DRUGS AND BASEBALL

Given the problems facing this country and the rest of the world, one would think that Congress would have better things to do than hold hearings to determine whether or not overpaid prima donna athletes ingested performance enhancing substances. Why should it matter to Congress? If Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds or any other baseball star took steroids, how does that negatively impact my life or yours? The only life it directly effects is the user's. As a baseball fan, I have discussed this issue with other fans, and virtually no one is outraged. The subject is usually met with a shrug and an admission that no one is really surprised that this sort of cheating goes on. If the fans couldn't care less, why should the Federal Government? Even the players themselves have not risen up in outrage over the use of Human Growth Hormone and steroids by some of their fellow players.

The Government's involvement is wholly unneccessary in attempting to police this problem. There is a very simple solution, and it doesn't require an act of Congress. Simply test every major league baseball player at regular intervals, and make public all the players that tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Then let the fans decide if they want to support these cheaters or not. If fans are sufficiently outraged, they will no longer purchase tickets to the games, buy souveniers and jerseys, and stop watching the games on TV. Baseball owners will get that message loud and clear. On the other hand, if the fans and fellow players know who the cheats are and still don't care, why should anyone else? And is it really cheating and fraud when everyone is aware of who is doing it, while allowing it to continue?

We take sports way too seriously in this country. If a bunch of millionaires want to inject themselves with potentially health threatening substances that pose no threat to anyone else as they do so, then I say let them. It's their livelihoods and lives.
Let Congress tackle truly serious issues--like holding Congressional hearings to investigate substance abuse by Congressmen.

END OF A MYTH

Now that Super Tuesday, 2008 has been relegated to the history books, it is time to lay to rest the myth of America being a racist nation. Barack Obama won 13 of the 21 states in question and is now neck and neck with Hillary Clinton in the all important delegate count. Exit polls showed that Obama garnered 80% of the Black vote--certainly no surprise; but exit polls also showed that he received the majority of white male votes--the very group that is typically cast as the most racist. In truth, the African American community, as well as leftists, love to characterize white Americans as racist, bigoted, white supremist rednecks. We are constantly told about the huge racial divide in this country and how racism permeates every institution. If this were true, then Barack Obama would have been soundly defeated on Super Tuesday. In fact, if white Americans were the racists we are constantly being told we are, Obama wouldn't even have gotten this far. He would have remained a mere blip on the political radar screen and forgotten months ago. Instead, he has a genuine shot at being the very first African American presidential candidate of a major political party in our history. Win or lose, the fact that he has gotten this far is proof enough that the hairshirt of racism that this country seems to wear with sado-machochistic glee should now be shed. Martin Luther King would be proud. We finally have become a color-blind nation.

RANDOM RANTS

If anyone is still unconvinced about the moral degeneracy of Islamic fundamentalists, the latest suicide bombings in Iraq should lay those doubts to rest. Islamic fascists strapped explosives to two women with Downs Syndrome. The subsequent blasts killed nearly 80 people. It is hard to conjure up a more vile act. Someone please name me another religion that has recently strapped explosives to mentally handicapped individuals for the purpose of killing innocent men, women and children...I didn't think you could.

For decades the automobile has been the bane of radical environmentalists and Greenies of all stripes, including Al Gore, Ralph Nader and Bill Clinton. They see the family car has the embodiment of corporate greed and capitalist excess and crass materialism, not to mention a defiler of nature. For them the solution is obvious. Dump the oil burners in favor of electric cars. It's that simple. The only reason we don't, we are told, is because of a conspiracy of those evil oil companies. Let's put aside the paranoid conspiracy theories and deal with scientific fact. The reason we're not all driving electric cars is because Detroit (and Japan and Germany)have been unable to perfect the technology. The batteries are heavy, cumbersome, in need of frequent recharging, and unable to generate sufficient speeds. Lithium-ion batteries--the kind that power laptops and other accessories--looked like the solution. That is, until those laptops began to catch fire because of the batteries. Not quite the safety and security required for those soccer moms driving minivans filled with kids.There is a lesson to be learned from all this. Beware of those who clamor for ends without means. Leftists would have us snap our fingers and presto! We would be living in a world of alternative energy. Never mind the tiny problem of how we get there and how we acheive this goal. They demand the ends without ever considering the means. That kind of mindset is the hallmark of the anti-intellectual.

The Mississippi state legislature is considering a bill that would make it a crime for restaurants to sell food to obese people. Talk about your nanny state. What has this country sunk to when the government outlaws feeding people? How is a restaurant owner to determine who is or is not obese? Will they need a scale at the front of their establishment? How about a tape measure to measure waist size as you enter? How about this for a law? Any legislator deemed to be obese must immediately resign his or her fat ass from office.