Assault Charge Brought Against Pistorius

Oscar Pistorius -- aka The Blade Runner -- has been accused of assaulting a young woman attending a party thrown by the South African athlete. (Pistorius claims the 19-year-old woman injured herself by kicking a door.) If the accusations prove to be true, I can only hope things didn't go down like this:

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Pis-, Pis-, Pistorius

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has overturned the IAAF's ban of Oscar Pistorius. Pistorius, who will now be able to compete for a spot in Beijing, wept with joy and relief upon hearing the news, then promptly ate a bar of the local, artisanal Swiss chocolate... probably with the aid of some sort of mechanical device.

In a totally unrelated story, donations for a pending operation that I desperately need to... er... save my life, can be sent via PayPal.

And, in a third totally unrelated story, if anyone has a spare pair of Nickelodeon Moon-Shoes in their basement or garage that they no longer want or need, please e-mail me and I will be happy to take them off your hands.

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IAAF Hates the Disabled

Is that OK? Can I say "disabled"? Or is it "slightly less-abled, in certain specific ways that are dependent on physical characteristics typically found in a majority of the populace"? The IAAF ruled today that Oscar Pistorius is a persona non grata, as far as its competitions are concerned. The ruling made the frontpage of NYTimes.com for a portion of the morning and apparently "hinged" on energy absorption ratios in Pistorius' j-blades versus the human ankle. (Get it? "Hinged?")

What I found FAR more interesting, though, is that the Times built a slideshow comparing the "muscle" systems in Pistorius and those in, shall we say "traditional"? human legs. Without asserting it outright, the captions in the slideshow clearly suggest that someone at the Times thinks Pistorius is actually at a significant disadvantage and is getting screwed. I'm surprised that a major (the major?) paper would give the story such coverage, let alone care enough to position itself on one side of the debate or the other.

Then again, I can see their point: I've used something similar to the j-blade and must admit they didn't make me any faster.

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ESPN Picks Up Story on Pistorius Ruling

Just an AP wire story, but ESPN.com has the pending ruling on Pistorius' Olympic status on its front page in the sidebar. No real news here, but I found it a little surprising that it would make the front page of (arguably) the #1 sports website in the world.

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