Steroids

I unfortunately stumbled into watching on TV a short portion of the Congressional hearings on steroids in sports. Such events are painful to witness, because those being interrogated (harassed) aren’t able to come up with quick, appropriate, decisive answers – even to the ridiculous statements made by Congressmen.

For example, when the head of the baseball players’ union proposed a testing program in which a player would be banished for life from baseball if he failed a drug test for the fifth time, a representative delivered the coup de grâce: "Would you give your child five chances to use drugs?" When the union man ignored the question, the representative hammered it home again.

The obvious answer, of course, was: "Sir, we are not talking about my children or your children. We’re talking about grown men who are responsible for their own lives. If you want to transform them into children, that’s your business. But it isn’t mine."

And of course no one mentioned the tremendous evil that the Drug War has inflicted upon society. Why anyone would want to extend that evil to professional sports is beyond me.

If you want a perfect example of how far Congress has strayed from the Constitution of the United States, you need only look at the ridiculous example of Congressmen threatening to pass laws governing the rules of professional sports.

June 3, 2005