As IF Times

link So why did Floyd Landis spend $2 million on his defense? – Game On!: Covering the Latest Sports News.

Another scandal.  We’re shocked that somone would lie for personal gain.   Recently, Connecticut congressman Blumenthal was outed for misleading people about his Vietnam service.  To this day, he claims it was a misunderstanding and that a few misplaced words cast him in a bad light.

!!!

Years ago, we witnessed the Canadian sprinter  Ben Johnson steroid scandal, then the Florence Joyner incident after that.  Now this incident comes to light which threatens to rope in Lance Armstrong as well.  Landis is especially contemptuous because he actually spent $2 million dollars defending his known misdeed!  So he knew he did it, but figured that if he spent enough money, he could get away with it.  That in  a nutshell is the calculus that goes through the minds of people who cheat.  They assess the pros and cons of a cheat and decide to go ahead if benefits outweigh the detriments.

 How did our society become so lacking in integrity and conscience?  It’s useless to discuss the issue of morals because I’m sure in every other aspect of these people’s lives, they would consider themselves to be moral. It’s only in the big things that affect their lives that morality is set aside.  The pull of fame, fortune or power is enough to overcome any trite concerns about morality for these people.  The worst part of these kinds of scandals is that over time, a  huge callous of cynicism develops on the public psyche.  When we hear of super feats achieved by some athlete, in the back of our minds, we expect that there’s an angle to it.  From home run records in baseball, to running, to cycling, we’ve seen scandals in all these sports.  Does that mean we have to go back and place asterisks beside championship records?

In politics, it’s expected that liberties will be taken with the truth at any given opportunity.  Little wonder that most thinking people hold politicians with such disregard if not contempt.  Usually, it’s the outright impossible lies that we hear, the ones that pander to a naive audience, such as balancing the budget, reducing the deficit, equality for all or fixing global warming.  Those are transparent and people actually expect those lies.  Kind of like enhanced breasts on a porn star.  Everyone knows they’re fake, but so what.  But when it comes to lies about personal achievements, it speaks to character and such lies should not be tolerated by the populace regardless of partisan leanings. 

In the case of athletes, well, it’s entertainment and people will believe what they want to believe, but in the more serious theater of politics, character is everything.  If someone can look into the eyes of constituents and tell a verifiable bold face lie, then nothing the person says has any credibility regardless of intent or circumstance.  I’m fond of old sayings because there’s often wisdom in them.  The one that comes to mind here is that people deserve the government they get.

But to me, the most galling thing about cheating and lying on the part of public figures is the implied contempt for everyone being misled.  It’s as if the perps think that the public is too stupid to simply check the facts.  Unfortunately, there is precedent for these assumptions.  The public has been misled on all kinds of things and often, the same things.  The Lucy and Charlie Brown football scenario comes to mind.  At the moment, only the most naive or partisan person could possibly believe the pronouncements being foisted on the public by those in charge.  Like congressman Blumenthal, the present administration contemptuously believes that people will not be able to simply verify that their pronouncements are just categorically untrue.

Given that politicians are mainly lawyers and this administration is no exception, mendacity is a required trait for success in that racket.  Interestingly an article written recently for the U.K. Telegraph, here, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7730522/Lying-children-will-grow-up-to-be-successful-citizens.html  actually characterises kids who can lie effectively in early life as being successful in adult life.  So, they imply fibbing is actually a success trait.  Maybe the truth shall set you free, but the fib will make you rich.

link Paintings Worth Millions Stolen from Paris Museum – WSJ.com.

As if.  I think what they mean is, paintings insured for millions stolen.  As may be obvious to readers, I am skeptical of valuations placed on “priceless” works of art by long dead artists.  With assets worldwide going into the tank from real estate, to stock, to bonds, to perhaps even hard metals, the ability for anyone to sell and receive value for “priceless” works of art are few.  The better way to recoup value for these pieces is from the insurance companies.  That may be a cynical accusation on my part, but when you think of the logic of it, there’s more validity than insanity. 

If the pieces were stolen, then the thieves can only realize value in one of a few ways.  One, they can resell to a collector for some discounted price.  Presumably, this collector has the money and power to thumb their nose at laws against stealing such things and in fact, perhaps even hired the thieves in the first place.  Two, they can strike a deal with the insurance companies to return the pieces for a “small” reward.  Most likely, the thieves will try to capture value for the pieces right away, like Goldman Sachs doing an arb trade.  Presumably, lots of money was spent to set this up, to pay off people and for logistics.  That money has to be retrieved in order to offset these costs.  And there had to be costs involved.  Anyone who has seen the movie, The Thomas Crown Affair would have an idea of the planning that’s involved with a heist like this.  One doesn’t just hire some unibrow thugs to lift the pieces off the wall and saunter out of the museum with them under their arms. 

I’m sure the insurance companies have their crack sleuths on this right away. It’s not as if they didn’t know where to look.  How many people could have pulled this off anyway? Groups that would be in a position to move or receive hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art are likely a small fraternity. 

Here is my suggestion for catching or at least annoying the thieves.  If there is a ransom demand of some kind, try this approach:

Ring ring.  “Hello, Lloyd’s of London, how may I help you?”

” I’m calling about the recent art heist.  We’re willing to return the art for a reward”

“Hmm, yes, well about that, we’ve decided to just let it be.”

“Pardon me?”

“Yes, we’ve decided it’s more trouble than it’s worth to look for them, so we’ll just write it off and find something else to replace them”

“What!! You can’t do that!   These are timeless works by the great masters!  You have to get them back!”

“Actually, they weren’t that great anyway and they cost way too much to insure.  The premiums we received weren’t worth it.  We think we’ll go with some newer stuff, you can keep the pieces”

“But we don’t want them, we want money!”

“Sorry”

“We’ll give you a discount!”

“Again, sorry”

“We’ll throw in frames”

“Look, we really don’t care.  They really weren’t worth that much in the first place, we just used them to collect insurance premiums from the idiots who were willing to pay them.  Over the years, we’ve got our money out of them, Sotheby’s got their cut and now it’s time to move on”.

“Hey, that’s dishonest and not fair!”

“It’s just business”

“What are we supposed to do with these things then?!!”

“Try Ebay.  Have a nice day”