(AP) Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps was sentenced to 18 months probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to drunken driving.
“I recognize the seriousness of this mistake. I’ve learned from this mistake and will continue learning from this mistake for the rest of my life,” Phelps told the judge as more than 100 spectators packed the courtroom, mostly to see the famed Olympic champion.
“It’s not out of line with other first-time offenders who blow .08 in Wicomico County,” State’s Attorney Davis Ruark said of Phelps’ sentence. Prosecutors said Phelps had a .08 blood alcohol content — the legal limit in Maryland.
Phelps was stopped by a state trooper on Nov. 4 for running a stop sign near Salisbury University, about 85 miles southeast of Baltimore.
Phelps, [age 19,] who won eight medals at the Athens Olympics, was charged with driving under the influence, driving while impaired, violation of a license restriction and failure to obey a stop sign. Maryland’s drinking age is 21.
So let me get this straight:
Michael Phelps was convicted of illegally using a hard drug (alcohol is a hard, though legal, drug and Phelps was 19, not legal age to use it) when caught driving a car, running a stop sign, and pushing the legal limit for intoxication. Michael Phelps could’ve caused a serious accident and injured or killed himself and others. Kellogg’s didn’t seem to have a problem with that being “not consistent with the image of Kellogg”.
Michael Phelps was photographed using an illegal soft drug in the privacy of someone’s dorm room. This action would cause zero harm to others and only temporary, negligible harm to himself (“harm” being “getting high”), and, ironically enough, give Phelps the kind of munchies that are best cured with a Kellogg product. That’s a big enough issue for Kellogg to drop Phelps for being “not consistent with the image of Kellogg”.
Let’s review: according to Kellogg’s, public drunk driving: OK, private pot smoking: unacceptable.
[UPDATE: Yes, I know that Michael Phelps didn't sign with Kellogg's until 2008. The point is that Kellogg's didn't seem to think a conviction of drunk driving, an act that can harm others, should prevent Kellogg's from signing Phelps.]
From this moment forward, I purchase and eat no Kellogg’s products. That includes the brands Kellogg’s®, Keebler®, Pop-Tarts®, Eggo®, Cheez-It®, Club®, Nutri-Grain®, Rice Krispies®, All-Bran®, Special K®, Mini-Wheats®, Chips Deluxe®, Sandies®, Morningstar Farms®, Famous Amos®, and Murray®. (Cheez-Its?!? NO!!!) I encourage you to do the same.
Kellogg Company contacts:
Consumer complaints: http://www2.kelloggs.com/ContactUs.aspx
Media Relations: media.hotline@kellogg.com
Kellogg Company
P.O. Box CAMB
Battle Creek, Michigan 49016.
Consumer inquiries should contact our Consumer Affairs Department at 800-962-1413
Also, take a minute to let USA Swimming know how you feel:
USA Swimming Contact:
http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=26&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en (use on-line contact form) or:
1 Olympic Plaza
Colorado Springs, CO 80909
Phone: 719.866.4578
Fax: 719.866.4669
More fun graphics after the break…
Contact your elected representatives and urge them to 'Stop Arresting Marijuana Smokers'. 
Cheez-its suck anyways, go with the cheez snips.
kelloggs cerials are loaded with diabetes causing sugar which they push on children with their cartoon character, dealers. anyone who feeds their kids that crap should be arrested for child endangerment.
It is astounding how many famous people that have used cannabis in thier lives and thru out their careers with absolutely no problems with the choice they have made to use cannabis and then those who have been made public because of cannabis use become fodder by hypocrites and moralists who more than likely drink,consume tobacco,coffee or addicted to porn or precription drugs.
When you watch shows like celebrity rehab or Intervention, the substance of abuse is always alcohol, precscription drugs, meth, coke or something else and not cannabis.It was either used in conjunction with the others but it was not the addiction that the patients were adressing in rehab.
But cannabis is always is an easy scapegoat when the word drugs is used in that context to make the correlation. Especially the word marijuana, as its origins and beginings are from the prohibitionists of that era using racial overtones to stigmatize and label the mexican workers and that has carried over today.
When someone is caught with cannabis they are charged with a marijuana crime, guilty by word association.The word marijuana has connotations from that past propaganda.It is like when one is arrested and the mugshot is always taken to show the suspect dirty, greasy, and dishoveled because it equals guilt unless you are Lindsay or Paris who always look good in their mugshot when they had trouble consuming alcohol.
Michael Phelps is the new whipping boy for the hypocritical ethics and rationales of the moralists and prohibitionists. They must disparage him to justify thier beliefs that when you use cannabis you will be worthless to society because of this history of conditioning and propagnda says it is fact but Mr. Phelps has proven them and this theory wrong.
Michael Phelps is the antithesis to all of this propagnada and conditioning.Look at what you can accomplish with the assistance of cannabis,
a world class athlete and a gold medal world record holder not a leach on society as the moralists and prohibitionists would have you believe.
He will be crucified for not following or behaving in the pretext of the propaganda set forth to one being so successful in this society.
He has confirmed the war on cannabis is the biggest hypocritical lie ever perpetuated by the goverment and those who justify their professions.
He has shattered the stereotype and belief system of those who will maintain the window dressing of moralists and prohibitionists and the war on drugs.They will follow thier conditioning and propaganda to debts of hell knowing full well on their way down the abyss that they are foolish and no longer the majority.
The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself. ~Jane Addams
The devil loves nothing better than the intolerance of reformers. ~James Russell Lowell
We need a symbol to rally around. We need people who work for Kellogg’s to see that there are MANY of us who oppose their foolishness, reject their hypocrisy, and won’t be eating their cereal any more.
We need t-shirts. buttons. bumperstickers.
If someone were REALLY brave, they’d charge just enough to break even in selling T-shirts with the “No Tony the Tiger” logo. Or maybe you should charge a fair price with a good profit; those corporate vermin at Kellogg’s will undoubtedly sue you.
Now’s no time for “sunshine patriots.” We’re in the dark winter of prohibition. Who’s going to stand up for freedom? Who’s going to make our nation’s founders–rebels down to their bones–proud of their legacy?