Doesn't Congress have more important things to worry about than whether pro athletes use performance-enhancing drugs?
And doesn't the Department of Justice have better things to spend time and money on than prosecuting people who might have lied to Congress about it?
Somebody said that to drum up support for a movement or a revolution, you attack the morals of the ruling royalty. We don’t have royalty in the USA, but celebrities like movie stars and star athletes tend to take that place, and they have been targeted by demagogues like Joe McCarthy. Apparently if you can start by making people suspicious that, say, Santa Claus is a junkie or pedophile, that shakes a lot of peoples' faith and reality testing enough you that can sell them all sorts of crazy lies.
I thought of this when I read that retired baseball pitcher Roger Clemens is about to be indicted for lying to Congress about steroid use.
Federal authorities have decided to indict Roger Clemens on charges of making false statements to Congress about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, according to two people briefed on the matter.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Barry Bonds is scheduled to go on trial on similar charges in March.
I’ve never understood why this was a problem worthy of Congressional hearings in the first place. Yes, those steroids athletes take can be bad for their health, but how does that hurt the general public, or the segment of the public I'm most concerned with –- myself? I suppose if I'd tried to make a living in pro sports, and always wondered if the guys who (I fantasize) just barely edged me out got their edge from drugs I was too ethical or scared to take, I might have some concern. Or if I bet a lot of money on pro sports, I'd have the same interest that someone at the race track would have in whether anyone was doping the horses. But I can't see that either of those possibilities is a good reason for much attention from two branches of the Federal government.
Don't Congress and the Justice Department have better things to worry about? Like whether somebody lies to Congress and gets us into an unnecessary war? Or somebody lies to Congress about who outed Valerie Plame and sets back her efforts to track down loose nuclear weapons? Those loose nukes could hurt a lot of innocent people. If Roger Clemens or Barry bonds took steroids, their own health may suffer but that’s the end of it. If Karl Rove, or whoever outed Valerie Plame, caused the CIA to lose track of a nuclear weapon and Osama bin Laden later gets hold of it, lots of people could suffer something worse than whatever unhealthy effects steroids have.
A Department of Justice that indicts Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens but not Karl Rove is probably trying to hide its incompetence or corruption by playing to the grandstands.