The bong hit heard round the world.
The winner of a record eight gold medals last summer in Beijing was spotted knocking back shots and chugging beers at a house party at the University of South Carolina in Columbia on Nov. 6, when a partygoer handed him the water pipe etched with red writing.Yes there's the naivety of youth to be considered and no I don't think the pending punishment (likely absolute ruin) will fit the crime and yes illegalized cannabis is ridiculous but I remain baffled by the degree of arrogance and the sense of being untouchable that success brings out in some people. Sad.
"He grabbed the bong and a lighter and knew exactly what to do," a witness said of the swimming superstar, who was in town visiting a gal pal and South Carolina coed.
"He looked just as natural with a bong in his hands as he does swimming in the pool. He was the gold medal winner of bong hits."
4 comments:
I don't know how "arrogant" behaving like one's peers is. I think it's actually falling to peer pressure, which is about the opposite of arrogance.
Given that alcohol has far deadlier consequences than Mary Jane, I find this entire thing dumb beyond belief. If I could have paid money every time to deal with high off grass sailors than drunkards, I would have been very poor but far happier on shore patrol every time. And in my three years in Japan, dozens of rapes, assaults and two murders would not have been committed by sailors against Japanese nationals.
Considering the amount of women he's probably done God knows what, if he had contracted HIV/AIDS, that might have actually been a "teachable" moment worth the media spectacle this has become. Because of course in our society, we glorify irresponsible sexual behavior in countless ways yet seem to have a problem with a guy smoking grass.
The nanny-state took over here in the 70's. I would not be surprised if some dingbat Option-A mortgage holder parent tries to sue Phelps for corrupting her children with his poor example.
I agree with Dan (!?!?!?!??!?). It's not really arrogance in the sense of Phelps thinking he's different from other people. 99% of people his age who smoke marijuana suffer zero consequences for it. Phelps' mistake was thinking that he is the same as other people. His failure was not recognizing that his celebrity means he has to hold himself to a higher standard or else deal with losing sponsorships.
I don't buy the bowing to peer pressure nor the not thinking he was the same as other people.
This guy has nearly a decade (three Olympic competitions) under his belt and Beijing wasn't the first time he'd won a gold medal.
I could consider rebellion or blatant stupidity as alternate reasoning to explain why he put himself in this situation.
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