Choose your allusion-- the sword of Damocles finally striking, the chickens coming home to roost, karma being an ill-tempered bitch-- but Barry Lamar is now up against it for breaking the law, breaking the law. Personally, we were a bit stunned that it happened, coming as it did years after the actual case. (Alas, we're cavemen -- we fell on some ice, froze, and thawed by scientists. Your world frightens and confuses us ever so!)

Bonds' attorney issued a statement, calling malfeasance on everyone involved, except his client, and now wants to go after the Justice Department for doing all sorts of bad things to his boy. Bond's flunky, Greg Anderson, was also released from prison, and speculation is that either that the Government doesn't need him anymore. (Or that he finally sang like a bird.)

And just to be clear, the indictment says they have proof Barry was on the juice.

Reaction, of course, abounded. The Giants issued a statement saying it was a very sad day. Bud Selig issued a statement saying it was a very sad day. George Mitchell of the Mitchell investigation issued a statement saying it was a very sad day. Even the President, who as owner of the Texas Rangers had a veritable drug bazaar going on with his team, weighed in to say it was a...very sad day. And somewhere out there, Henry Aaron jumped up and down shouted "take that, bitch." On local message boards, the reaction was everywhere, from a shrug variety to apologist to disgust at everyone and everything. Elsewhere, noticeable glee can be discerned.

So what's next for Barry Lamar? He's supposed to appear in court on December 13, which should make for quite the circus. Among other things, we cannot wait to see his mug shot posted on the Smoking Gun. There he will enter a plea and things will go from there. We do, however, have a hunch that this will mean he will remain unsigned for next year. However, the Giants do need a power hitter, and he should come pretty cheap.

Of course, what this mess means is an increase in warm weather coming from all the hot air from the blowhards out there who like to throw words around like "shame" about this. You'll hear a lot of talk about how this is a huge blow to baseball, how a sport that just made $6 billion will be in trouble, and how come nobody thinks of the children. Just like they did after the NBA referee scandal and Michael Vick, and going back a few years to Pete Rose. Although we still think Barry cheated, we also think, along with Deadspin, that he's been made the Official Sacrificial Lamb of the Steroids Era. That's what happens when you're, well, a dick.

We also noticed that Bob Golic's announcement that he took steroids, but that confession caused nothing but a shrug (partly, we guess, because ESPN pretended it didn't happen.) Like a lot of people, we also love those Nike ads featuring noted steroid user Shawne Merriman.

In the end, steroids bug the crap out of us, but we just don't care. By default we suspect nothing is on the up-and-up in sports anymore. And if you go into it with that attitude, what does something like this mean?

Here we are now, just entertain us.