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That’s Not A Steroid Problem…THIS is a Steroid Problem.

Reason brings up some excellent points about athletics, police, and steroid abuse.

Given that police officers carry guns, night sticks, and tasers, and that they have the power to use lethal force when necessary, one would think our politicians would be more concerned about illegal use of a drug known to contribute to fits of rage and violence among law enforcement than use by a bunch of baseball players.

One would think.  As far as I’m concerned, you can throw in football players, weight lifters, cage fighters, and especially professional wrestlers into the “who cares?” category.

This stems from a story in the New York Daily News was written after

…27 NYPD officers cropped up on the client lists of a Brooklyn pharmacy and three doctors linked to a pro sports steroid ring.

I’d never really thought about cops on steroids, but it seems like the type of job that would foster steroid use to me.  Of course, I haven’t been beaten down by a juicer with a badge recently either.  I just assume that there is a certain percentage of people in all lines of work who use steroids (and heroin, and meth, and marijuana, etc.).  Could it expain some instances of excessive use of force or brutality?  Possibly.  But I wouldn’t go jumping to those conclusions any more than I would for people in any other line of work.

It’s probably fair to say that I’ve known at least one person who was on the juice since I was 16 years old, but I’ve never seen what I’d call ‘roid rage.  The violent assholes I’ve known who were juicing had always been violent assholes and probably always will be.

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The Poll is Off — Evel Knievel Dead

My latest poll allowed readers to choose Evel Knievel as the biggest jerk, and now I feel really bad about it. Evel Knievel died today at the age of 69. A sad day.

Over his career, Knievel was said to have broken practically every bone in his body — some multiple times. With his red-white-and-blue jumpsuits, shock of hair and stone-faced mein, he was a fixture on ABC’s program “Wide World of Sports” in the 1970s, his stunts perennial ratings-grabbers.

Needless to say, I’m removing him as one of the choices from the poll, and I have to hand it to the my readers on their foresight–not one person had chosen him and I’m currently tied for the lead. How fitting.

My absolute favorite toy as a little kid was the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle. I’d wind it up as fast as it would go and send Evel flying up a ramp made out of an album cover and the phone book.

Thanks for entertaining us for all those years!

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School Fundraising–Producing Beggars for at Least 30 Years

Is anyone else really put off when they are attacked by an army of eight year olds in front of the grocery store trying to sell something for their school?  We were just talking about this yesterday after our weekly trip to the store.  Yesterday’s group of kids wasn’t even selling anything, they were just taking donations.

I despise this practice for so many reasons it actually warrants its own post, or several posts.  I have no doubt in my mind that public schools need more money.  After all, what gov’ment run project doesn’t?  How can our schools maintain their mediocre performance without more money?  Financing sports programs alone is insanely expensive, yet essential to providing an average education, right?

It gets better.  Our doorbell rang at 8:00 last night–a little girl selling overpriced stuff I don’t need for her school.  Well, a little of the money was for her school.  The rest was no doubt going to line the pockets of some guys in an MLM program.  Of course the little girl was super motivated by the plastic paddle game, or sticker book, or whatever it was she would get for being the top beggar salesperson in her class.

Or maybe not.  I told her if she wanted to come back the next day and ask the Missus, she may want to buy something.  No dice.  “This has to be turned in tomorrow.”

I at least admire her procrastination.  It reminds me of my elementary school days when I waited until the last minute to sell some insanely expensive junk to people.

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How Fitting

There’s been some discussion here over the last couple of days about some of the problems with education, and more specifically the distractions from learning that exist in the school systems. And today my trusty reader finds this article…

Thursday night, the future student body got together at Hardin Valley Elementary in hopes of finding something they can all cheer for at Hardin Valley Academy, the high school being constructed next door.

The school’s principal also fielded questions from the students. Many were curious about what extra-curricular activities would available.

Things like a girl’s volleyball team and a football team will be just like normal, but the football team might not have enough seniors to go varsity right away.

Still, the mascot debate had everyone’s attention.

I have an idea…

What about The Sheep?

And in related news…
I was eating breakfast this morning in our yucketeria and overheard a table full of co-workers talking about the big election high school football game tonight. Their conversation was interrupted when they paused to watch a Fox Infotainment story about birth control being dispensed at a Maine middle school. Only one guy at the table had a comment, but it seemed to sum up everyone’s opinion, “That’s not the school’s job.”

I agree. Now back to high school football…

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(Hopefully Short) Life In Prison

From the KNS

A Knox County sports referee who used his position to lure child molestation victims into his home will die in prison.

Hopefully this death will be administered by the most sadistic son of a bitch in the penal system. Bonus points if it occurs within the first week, lessening this walking fart’s burden on the taxpayers.

Good riddance.

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Chicago Marathon Controversy

Mark Draughn at Windypundit.com reports that some runners had no problem with water, while some did. If there was a shortage of water on the course, that is definitely a problem. The organizers may not have expected the temperatures in the 80s months ago, but they surely had a few extra days to prepare based on the forecast. Having said that…

I’ve run this race twice, so I can speak with a little experience. Most of what happens in a marathon is up to the runners themselves.

Too hot? Didn’t you train for 18-20 weeks for this race during the hottest months of the summer? If so, you should know your limitations in the heat, and if you push yourself beyond that, you are the one who made that decision. If you didn’t train in the heat, what were you doing the past five months that made you think you were prepared for a marathon?

Not enough water? That is definitely a problem with race organization, but again you should have trained enough to know that you can’t push yourself without hydration. I’m not sure what I would have done in that situation, but I hope it would involve slowing my pace or dropping out during the race and raising all kinds of hell afterwards. Can you say refund?

Don’t get me wrong, it is completely ridiculous to have water shortages for a race this size, and I’d be pretty upset about that if I’d paid the hefty fee to run this race, especially based on its reputation. But ultimately, you are responsible for your own health.

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Please Fix Boxing!!!

I don’t mean that kind of “fix”. I mean “fix” as in “repair”.

I don’t watch boxing nearly as much as I used to. At one time I would have considered myself a fan. For the last seven years or so I’ve sort of ditched boxing for the UFC. The fights are more active and the outcomes less predictable. Boxing is losing lots of fans to MMA fighting.

Just in case, I TiVo’d Saturday’s Jermain Taylor / Kelly Pavlik fight and watched it tonight. Wow. The other fight HBO showed was between Andre Berto and David Estrada. I won’t give away the results to either, but if you can catch the replay they are both great, entertaining fights. It reminded me how great boxing can be.

Anyway, I think I know how to fix boxing. Some promoter besides Don King should offer former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell a few million dollars to fight a big name boxer. He’ll take it, partly because he lost his last two fights and partly because the UFC doesn’t pay anywhere near that kind of money.

How does it benefit boxing? He’ll lose. Badly

Liddell is considered one of the UFC’s hardest punchers, but watch the two fights I’m talking about here if you really want to see some guys hit hard. Throw in the fact that his pure boxing skills are nowhere near those top notch professional boxers, and it hardly seems fair.

Boxing will gain a lot of credibility with younger fans, and the buy rate for the pay per view would be tremendous. I’d buy it.

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We Don’t Need No Stinking Insurance!

Becky has the right idea…we need less insurance, not more.

But coverage of mundane and everyday medical care makes as much sense as having food insurance. We would go to the grocery store and show the checker our food insurance card, and the public or private carrier would take care of the tab.

I think that addresses the heart of the problem.

You don’t use your auto insurance to pay for a new battery, car washes, or breaks. These are maintenance issues–just part of owning a car. Auto insurance covers accidents–things you know are possible but hope will never happen to you.

Getting colds and minor injuries are just part of living. Health insurance should cover big things that you know are possible but hope will never happen to you–cancer, heart attacks, etc.

And just like driving sober and at a reasonable speed can reduce your chances of having an accident, making healthy lifestyle choices can greatly reduce your chances of having an unexpected illness.

We don’t subsidize auto insurance for drunks with a bunch of speeding tickets, so why should we subsidize medical insurance for smokers or people (like me) who choose to participate in injury prone sports?

IMO, Hillary needs to be more concerned with her own health (getting checked for STDs regularly?), and worry less about mine and yours.

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It’s That Time of Year Again

Local people will hate me for writing this, and most non-locals won’t get why it’s a big deal.

It is really sad funny, but I didn’t know that football season started today until about 30 minutes before the UT game. This is what is considered the real football season around here by the way, not the NFL. I’m risking my status as a Knoxville resident by admitting that I wasn’t really aware and don’t care that much about UT football.

Now for the fun part. The start of football season means that it’s time to start listening to sports talk radio again. See, I’m not really a football fan, but I’m a huge “Members of the Knoxville Chapter of Mensa talking about football on the radio” fan. It’s hard to believe the entertainment they provide is actually free.

I just checked the scores and saw that the Vols lost, so it should be good this week of radio. The chicken littles will be out en masse, not realizing that win or lose, they still have to go to work on Monday. I’ve never understood how people can get so emotionally invested in something over which they have no control. Maybe that’s it? The fact that they don’t have control is what makes them freak out over it? Dunno.

Anyway, here’s a quick stab in the dark of some things we may here this week:
“Phil Fulmer should be fired”
“I don’t understand why they ran _____ on that 2nd and 4 during the 3rd quarter”
“How many games does Phil have to win this year to keep his job?”
“Let’s just hope Cal wins out.”
“If Fulmer gets fired or resigns, who should we go after as a coach?”
“I just want to say GO VOLS! I’ll hang up and listen to your comments.”
“If the NFL comes after Phil, what are the chances of him leaving?”

See a common theme here? Tennessee fans do love them a good coach firing!!!

***UPDATE***
As sure as the sun rises. The first comment on the article in the KNS I linked to:
“it just goes to show that we pay top dollar to overrated coaches (phill fulmer mostly)”

I love this time of year! It’s better than Christmas and Arbor Day combined!!!

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Two More Things I Love About This Country

Randy Couture1. We still produce men as tough as Randy Couture, the UFC Heavyweight Champion

Couture, 44, who defeated contender Gabriel Gonzaga by technical knockout in the third round, broke an ulna bone in his left forearm during the third round, said his assistant Valerie Haney.

“It happened on [Gonzaga’s] high leg kick at Randy’s head,” Haney said. “Randy blocked the kick with his left arm.”

Gabriel Gonzaga2. We don’t have to pay for health care for people who choose to smoke cigarettes, eat gravy as a side dish for every meal, or willingly put themselves in danger of being kicked in the head by cavemen like Gonzaga, who by the way was suffering from a shattered nose for the majority of the fight.

The Brazilians are still breeding some pretty tough dudes themselves.