{"id":501,"date":"2005-03-17T20:54:00","date_gmt":"2005-03-18T01:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=501"},"modified":"2005-12-09T10:12:39","modified_gmt":"2005-12-09T15:12:39","slug":"look-kids-its-the-culture-of-irresponsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/look-kids-its-the-culture-of-irresponsibility","title":{"rendered":"Look, kids! It’s the culture of irresponsibility!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, the U.S. Congress held hearings about the use of steroids in Major League Baseball. It takes some work, bending my brain around that concept. While the House and Senate are debating over the federal budget and whether to deny the White House’s proposed cuts to Medicare funding, our duly elected representatives are able to take time out to grill Rafael Palmiero, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s translator.<\/p>\n

The impetus for the hearings wasn’t the spate of home runs getting belted out of stadia in the past 10 years. Nor was it the BALCO trial, in which transcripts of Jason Giambi’s secret grand jury testimony were leaked. (No one’s holding hearings to find out where the leak came from.)<\/p>\n

No, these hearings are being held because Jose Canseco wrote a book<\/a> in which he “named names” of MLB steroid users.<\/p>\n

Again, try to wrap your head around that concept. It’s especially daunting for those of us who didn’t think Jose could even read or write. Regardless, Congress decided that enough is enough, and set the stage for today’s grandstanding.<\/p>\n

Every question of substance was dashed by the use of the Fifth Amendment, as anyone with half a brain knew they’d be. But Jose did manage to utter a great comment, in his prepared statement:<\/p>\n

Why did I take steroids? The answer is simple. Because myself and others had no choice if we wanted to continue playing. Because MLB did nothing to take it out of the sport.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s right: Jose (and others) took steroids because the league didn’t make him stop<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Would you dickheads please<\/em> get back to gutting Social Security or something, and stop wasting time with this idiocy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, the U.S. Congress held hearings about the use of steroids in Major League Baseball. It takes some work, bending my brain around that concept. While the House and Senate are debating over the federal budget and whether to deny the White House’s proposed cuts to Medicare funding, our duly elected representatives are able to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Look, kids! It’s the culture of irresponsibility!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-85","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":652,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-do-you-mean-by-that","url_meta":{"origin":501,"position":0},"title":"What do you mean by that?","author":"Gil","date":"September 15, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't been watching any of the Senate confirmation hearings for John Roberts' Supreme Court nominiation, but Dahlia Lithwick's writeup about it yesterday makes me wonder if Roberts would pass a Turing Test.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":139,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/ill-show-you-passion","url_meta":{"origin":501,"position":1},"title":"I’ll Show YOU Passion","author":"Gil","date":"February 26, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I haven't been out to see The Passion of the Christ. 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