A note about the doping scandal (discussed below):

it should of course be remembered that the named athletes may have done nothing wrong. Marion Jones, for example, has been subpoenaed in the tax case. She'll be asked to testify about payments made to BALCO. But even if she did business with BALCO, she may just have purchased their legitimate products.

Indeed, this whole thing might turn out to be hype. Cops always like to hype big busts, especially drug busts.

The folks in the anti-doping community, moreover, are perpetually hysterical. When potential doping infractions become known, they add to the hype, because big busts justify their hysteria.

This might explain some of the over-the-top descriptors in the papers: "international conspiracy," "rocking the entire sports world," "this could go off like a thermonuclear device," etc.

So it's important to take the news with a grain of salt.

Then again, as my governor says, where there's smoke, there's fire. If it turns out that Marion cheated, we can expect her career and her reputation to be largely ruined.