Why The Baseball Steroids Hearing Is GOOD For Us

[Edgewater_Joe]

Okay, maybe it's because I've seen too many folks on our side wring their hands in frustration about all the coverage the baseball steroids hearing have gotten -- and, of course, those who legitimately believe there's no buisness for Congress to be butting into this incident -- but I choose to be the principal voice of dissent today and say I've been riveted to the hearings today.

Not only that, but the more I think about it, the more I think this issue of steroids in baseball is an issue that is something that can be FAVORABLE to us on the Left for framing purposes. Let me explain ...

What is being exposed today? If you've been keeping up with it, what you are seeing are the effects of a sport that has zero oversight of itself. We've already learned that MLB didn't bother to instruct their players about what little 'roid policy there was, except to turn the other way and provide plenty of loopholes for players to drive through. We've learned that MLB was told ten years ago that they were in violation of federal law but did nothing because "chicks dig the long ball." We've seen complicity between the players' union and the owners in order not to keep the apple cart from stopping, while allowing for known toxic substances to warp its workers. And we've seen that Bud Selig and company didn't do anything because they didn't WANT to do anything. What counted above all else was the bottom line. If a few guys shriveled up and did themselves in prematurely, hey, they knew the risks, right?

In short, the steroids scandal is a perfect microcosm of why there is a CRYING need for the government to step in and regulate bid-nesses that will not do anything to regulate themselves. It also shows that when you allow unmitigated greed to run an industry -- ANY industry -- what you get is an industry whose greed will utterly destroy itself. Not to mention that greed is not good.

Everyone here likes to talk about framing, yet some of you are all ... and I hate to say this because we are all brethren ... being very ELITIST about this hearing, when what you SHOULD be doing is to look at how this case study shows why our vision of governmental regulation is desperately needed.

Think out of the box, people. And get off your high horse. Buy a hot dog (after today's corned beef, of course).

And GO INDIANS! GO CUBS!

P.S.: By the way, Bernie Sanders got a great dig in on the media in his opening statement, inviting reporters to hearings on universal health care and ripping the "why-are-reporters-here?" attitude by ripping the media.

[NMDemDist2]

1. kicked and nominated n/t

[Counciltucky]

2. Not to sound Republican, but sometimes ignorance is bliss.

As an avid baseball fan, I guess I've washed my hands of the whole steroid situation. I don't even care to think about it. I guess that if someone wants to put their bodies at harm to entertain me, who am I to complain?

Maybe in my mind I separate baseball from everything else. Baseball is my escape from stress, politics, regular life, etc. That's why I don't want to know about scandals involving baseball. It really doesn't matter to me. Baseball, to me, is entertainment only. And I love it that way.

[Donailin]

6. Well, I don't like baseball but

how can anyone enjoy a sport when records of homeruns are hit by folks who wouldn't be hitting them if they weren't cheating. If I were the great Bambino, I'd be rolling in my grave. There is barely a sport where the best players aren't on the juice, where is the pride in that? I don't see it and I can't say that it doesn't matter, it's just a sport. It's a microcosm of all that sucks about this country -- if you cheat, you win. And more, you'll get praised for it. I dunno man, that doesn't jibe with my sense of morality.

[matcom]

3. no sale thanks

you think that these hearigns will lead to regulation of HALLIBURTON??

:eyes:

not buying it. this is fucking STUPID and lame and a total WASTE of my government (but they aren't REALLY my government anymore anyway)

no thanks. i wasn't alive for McCarthy but have read enough to see the similarities.

fuck Congress.

[GreenArrow]

8. right on!

COMPLETE WASTE of time and money -- a fucking joke.

[THUNDER HANDS]

4. ESPN showed a poll

of who people thought should be responsible for drug testing in baseball.

70+ % thought MLB should
Less than 20% said the Federal Government.

[Donailin]

5. Thank you for saving me the trouble of

putting into a post what I've been thinking as I listened to the hearings all day at work. The bottom line is that the general public is seeing with interest that congress will step in if the beloved sport of baseball is not going to effectively police itself. But this was also the case with Enron, and Paul O'Neill to his credit suggested that there be "triggers" put in place for CEO's and accountants that fail to meet periodic standards, re: urine analysis. But Bush and his crew shot that down and it was barely mentioned in MSM, at least not like what we see on this luck-of-the-Irish day.

The government in my view, is supposed to protect the little guy from the abuses of corporate power, and corporations will always abuse power if left to govern themselves, just look at what's happening today. De-regulation is such a bogus excuse for enabling free enterprise. We need to reverse the raygun era mindset that deregulation provides the consumer with the best choices, that the biggest lie there is.

[dogman]

7. It's just one more distraction that will be blamed on liberal society.

It's a further deteioration of the Fourth Ammendment. We choose to concern ourselves with what people put in their body voluntarily while the energy industry spews mercury into our environment unabated. Once again we see the true values of America - profit. W is out of the MLB so it's time to clamp down on cheating. If only he would get out of the energy business.