
 |
|
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Feb. 15, 2008
/ 9 Adar I 5768
When politicians start to umpiring baseball the tax payer suffers yet again
By
Linda Chavez
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
You would have thought Congress was about to hear from a top al-Qaida operative or maybe a mafia kingpin, what with all the accusatory statements and self-righteous indignation being flaunted by members of Congress. But no, an august congressional committee was gathered together to waste the taxpayers' time and money interrogating a baseball player, seven-time Cy Young award-winning pitcher Roger Clemens.
And for what? For allegedly using hormones to enhance his performance on the field. I'm sorry, I just can't get my dander up on this one.
I may not be a sports fanatic, but I do admire the tremendous skill and dedication players like Clemens display year in and year out. Our top athletes have always wanted to achieve at the highest levels and have been willing to do whatever possible to get there.
Then, along came substances that professional athletes knew would improve their performance and are used legally in other contexts. Sure, the drugs steroids, human growth hormone and whatever else drug companies can whip up that make muscles grow stronger and more quickly have some pretty nasty side-effects that may endanger the health of those who choose to take them. But shouldn't this be the individual's choice?
There are serious risks to using steroids and human growth hormones, but to treat these drugs as if they were equivalent to cocaine or other illegal substances is terribly misguided. Doctors prescribe steroids and HGH every day because the drugs have important uses in speeding recovery from certain injuries and in treating inflammation, asthma, delayed onset of puberty, body wasting in AIDS patients, even low sex drive in post-menopausal women. Cocaine, heroin, psychedelics and other illegal drugs have no such benefits.
As employers, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and other sports associations have the right to set up rules that forbid the use of performance enhancing drugs by their players. If the owners want to test their players and prohibit those who use certain drugs from playing, fine. Let them penalize those who break the rules, even kick them out of the game.
But, that does not mean Congress or the Executive Branch should try to turn this into a public policy issue, much less a crime. It was ridiculous for President Bush to include steroid use by professional athletes as one of his priority concerns in his 2004 State of the Union address and even more outrageous for Congress to hold hearings on the subject.
The sheer hypocrisy is staggering. We are a drug- and performance enhancing-obsessed culture. Americans spend billions a year on drugs to make us look better and perform stronger. I wonder how many members of Congress have taken Viagra or had Botox injections and the latter, which is a form of botulinum, one of the most deadly toxins on earth, has now been linked to several deaths. Yet these politicians want to criminalize the behavior of athletes who do roughly the equivalent. Is America really a better country because Marion Jones is in jail and Barry Bonds may be headed there?
I don't know if Roger Clemens was entirely truthful at this week's hearings. But I strenuously object to my taxpayer dollars being used by Congress to grill him under oath. And I will be outraged if one penny is spent trying to prove he perjured himself. We have better things to do with our limited resources, and Congress certainly has more important issues to deal with. No wonder Congress is held in such low esteem by Americans, with barely over 20 percent approval ratings.
We are a nation at war. We have a Social Security and Medicare crisis looming. We have a tax system that rewards borrowing instead of saving or investing. Our education system is failing, despite exponential growth in federal funding over the last several decades. We have an immigration system that stifles economic growth and encourages lawlessness. These are the issues Americans want addressed, not more investigations into whether athletes are using performance enhancing drugs.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity. Her latest book is "Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)
Linda Chavez Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|