Next week, on Thursday, January 17 at around 9 PM in the evening, the world as we know it will come to an end, so saith the Armstrong / Mayan Calendar.  Well, it's not really going to come to an end, at least for most people.  For those Lancelings out there, followers of Armstrong, it may well might.  That is the night Lance is going to sit down for a tete-a-tete with Oprah.  There is a lot of opinion circulating out there about this meeting of the minds.  Supposedly, no question is forbidden.  I think this is horse shit.  I suspect you could bet the bib of your aging US Postal kit that every question and answer has been negotiated and not worry about having to ride bottomless.  This does not mean they're not going to speak about his alleged doping; that's the whole point of the conversation.  Oh, and if doubt he's going to admit to something, you're wrong.  Lance needs to do a public mea culpa and he can't think of a better place to do it.  Oprah, meet Lance.  Lance, meet Oprah.

Bare bones confession at best

Of course you need to keep in mind this is going to be a milquetoast confession at best.  There will be just enough detail for him to feel exonerated but not nearly enough for his accusers to feel vindicated.  He's not going to give them that pleasure.  This is why he chose Oprah.  She will ask something like "did you ever use performance enhancers?" And his response will be something like "sadly, there was a time, when I was youthful and naive and easily persuaded by those whose only motive was greed by those who promised me the world and I foolishly believed them."  Wait, is there a confession in all those words?  Hell no, not really.  You see, the real reason for this interview is not for him to come clean but for him to get over the speed bump that he wasn't expecting.  In response to his Texas Sidestep response, Oprah will undoubtedly say "Oh, Lance."  

Personally, I think if he really wanted to come clean he'd have arranged an interview with Barbra Walters.  Of course, he wouldn't have liked that.  She would have nailed his ass to the wall.  Damn right, she would have grilled him, frying out all of those greasy confessions that have made him so slick for all of these years.  Which is why he chose Oprah, who will slap his hand.  I do believe he does feel this will be enough, he will be over the speed bump and will be able to go about doing what ever he wants.  I don't think he understands the seriousness of his crime, but then he's been lying to himself about it for years.

Karma, meet Lance, Lance, meet Karma

So, I guess Monday is the day when Lance officially finds out if he's being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.  Personally, I think it's pretty much a foregone conclusion, so does he, I suspect.  Is his view on reality going to change much?  I don't think so.  Do a simple search and you'll find all of his number one fans are in the same boat.  They are creating a mild roar with inanities such as "everybody else was doing it."  But everybody else didn't pose themselves off as a cancer survivor who became an honest to God superior athlete.  Everybody else didn't rake in millions through endorsements or date rock stars.  Sure, he started Livestrong, but even while his foundation was doing good, Armstrong was still cheating to win.

When I was young I was taught lots of rules on behavior, rules I remember and live by today.  One of those is "Cheaters never win and winners never cheat."  Armstrong cheated and thought he had won, now he's going to find out he didn't.  That's really bad Karma, and it's really going to bite him in his ass.    Perhaps he thought the good of Livestrong would balance out his appalling behavior.  Or perhaps another sad reality is that the foundation was just another way to feed his ego.  Now he's no longer on the board and they are going to have the unpleasant task dealing with what, ten, twelve, thirteen years of his lies.  And don't think it isn't going to be unpleasant.  He has tainted that organization.  Bad, bad Karma.

You do know what Karma is, don't you?  What goes around comes around.  I began to suspect this day would arrive when he came out of retirement to form Team Radioshack.  While all the Lanclings were cheering rah, rah, rah and I was scratching my head wondering why Hincapie wasn't on the team.  They'd seemed to have been buds for years.  Then, during the Tour, Armstrong led an attack which kept  Hincapie from winning the stage.  Even Paul Sherwin was wondering about Armstrong's actions.  Armstrong went on to blame Garmin.  Hincapie didn't see it that way.   While being interviewed he let loose his outrage at Armstrong.  When I heard that I knew the shit was just starting to hit the fan.  The way I understand it, George was one of the twenty-six who gave eyewitness testimony about Armstrong and doping.  What went around once is coming back around again with Lance Armstrong in it's sights.  That man has really bad, bad Karma.

Armstrong's dirty bed

So, he says he's had enough, he's going to be a martyr, right.  I'll honestly say I've never been an Lance Armstrong fan.  Even when he was attempting to be cordial he always came across as just a bit too aloof for me.  Did he dope to win the Tour de France?  I suspect so.  Sure, a lot of cyclists were caught and penalized, but a lot got away with it.  I first began to believe the charges when Hincapie wasn't picked up by Team Radioshack.   George used to always be watching Armstrong's back and all of sudden he wasn't.  Very, very odd... but maybe not if Lance new George was going to testify against him.  Hhmm.  In fact, I spent some time this afternoon trying to find some sort of support from his other cycling buddies and couldn't find so much as a snippet.  what happened to all of those buddies of his?  Why would they leave him high and dry?  Of course maybe Lance is only the friendliest person around when he wants to be, when there something in it for him.

You made it Lance, you sleep in it

And then there was his retirement.  Superstars do not go quietly into the night, they like to linger and bask in the glory, not Lance.  He retired and began to put as much distance between himself and cycling as he could.  That's odd.  People who are guilty do odd things because they're using some different rational to which you and I have no access.  I do have to laugh at some of the comments people have been making about how he has a family to support.  What bozos.  Do any of these people have an inkling of how much Lance Armstrong is really worth?