Question re: Mark McGwire and Steriod Use January 11, 2010
Posted by Evil Bender in Drugs, sports.Tags: baseball, Mark McGwire
1 comment so far
Generally, I’m right on board with John Amato, but I have to take issue with this post.
This is a complete sham and his half hearted apology is ridiculous. How do you think the Maris family feels now after being party to the scam back in 1998 when he hit home run number 62 and they stood there watching him? ESPN’s Baseball Tonight acted like part of the PR campaign designed by the Cardinals to ease him back into the spotlight. And McGwire is only being hired to be the damn hitting coach.
Since no one seems interested in remembering this, McGwire retired in 2001, two years before the first steroid testing policy was in place, and four years before the first MLB player was suspended for PED use. So his offense, his “scam” that has Amato so upset, is that he used substances that Baseball had only explicitly banned in 1991, and never bothered to test for. No players were penalized for PED use, because MLB made no attempt to catch anyone who was “cheating” in this manner.
So, if your boss told you using Facebook on company time was against the rules, but also made it explicit that she would make no effort to enforce that policy, and in fact would make a point to avoid checking to see if you ever used Facebook at work, and that there would be no outlined penalty for such use–would anyone consider it surprising, or indeed unreasonable, that you took that as a tacit endorsement of your steroid Facebook use?
Furthermore, would anyone seriously expect workers to abide by such a “policy”?
Perhaps that example is unfair. Would it be fair of me to tell my students not to copy one another’s work, but made it clear I wouldn’t notice if they did so and would not penalize any of them for doing so?
Now imagine my students have a huge personal, social and financial investment in maximizing their grade. We might not approve of their cheating, but surely outrage at it is misplaced. If anyone should be the target of outrage, it should be their foolish and irresponsible teacher.
Snark aside, I’m not saying I approve of anyone using PEDs, especially illegal ones. And now that there is a policy in baseball, I want cheaters punished. But the Players’ Association, MLB, sports media, and indeed the fans benefited heavily from said “scam.” Mark McGwire felt an entirely reasonable drive to succeed, to be the best at what he did. We cheered him for it. We want our atheletes to be the best, and we demand nothing less from them.
At the very least, isn’t our outrage now that we know he used every advantage–including ones that were against uninforced “rules”–a little ridiculous?
(And, to head off the most obvious line of counter-attack, we can talk about the sanctity of the numbers once we have a time machine to disallow segregation.)
If I was actively rooting for the destruction of the entire world January 6, 2010
Posted by Evil Bender in wingnuts.add a comment
I suppose I’d be opposed to science fiction, too. When you’re seeking the destruction of humanity and the end of life on earth, you’re not likely to find much pleasure or instruction in sci fi.
[h/t PZ]
Sarah Palin’s dangerously unhinged rhetoric on Israel November 19, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Sarah Palin, wingnuts.2 comments
I didn’t expect to be blogging on Sarah Palin this week. I’m disgusted by the attention she’s receiving by virtue of being a petty, vindictive, self-aggrandizing idiot . But when I saw this over at FDL, I knew I had to say something:
I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.
That is, as Blue Texan at FDL points out, incredibly stupid. But that misses the larger issue: this is a clear dog-whistle to the most extreme and crazy of Evangelicals, because the whole “flocking to Israel” thing is code for “the Rapture and Tribulation are coming soon.” Palin is sending a clear message that she thinks the world is ending soon, and Jesus Christ will save the true believers.
We’ll need to watch closely to see if she gives hints on whether she thinks Obama is the Antichrist. I’m not kidding.
Bush was Evangelical, but Palin looks to be positioning herself as something more: a radical religionist who appears to honestly believe the world is soon coming to an end. And “Country First” John McCain would have put her one heartbeat from the Presidency.
I don’t have a joke here, folks. This should be absolutely terrifying to anyone who follows the Fundies.
Certain people just shouldn’t make certain arguments November 4, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Morality, Religion, wingnuts.1 comment so far
I probably won’t be posting much in the future: the semester has me buried in work, and I just picked up Dragon Age: Origins.
I do have to note, though, that scumbag convicted felons/political hacks probably aren’t wise to lecture on the immorality of atheists. When your opponents need do nothing but refer to your biography to refute your thesis, you’ve made a tactical error.
Seriously, wingnuts, you’ve got to stop this October 22, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Humor, wingnuts.3 comments
Dear Wingnuts,
Please, please, please stop publishing lists of “Top Conservative ________.” Yes, they’re unintentionally hilarious, and yes, they’re misguided, and yes, their obsessive concern with ideological purity is creepily totalitarian. But that’s not why you should stop–if you stopped doing all those things, what would you feel countless pages at WingnutDaily and ClownHall? No, you need to stop because it’s been scientificially proven* that laughing too hard can cause one to “blow a funny fuse,” to use the technical term, and if I read one more of these lists, I won’t be able to laugh again for years.
Then I’d have no choice but to take you seriously, and frankly we both know you’re not up to that.
So please, stop publishing these lists. Do it for the laughter!
Kisses,
EB
*no it hasn’t.
Analogies that just don’t work: football and dogfighting edition October 12, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Morality, sports.7 comments
So those of you with very strong stomachs can read this piece on “Football, dog fighting and brain damage,” which has a disturbing and important point to make about the substantial dangers football players face. That’s a worthwhile subject, and I wish everyone working to shed light on the dangers of the sport the best of luck.
But I have to say, I find the comparison to dog fighting which informs the essay to be repulsive. Malcolm Gladwell avoids making the implications of the comparison explicit, and carefully sidesteps drawing direct moral equivalence, but in my reading the implication is clear, and I don’t appear to be the only one.
So the question is, as Paul Campos asks, why is dog fighting more morally repugnant than football?
The answer, it seems to me, is simple: football involves adults who willingly engage in a high-risk livelihood. Dog fighting is a “sport” in which animals who have no choice are tortured for human amusement. Dog fighting is much more morally repugnant than football for the same reason gladiatorial contests would be. This isn’t just about level of potential injury, but about consent: professional athletes can give it, dogs cannot.
Before anyone suggests otherwise, I don’t mean to suggest that we shouldn’t do more to protect athletes, nor that football doesn’t present some morally difficult situations. But it is quite simply no comparison to an activity where powerless beings are tortured for the amusement of those with the power. Yes, I know we can perform a class and race analysis of football, and I’m open to that. But highly paid professionals taking risks with their own health is simply not comparable to the horrors dog fighting visits upon dogs.
Honestly, I thought this sort of distinction went without saying, at least among thinking people. Maybe I was wrong.
Wingnut, distilled to pure form October 1, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in wingnuts.1 comment so far
I give you Red State’s Erick Erickson, who is threatening to disband his police department rather than let police unionize.
Just toss that link to anyone who says wingnuts are about anything but helping the rich shit on everyone else.
Bob Barr ups the crazy September 9, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in wingnuts.add a comment
We knew Bob Barr was nuts, but it seems he’s gone going for the rare triple-winger reverse. If he sticks the landing, he’ll be Palin’s VP nod.
This particularly irks me because of the many hugely important (and bipartisan) roles of the census.
In case you were wondering, by the way, here’s Barry Sotero’s latest Marxist Fascist plot in all its glory. We’ve reached so low that teaching children about a Constitutionally mandated program that benefits everyone is an evil child slave labor government spying evil school program.
I’m seriously about an inch from stocking up on dog food and garden supplies and hunkering down in Canada for a few decades.
