“I agree that we might as well accept steroids and perfomance enhancing drugs in sports. Professional sports are what they are, not much different than WWF. However, I think for the sake of the record books we should clearly demarcate when this acceptance took place. I would say we should put a giant asterisk on baseball records established after 1990. When people have discussions about the greatest baseball player ever we should add “enhanced” to the discription. We cannot compare Barry Bonds to say Hank Aaron, Willie Mays or Babe Ruth because we have no idea how good they would have been if they too were technologically enhanced. As a service to our children we should also, very clearly, show what happens to steroid users like Lyle Alzado or Ken Caminiti. They then can decide to take this ultimate gamble with complete disclosure.”
Absolutely. The other obvious problem is that some young athletes will be tempted to wreck their bodies by excessive amounts of steroids or other substances. They win now and die early later. My view is that as long as everything is disclosed and these decisions are made by adults, then fine. Eventually, some kind of equilibrium will result. Equally, if all sports figures are chemically enhanced, no one will have an unfair advantage. A reader notes a recent book that has covered this topic: “Better than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream,” by Carl Elliott.
TILLMAN: He died. They lied.
THE IRONIES: Here’s a fascinating tidbit:
One of the shows most popular with Republicans, especially Republican women ages 18 to 34, turned out to be “Will & Grace,” the sitcom about gay life in New York. As a result, while Mr. Bush was shoring up his conservative credentials by supporting a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, his advertising team was buying time on a program that celebrates gay culture.
Actually, I don’t find that a surprise. The gay characters on “Will and Grace” are either mainstream and sex-less, like Will, or the gay version of “Step’n’fetchit”, from an actor who refuses to say publicly that he’s gay. That’s exactly how many Republicans like their homosexuals. Just don’t ask to be treated like an equal human being.
The Dish 