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Saturday, December 22, 2007

WashPost: Wise: Unmasking the Real Faces of Steroids (RR)

A week after George J. Mitchell outed a league of synthetic chemists, violins still play for America’s disgraced uberhumans. It’s sad to see people—sycophant fans and media alike—showing sympathy for Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and other publicly embarrassed stars linked to steroids....

Peter Gammons, that guardian of the game, actually called Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee “sewer rats” on television for essentially flipping on their clients, as if this were a mob movie with morals.

No, Mitchell’s two main informants were drug mules for millionaires. Nothing more. Radomski’s most despicable moment wasn’t snitching to the feds so he could avoid a possible 30-year prison sentence; it came while waiting outside hospitals, offering AIDS patients cash for their human growth hormone so he could resell it to baseball players bargaining with the devil. Greg Anderson, who did 14 months for Bonds out of some warped code of loyalty, did the same, according to the report.

“Anderson said that he obtained the human growth hormone from AIDS patients in San Francisco. . . . Kirk Radomski also obtained human growth hormone that he resold to major league players by purchasing “kits” of the substance from AIDS patients.”....

The people who compare this to a witch hunt—the learned cynics and baseball apologists—should just go away. Enough with the Rocket and Bonds, black and white. Race. Civil liberties. Enough.

The steroid epidemic is about class warfare. It’s about the wealthy, elite athlete who can afford a reputable “trainer” (a.k.a. dealer), the best health care and a lawyer; and the teenager who has to make a ‘roid run to Guadalajara so he can pick up some veterinary-grade drugs used to improve the muscularity of beef cattle....

The Post’s “other” columnist opens both barrels on the “willing buyers and the willing sellers”....

Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Marching Through Georgia Posted: December 22, 2007 at 08:51 AM | 12 comment(s)
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1. Mark Shirk (jsch) Posted: December 22, 2007 at 08:34 AM (#2652112)

You know what is funny? I would have considered the new media and fans who can't wait to deride Clemens, Bonds, et al as the sycophants.

And I could be wrong but from the passage above, wouldn't those running say, Cocaine, into the United States from South or Central America be onsidered merely drug mules for the upper middle class addicts? Those damned users!

2. PatrickInTheWoods, Apostate Posted: December 22, 2007 at 10:41 AM (#2652140)

Isn't that why the War on (Some) Drugs is futile? That it's really a demand side problem?

3. Gambling Rent Czar Posted: December 22, 2007 at 03:31 PM (#2652335)

couple of things here ..

* Obviously he has no idea where Guadalajara is. It would take you at least a two drive into deep Mexico

* Those Aids patients were selling their kits to bodybuilders. They had no idea where they were going. They were getting $1000.00 a pop for something the government gave them for free. If there was no HGH in baseball, they would still be selling their kits to gym rats.

* as a typical white reporter, his argument into the race debate is to tell everybody to sweep it under the rug, or in typical fashion, just shut up. figures.

* He keeps mentioning the rich taking advantage of the poor, which leads me to believe he never even read the report, or worse, never even looked at the list of names that came out.

in conclusion.
the dude is an idiot.

4. Sam Hutcheson (perhaps some sort of ninja) Posted: December 22, 2007 at 06:34 PM (#2652420)

I'm pretty sure anyone who writes "The people who compare this to a witch hunt—the learned cynics and baseball apologists—should just go away. Enough with the Rocket and Bonds, black and white. Race. Civil liberties. Enough," can be discarded as an idiot. I mean, I know the "can't we just make civil liberties go away" notion is really popular in DC these days, but that doesn't make the proponents of that position any less stupid. Or dangerous.

5. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Marching Through Georgia

Posted: December 22, 2007 at 07:28 PM (#2652438)

Watch out, Sam. Mike already knows who you are, and you're next. The Stalinist takeover is just about complete.

6. Gonfalon Bubble Posted: December 22, 2007 at 08:18 PM (#2652462)

'No, no!' said the Queen. 'Sentence first - verdict afterwards.'

'Stuff and nonsense!' said Alice loudly. 'The idea of having the sentence first!'

'Hold your tongue!' said the Queen, turning purple.

7. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Marching Through Georgia

Posted: December 22, 2007 at 08:55 PM (#2652476)

First they came for the juicers, but I did not protest, for I was not a juicer.

Then they came for the pill poppers, but I did not protest, for I was not a pill popper.

Then they came for the cokeheads, but I did not protest, for they bore me.

Then they came for the cigarette smokers, but I did not protest, even though some of my best friends were cigarette smokers. It was a close call, though, and I sincerely wish them well in their extended vacations.

Then they came for the Bud Lite drinkers, and I merely yawned and asked, "What's new in Uzbekistan?"

Then they came for the libertarians, and I said "it's about f*ck*ng time! Fingerprint em all, and don't miss the one hiding behind that 'Who Is John Galt?' sign!"

And then on the seventh day I rested with the Sunday Times. Hey, ya see the Knicks dropped another two?

8. Srul Itza Posted: December 22, 2007 at 10:40 PM (#2652506)

Hey, ya see the Knicks dropped another two?

What, they can't lose fast enough playing one game at a time, so now they're playing double-headers?

9. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Marching Through Georgia

Posted: December 22, 2007 at 11:19 PM (#2652516)

Hey, ya see the Knicks dropped another two?

What, they can't lose fast enough playing one game at a time, so now they're playing double-headers?

Sorry, Srul, I guess the reference was before your time. But the old Doonesbury strip has always stuck in my mind:

B.D., the American soldier, and Phred, the VietCong guerrilla, are wandering around the South Vietnamese backcountry, when they're almost blown up by a U.S. Air Force bomb.

Phred shakes his fist at the bomber, shouting, "You heartless air pirates! I hope you can live with it! I hope you can live with all the destruction and carnage you've brought to my little country!!"

Up in the bomber cockpit, the pilot and copilot are talking:

"Didja hear the Knicks took two?"

"Heey! That's great!"

Of course since this is 2007 rather than ca. 1970, the "Knicks took two" line had to be updated. There has to be some connection to reality....

10. Gambling Rent Czar Posted: December 23, 2007 at 12:03 AM (#2652529)

What, they can't lose fast enough playing one game at a time, so now they're playing double-headers?

You act like this is a bad thing.
Doesn't matter anyways.

Lakers are hanging another banner this year.

11. Gonfalon Bubble Posted: December 23, 2007 at 12:04 AM (#2652530)

Of course since this is 2007 rather than ca. 1970, the "Knicks took two" line had to be updated.

"Didja hear the Knicks took dehydroehIarmethyItestosterone?"

12. Gambling Rent Czar Posted: December 23, 2007 at 12:18 AM (#2652535)

"Didja hear the Knicks took dehydroehIarmethyItestosterone?"

is that the problem? tuff break. :)

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Saturday, December 22, 2007

WashPost: Wise: Unmasking the Real Faces of Steroids (RR)

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