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The Daily Dose/January 10, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
More notes from around the Human Experience, leading off with Congress - and this is a surprise - butting in on something that doesn't concern them, especially when there are other things they could be worrying about, like, say, a war that has no prospect of ending or all the innocent people this country has sent to prison for crimes they did not commit. Also, On This Date, a strike in Ecuador, trivia, and The Column Four Foto: Tiffani Amber-Thiessen!
OH, HERE'S GOOD NEWS: Congress has postponed its hearing into steroid use in baseball. The hearing was scheduled to star baseball players Roger Clemens, Andy Pettittte and Clemens' former trainer Brian McNamee and was moved from mid-January to Feb. 13.
The Bad News: Congress is getting involved. Do we really need this? You would think Congress would have better things to do than worry about what a bunch of ballplayers are shooting up their bums, but apparently they don't, because a Jan. 15 hearing featuring baseball commissioner Bud Selig, players union head Donald Fehr and Mitchell Commission head George Mitchell is scheduled to convene as planned.
Dry, Technical Matter: McNamee said he injected Clemens with steroids while Clemens played for the New York Yankees, claims Clemens has gone to great pains to deny. In fact, Clemens is so serious about his denial, he even went on tee with Morely Safer, who grilled him asking Clemens if he swore he never took steroids and Clemens said "Swear" so you know he must be telling the truth.
For The Record: Clemens says McNamee injected him with nothing more harmful than vitamins and a painkiller. For his part Pettitte admitted to using Human Growth Hormone (HGH) while recovering from an elbow injury.
Yawn. Here We Go Again: Congress getting involved in baseball is bad, unless they want to do something about Tim McCarver and the current length of ballgames. Congress and the courts long ago decided baseball was not interstate commerce; if it was a real business it would be subject to US anti-trust laws.
And, once again, the staff here at the Daily Dose finds itself wondering what all the fuss is about. These are professional athletes we are talking about, they make their living by trying to enhance their performance, so what do you expect them to take, Skittles?
Sure, steroids do have side effects, but as we see time and time again criminalizing and banning them has not eliminated their use. Outside of some pro wrestling deaths, the long term effects of steroid use isn't entirely clear, and it is entirely possible that today's athletes could have significant health problems down the line, assuming they don't all start dropping dead here in a few years. But if this generation of athletes wants to be the test case, let them. Once again the Writer's Shack issues its heretofore completely ignored call to let professional athletes put into their bodies whatever they want.
NOW YOU KNOW: On this date in 1984, the United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century. In 1867, when Rufus King left the post of chargé d'affaires for the Vatican, Congress discontinued funding for the post, and then what was then the Papal State were incorporated into Italy, leaving the US nothing to send a mission to, anyway. In 1939 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sent a personal representative to the Vatican, and, in 1951 President Harry Truman decided to open a full embassy, however opposition to the US recognizing a church, combined with some poor communication on the part of the Truman administration in explaining the Vatican was actually a sovereign state led Truman to withdraw the plan. In 1969 President Richard Nixon sent a personal representative, a practice continued by presidents Ford and Carter, until the resumption of full diplomatic relations.
Hey, Doesn't This Have To Be In Order Or Something? On this date in 1946 the first UN General Assembly meets at Westminster Central Hall in London. 51 nations attended and they formed five committees, four commissions, three agencies, two councils and one panel, and agree on economic sanctions against Uganda, despite the fact they weren't a member of the UN yet.
Now Hear This: On this date in 1776 Thomas Paine published the pamphlet Common Sense. The pro-independence monograph had a distribution conservatively estimated at 500,000 both in America and Europe making it the biggest selling book of the 18th century. A book with similar penetration today would sell at least 20 million copies. Paine not only paid for the first printing, but made no money of his work.
TAKE THAT: Soccer referees in Ecuador have gone on strike protesting - and we are not making this up - a recent ruling imposed by the Ecuador Football Federation forbidding referees from going on strike.
WHEW, THAT WAS CLOSE: NASA has announced it is downgrading the chances of an asteroid heading in the general direction of Mars actually hitting the planet. NASA now said it expects the asteroid to miss by more than 18,000 miles, and it lowered the chances from a 3.6 percent chance last week to 2.5 percent.
But What If They're Wrong?: If they're wrong, we're all up a creek without a paddle, because due to the angle the asteroid would be approaching Mars, it will merely glance off the Martian atmosphere, not enter it - much like a rock skips across a lake - and be deflected DIRECTLY TOWARDS THE EARTH!
Well, Not Really: We were just seeing if you were paying attention. Actually, the asteroid would hit Mars at a speed of about 30,000 miles per hour, enough force to leave a crater a half-mile in diameter. No damage to Earth is anticipated, though Earth and Mars are on the same side of the Sun right now and are, relatively speaking, sort of close to each other, so the ricochet tale wasn't completely out to lunch.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Two pitchers currently in the major league all-time top ten in career losses are not in the Hall of Fame: Jack Powell (#8, 254 losses) and Bert Blyleven (#10, 250 losses)
Today's Trivia Question: In 1792 Thomas Paine was elected to which national legislature? - Answer next time!
Threats? Recipes? Trivia question answers? Email The Writer's Shack Here!
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