America's obsession with Nonsense. After viewing Oprah's fantastic interview with Lance Armstrong, this examiner became deeply annoyed. One burning question continued to swim through my mind as I tried hard to listen and understand why anyone would care about this fiasco. In fact, I decided to make it the question of the day. Why do we care?
What he did is no different from the majority of American athletes and we all know about them. If we are going to nail him to the cross, then we would need to nail them all to the cross equally or he shouldn't matter at all. This whole thing is so ludicrous really! Going after the athletes is tantamount to going after the prostitute and never the pimp, or going after the drug abuser and never the pusher, or going after the pusher and never the DEA or the supplier and need I go on?
This makes no sense! A list of infractions by others in the same boat could go on forever. Check your Yahoo, Google or AOL Search Engine in order to research some of the top 15 most shocking athletes just to name a few, that have been caught or been known to have been using 'performance enhancing' drugs.
The compiled list is for your perusal and just to name few with this Examiner's express curiosity of why do we care?:
1. Arnold Swartzennegger (who became the first foreigner and bodybuilding governor of the state California), our world famous former body building extraordinaire. A PED predator.
2. Roger Clemons. Disgraced pitcher, faced trial for using PED's. Roger Clemons. Roger Clemons tops the list because he was once revered as one of the greatest pitchers in Major League Baseball history until he was accused by the Mitchell Report, claiming he took anabolic steroids during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
3. Marion Jones. A once decorated Olympian, became the first woman ever to win a total of five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympic games, but was later stripped of her titles when she admitted in 2007 to using banned substances.
4. Barry Bonds. What is probably more shocking than Barry Bonds' actual steroid use is his continuing denial. Hard to imagine how a professional athlete "unknowingly" takes a performance-enhancing drug.
5. A-Rod. Regarded as one of the best baseball players of all time in recent history, Alex Rodriguez shocked many when he admitted in 2009 that he had tested positive in 2003 for steroids.
6. Ben Johnson. Only three days after winning the 1988 Olympic gold for the 100m in just 9.79 seconds, Ben Johnson tested positive for stanozolol and stripped of his gold medal as well as his previous 1987 World Championship title.
7. Manny Ramirez (notes). Manny Ramirez was suspended for 50 games in 2009 for violating Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. He claimed that his doctor "unknowingly" prescribed him a banned substance, which was later, identified as human chorionic gonadotropin, a women's fertility drug typically used by male steroid users to restart their body's natural testosterone production as they come off a steroid cycle.
8. Shawne Merriman. After a historic first year NFL season, including being named the 2005 Defensive Rookie of the Year, Shawne Merriman was suspended in 2006 for testing positive for an anabolic steroid and received a four game suspension. The NFL later ruled that any player who tests positive for steroids cannot be selected to the Pro Bowl or given a performance award in the year they test positive.
9. Floyd Landis. After winning the 2006 Tour de France, disgraced U.S. cyclist, Floyd Landis, had a urine test come back positive for performance enhancement and was stripped of his title.
10. Jason Giambi (notes). Jason Giambi was a huge power hitter during the late 1990s and early 2000s but was named in the BALCO scandal in 2003 for using Clomid, commonly used by male athletes to restore the body's natural production of testosterone.
11. Andy Pettitte (notes). In 2007, Andy Pettitte shockingly publicly admitted to using human growth hormone in 2002 and 2004 in order to recover from injuries. Pettitte, however, still denies ever using steroids.
12. (Dis) Honorable Mention: Rafael Palmeiro. Rafael Palmeiro, one of four players in MLB history to be a member of the 3,000 hits and 500 home run club, was suspended in 2005 for using stanozolol and retired later that season after a 20 year career.
13. Tim Montgomery. He is another former athlete who was implicated in the BALCO scandal. He was in the US Olympic team for athletics and he made a number of records in track and field. He was also a former partner of Marion Jones. Montgomery’s involvement with BALCO resulted in him getting banned for two years despite his appeal. After the ban was made public, he announced his retirement from sports.
14. Ken Caminiti. If there is so much media attention these days about athletes on anabolic steroids and other similar substances, this can be attributed to the late Ken Caminiti. Ken Caminiti was a baseball star who last played for the Atlanta Braves. His awards include three Golden Gloves and the 1996 MVP. Ken Caminiti was the first baseball player who admitted to steroid use. His admission, albeit scandalous, led to various league-wide and congressional inquiries regarding the use of performance enhancers among other baseball players.
http://www.testcountry.org/famous-steroid-use-cases-in-us-sports.htm
While all of this judging and finger pointing is going on, there are companies on the web selling pseudo-steroids samples on-line and selling them on the Internet as well. Just check out the link below, which is also listed under the last 'tags.' They have a captivating message for men. Here is a sample of that message: "You're no longer a 'twenty-something.' And you may be noticing some changes. Maybe it's taking longer to recover from workouts. Maybe you feel sluggish. Perhaps you're looking in the mirror and noticing that fat tends to 'stick' to your ribs. Your sexual performance may be starting to decline and you—and your partner—want the 'youthful you' to return to the bedroom." http://www.testcountry.org/famous-steroid-use-cases-in-us-sports.htm#ixz...
Although female sports have come a long way, more female athletes are turning to PED's more than ever before. Just to name a few: Meghan Agosta, Haley Irwin, Jayna Hefford, Marie-Philip Poulin (all hockey stars), Flo Jo (Olymic runner), Marion Jones (Olympic runner), Corey Everson (Body Builder), Karla Dunlap (Body Builder), Erika Geisen (Body Builder), Erika Geisen (Body builder), Anita Gandol (Body Builder, Play Boy Layout), etc., and the list goes on. So again I ask, why do we care? We know this goes on and has been going on since steroids were found to have performance enhancing properties. Which we now know began with the Ancient Greek and those Gladiator in the Ancient Coliseums dating back to 226BC to 393 BC. Yes, go ahead and blame it on the Greeks since they used them in their Olympics Games as well. Source: www.britishcouncil.org (accessed June 30, 2009)
History Lesson. "The use of drugs to enhance performance in sports has certainly occurred since the time of the original Olympic Games [from 776 to 393 BC]. The origin of the word 'doping' is attributed to the Dutch word 'doop,' which is a viscous opium juice, the drug of choice of the ancient Greeks." Larry D. Bowers, PhD "Athletic Drug Testing," Clinics in Sports Medicine, Apr. 1, 1998
"The ancient Olympic champions were professionals who competed for huge cash prizes as well as olive wreaths... Most forms of what we would call cheating were perfectly acceptable to them, save for game fixing. There is evidence that they gorged themselves on meat -- not a normal dietary staple of the Greeks -- and experimented with herbal medications in an effort to enhance their performances... What? You didn't know this?
The ancient Greek athletes also drank wine potions, used hallucinogens and ate animal hearts or testicles in search of potency." by Sally Jenkins "Winning, Cheating Have Ancient Roots," Washington Post, Aug. 3, 2007. In 100 AD Roman Gladiators Use Stimulants and Hallucinogens to Prevent Fatigue and Injury as well as other things, once could guess.
At the end of the day the onus is upon each person who must search their own conscious and ask themselves the big important question, so now, why do we care? I feel as though there is some serious blame-shifting going on. There are some serious issues out there, that need the American People's attention such as the following links:
- National Defense Authorization Act
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr4310enr/pdf/BILLS-112hr4310enr.pdf
- The Michigan House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bill that would prohibit state cooperation with any federal attempt to implement Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act. As you may recall, Section 1021 authorized indefinite detention by the military of people arrested within the U.S. and did not—contrary to some reports—exclude U.S. citizens from that provision. A federal judge has enjoined its enforcement, but on the other hand the most recent iteration of the NDAA arguably is even worse than last year’s.
- Michigan HB5768, which passed 107-0, provides that ”no agency of this state, no political subdivision of this state, no employee of an agency of this state or a political subdivision of this state acting in his or her official capacity, and no member of the Michigan national guard on official state duty shall aid an agency of the armed forces of the United States in any investigation, prosecution, or detention of any person pursuant to section 1021 of the [NDAA]….” The bill has been sent on to the state senate and referred to its Judiciary Committee.
- It is more than a little disturbing that a state has to take action like this to begin with, since you’d have thought there’d be general agreement that detaining a U.S. citizen indefinitely without charge or trial would be unconstitutional. Unfortunately, you’d be wrong.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinunderhill/2012/12/06/michigan-takes-a-s...
And,
- This Memorial Day weekend, as we properly honor the U.S. military heroes who’ve fought so valiantly to secure our safety and liberty, the U.S. Congress is voting on the status of the expiring PATRIOT Act. Officials have used the PATRIOT Act since 2001 to routinely and repeatedly violate Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights. The only truly moral and constitutional choice for the GOP-controlled Congress to make this weekend is to let the entire Act expire and die. Should Congress instead renew it, President Obama should veto it.
- Sadly, neither result is very likely. Both political parties in America today – liberals and conservatives alike – have become as disdainful of civil liberties as they’ve already been, for decades, of economic liberties. When neither economic nor civil liberties are any longer respected by a government, its citizens become serfs. What good reason remains to fight our enemies abroad, when so many of liberty’s enemies lie within?
And,
- Enacted in October 2001 in the fear-laden wake of 9/11, the initial PATRIOT Act got lopsided votes in the House (357-66) and Senate (98-1), before getting the president’s approval. Both political parties heralded the Act, just as they pushed eagerly for establishing another rights-violating cabinet agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), along with its now well-known sub-department, that perpetual penetrator of innocent bodies, precious privacies, and human dignities – the Transportation Security Agency (TSA).
http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardsalsman/2011/05/26/kill-the-un-americ...
So a good question to think about (as we sift through all of the silly), is why are we being misdirected from the REAL issues that face our nation? What is all this drama all about and why is it being spread all over the media like this? What is it really all about anyway? Don't we have more important things to worry about? Like world peace, ending world starvation, feeding our children, caring for the aged, finding a true cure for cancer, a cure for Alzheimer's, a cure for all forms of brain diseases, a cure for Autism and others; the importance of teaching good manners in school, placing exercise as a high priority, exercising gun control, ending all manner of violence, etc.
Or could it be, the reason we focus our attention so intently on such things, or our attention is being misdirected to focus on such insignificant issues (the Svengali Effect), is being done, in order to draw our attention away from those more important issues at hand. Because we either don't want to, or someone else doesn't want us to focus on, so intentionally?
It is this Examiners' express opinion that perhaps if we were to direct our focus on those other more important issues, they would no longer be issues. And perhaps it is much easier to focus on something that is not so important especially since we have all known about it anyway and didn't really care because we don't like to admit that we like watching train wrecks (for which we are unwilling to do anything about) as long as they are not in our our own backyards. So, we focus on them because we would rather not focus on something very important (which would take some serious energy to grapple and repair), because we are either too lazy, too ignorant, too frightened, too disinterested or too something, to do anything about it, or are you just so afraid of facing the more important issues because then you might have to actually do something that really matters to us all? Like safe-guarding our constitutional rights! I sure hope that this country doesn't go down into the annuls of historic record as the country with the following motto, "do what you want, but just don't get caught; we just want to look like we have morals even if we really don't; because we never really did; and by the way, we aren't truly sorry about any of our past indiscretions either, legal or illegal; we knew the world was watching but didn't really care because we're all a bunch of shameless exhibitionist! True justice never did live here! All we want to do is win! We don't care about the truth. We never did! The truth is too boring! And we like flash and pazzazz!" Is this the America you want? Now you be the judge.
Disclaimer: Please do not write to this examiner when you are shocked at the answer that comes back to you!
Tags:
http://www.e-steroid.com/steroid-articles/athletes-using-steroids.html
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-sports-figures-steroids.php
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ycn-8859875
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_sport
http://www.totalprosports.com/2012/05/30/11-female-athletes-caught-using...
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/21138883/
http://www.nugenix.com/report/testosterone.php?t202id=110029&t202kw=
Lance admits to doping, calls himself a bully in Oprah interview (Tag: Lance Armstrong, Oprah Winfrey)
Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to film this weekend in 'Last Stand (Tag: Arnold Schwarzenegger)
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