy Page wasn’t nice.  Sure, he could have treated some of those women better, but it was his dark side, his willingness to do only what HE wanted, that made us marvel.

Furthermore, Jimmy and the boys were PROTECTED by Peter Grant.  I don’t condone what happened in San Francisco, but you want somebody in your corner.  Too many of today’s managers’ loyalties are to the label, or LiveNation, not to their ACT!  And without the act you’ve got NOTHING!  That’s what fucked up the business.  When the execs came to believe that acts come and go, but they remain.

Something is truly rotten in this country of ours.  Everybody runs on fear.  Afraid of alienating a theoretical someone who doesn’t exist.  I mean are the sponsors’ customers really up in arms that their prime candidate for a medal drank in celebration of a triumph no American had accomplished in over two decades?

Public life has been made to conform to the ideology of Christian conservatives.  They don’t own this country.  It’s not a religious monarchy.  And until WE, the majority, stand up and say WE’RE MAD AS HELL AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE, it’s only going to get worse.

What do I have to say to the U.S. Ski Team and the sponsors it is defending?

FUCK OFF AND DIE!