Month: August 2008

Doping For Fairness

Carl Elliott, who teaches at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota, has an interesting dispatch on beta blockers (which ease anxiety) and Olympic doping:

One of the most compelling arguments against performance enhancing drugs is that they produce an arms race among competitors, who feel compelled to use the drugs even when they would prefer not to, simply to stay competitive. But this argument falls away if the effects of the drug are distributed so unequally. If it’s only the nervous performers who are helped by beta blockers, there’s no reason for anyone other than nervous performers to use them. And even if everyone did feel compelled to use beta blockers, it’s unlikely that anyone would experience untoward health effects, because beta blockers are safe, cheap, and their effects wear off in a few hours. So unlike users of human growth hormone and steroids, users of beta blockers don’t have to worry about their heads growing or their testicles shrinking. You don’t even have to take them regularly. All you have to do is take a small, 10 mg tablet about an hour before your performance.

Who Does Randy Scheuneman Work For?

Pat Buchanan points out a salient fact:

From January 2007 to March 2008, the McCain campaign paid Scheunemann $70,000 — pocket change compared to the $290,000 his Orion Strategies banked in those same 15 months from the Georgian regime of Mikheil Saakashvili. What were Mikheil’s marching orders to Tbilisi’s man in Washington? Get Georgia a NATO war guarantee. Get America committed to fight Russia, if necessary, on behalf of Georgia. Scheunemann came close to succeeding.

That a key McCain adviser nearly got NATO committed to a war with Russia over South Ossetia should send up alarms about a McCain presidency. Is there any war McCain would not be prepared to launch if he felt his honor were impugned or a bully was getting his way? Just because Putin is paranoid doesn’t mean McCain isn’t out to get him.

The Clinton Buzz Continues

Ed Morrissey is puzzled:

If he announces at the convention, it’s going to be Hillary Clinton.  A Hillary selection works best at the convention, providing a dramatic moment of unity.  If he waits until the media Dead Zone, I’d guess either Joe Biden or Evan Bayh.  However, one very pragmatic problem comes with Hillary: her debt.  She only retired $1.3 million off of a debt that surpassed $20 million, and that would kill Obama’s fundraising advantage over McCain — and that’s without counting the RNC’s whopping advantage over the DNC.