Please remember to drink responsibly.

Alcoholic beverage technology has taken another giant leap forward. 100 proof Absolut. That's 50% alcohol, for those of you scoring at home.

I suppose there's a market for it, or else the evil geniuses at Absolut wouldn't bother printing up a bottle, but ya gotta wonder...

Most states already have the .08 BAC (Blood Alcohol Level) in place and it appears to be headed lower, so it's likely that soon you'll be legally intoxicated at .06, which to me means you'd be better off drinking at home or not at all.

And another thing: If they can sell this stuff (and other high percentage alcoholic beverages) why can't they sell marijuana legally? I don't have the time or energy to get into that argument.

Speaking of which, energy has been lacking for this endeavor lately, as you regular readers no doubt have noticed. I hardly noticed myself that it had been since Wednesday that I posted something. Time flies.

I'm not in the newspaper business or the news business in general, so maybe my opinion doesn't matter - or maybe because I'm not it matters more - either way, I don't appreciate the fact that this Barry Bonds story keeps showing up in the Sports section. It isn't a sports story.

Sports is about games and people talking about games. This story is far removed from the game. Unfortunately, it's just beginning and we'll be treated to it for (as Eeyore said) "days, weeks, months ... who knows?"

He'll contend his innocence right up to the point where they throw his ass in jail ...

... wait

He's a celebrity. I forgot. He'll be found guilty and serve some cockamamey sentence that makes him a special case, like those nitwit girls who go to jail for DUI for two hours or Mike Tyson, who practically had the jail cleared out so he could serve his ridiculous sentence.

We're supposed to be a nation of laws, not men; which means that regardless of our station in life we are to be treated the same in the eyes of the law, but we know that doesn't happen.

If you can hit a baseball or otherwise turn yourself into a celebrity your road is paved and your papers are stamped long before you make your first mistake.

Which makes me wonder if any of them feel any real remorse, as you or I would. When one of us screws up it means we either lose our job or take enough of a financial hit that we spend most of the rest of our lives making it up. For these people, the financial hit is generally small and short-lived and their job doesn't suffer, since they frequently are in greater demand than they were before they were arrested. Go figure.

Bonds made countless millions playing baseball and he'll spend a few of them in his legal defense, but there will remain the lucrative post-conviction career of writing books and signing autographs for money that awaits him.

His shame will be short-lived.