Bro Deal said:
As TTF says, there is definitely a segment of Armstrong supportors who project their nationalistic views through Armstrong's accomplishments. I think this forms one of his more despicable wings of support. I can understand the gullible and the stupid who get sucked into the lie and either cannot see that they were wrong or refuse to admit it. But the nationalistic ones, best exemplified by CAMPYBOB on DP, are amoral.
House?
there are alot, who refuse to admit the facts, and hide behind specious defenses of definitions of evidence, of procedure.
We are not talking civil liberties. We are trying to get the most realistic picture.
To deny the presence of the positive samples, deny Vaughters and Andreu IM, to deny the insulin and actovegin and blood swabs in the medical waste, is to deny the facts.
The facts are the 6 positives are compromised, but they are what they are. Compromised, but they exist, they exist in that status, where you attribute enough weight according to their compromised status.
To dismiss them out of hand, is, exactly the same as suggesting Armstrong should have his 1999 win taken back because he was doped. You cannot revoke his status in the annals of history because of the compromised samples. But the samples, compromised as they are, exist.
The relationship to Ferrari exists.
You cannot dismiss them out of hand. That is the disingenuousness and insidiousness of defending Armstrong. You have to dismiss all evidence. I do not think the compromised samples existing on their own attribute to much, but the sheer cumulative weight of all information surrounding Armstrong paints the most damning reality.
House can support Armstrong, and say he cannot be sure, but that is insidious, and just as malignant as any cancer, as it allows the Commander in Chief to take you into a war, without the keen criticism, and holding powerful individuals to account.