I am ‘shocked’ that David Ortiz allegedly roided

Supposedly, the Boston Red Sox slugger, Big Papi, was one of the a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/sports/baseball/31doping.html"100-plus steroid users/a, along with then-teammate Manny Ramirez, busted in a trial-run year of Major League Baseball testing in 2003.br /br /Now, do I think all of his decline is due to at least reducing his juicing? No, but a fair amount is.br /br /Meanwhile, in what gets this filed under “hypocrisy alert” tagging, too, in February, Ortiz said players who tested positive for juicing should be suspended for a full year.br /br /Instead of getting Pete Rose re-eligible for the Hall of Fame, Commissioner Bud Selig needs to sit down with the players’ union and start addressing a way to responsibly talk about this to the world of fans.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-612570631364896956?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div

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Rather wants Obama to help fix media implosion

Well, first of all, Dan Rather is assuming it’s fixable, which I’m not so sure about, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt on a href="http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/135834"asking President Obama to help fix print media’s problems/a. Rather doesn’t specifically mention print media, but we all know that’s where the problem is.br /br /That said, getting beyond most the comments on the story, it is true that the Fourth Estate has taken that phrase far too literally for too long, at the top-of-the-heap level. The Aspen Institute at which Rather made his comments could be a top example of that.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-3849648193888844349?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div

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Organic no healthier than ‘conventional’ food? Hold on

Ahh, but a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090729/sc_nm/us_food_organic_3"this study/a overlooked one big difference — pesticide and herbicide residues.br /br /uUpdate:/u A Facebook friend of mine commented on this, leading me to further thoughts.br /br /With pesticides being linked to human sperm count decline and hermaphroditization in fish and amphibians, "conventional" Big Ag ain't so healthy, contrary to people who say they will just "wash off" pesticide residue. It's not just the chemicals on the crops, but the ones in the rivers and lakes, in the fish you catch from them, if you do that, the water in your municipal supply, etc.br /br /And, given the amount of chemicals Big Ag uses, and over the full growing timetable, are you even sure you can just "wash them off"? br /br /Beyond that, a href="http://www.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/07/29/organic-may-not-mean-healthier.html"a similar study/a conducted by organic growers did find a higher level of antioxidants in organic food.br /br /I'm not denying that "organic" is indeed a marketing tool, but that doesn't mean that there's still not legitimate reasons to eat it.br /br /Couple of final points:br /1. This is meta-analysis, not a new study;br /2. It's meta-analysis over 50 years, a period in which organic practices, definitions and quality control changed, while the use of pesticides by Big Ag went up and up.br /3. Organic does have the side benefit of getting away from moo-crop and mono-variety food.br /br /Some more skepticism from professed skeptics would be nice.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-2071524958567244174?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div

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Are insurers paying Baucus to monkey-wrench healthcare?

How else can you explain the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, “Mod Max” Baucus, now saying his committee won’t report out a healthcare bill a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090730/pl_nm/us_usa_healthcare_23"before September/a?br /br /Well, actually, it’s No. 2 GOP on the committee, Mike Enzi, actually saying that. Why is be even getting that much airtime?div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-2718999572464385110?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div

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Tony Blair on the spot on British Iraq inquiry

Unlike in the U.S., with President Kumbaya content to follow in the tracks of George Pre-emptive Strike Bush, Great Britain actually exercises its democracy.br /br /That includes a full-blown Iraq War run-up investigation that will have a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090730/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_iraq_inquiry"former Prime Minister Tony Blair on the witness stand/a. Unfortunately, the commission will have no sanctions power.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-7949587098224019646?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div

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Update on the RIOT story

Today's update on yesterday's story about the new ' directive' from the Superintendent of Chicago Policebr /br /a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/1692474,CST-NWS-SNEED30.article"The Chicago Sun Times/abr /br /br /br /br /blockquotebr /strongHold your fire br /The police blotter . . . br /July 30, 2009br /BY MICHAEL SNEED Sun-Times Columnist /strongbr /br /Walking back the cat: Looks like Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis was forced to backtrack on his deadly force policy amendment -- tipped in Sneed's column Wednesday -- allowing cops to shoot at suspected felons fleeing in motor vehicles.br /br /• • To wit: Sneed hears City Corporation Counsel Mara Georges and Mayor Daley were flummoxed by the order, which they felt could have been a huge liability problem for a city already reeling in debt. br /br /• • The upshot: The deadly force order, which Weis felt would give cops added protection, was issued July 17 to go into effect Aug. 3.br /br /• • The buckshot: No more. It was dispatched to the bye-bye bin Wednesday. /blockquotebr /br /Just so you know...nearly 1 out of every 3 dollars budgeted for the Chicago Police Department is done so to payoff POLICE MISCONDUCT LAWSUITS. Thus, the core of the mistrust of the Black community towards the PO-LEEZ.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/21083673-1134870635251246154?l=mirroronamerica.blogspot.com'//div

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US colonel – TOTALLY leave Iraq by 2010

Col. Timothy Reese, advising Iraq’s Baghdad command, says keeping U.S. forces in Iraq beyond 2010 will only foster a sense of dependency and delayed development in Iraqi forces. Therefore, even though corruption and other problems remain high, it’s a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/world/middleeast/31adviser.html"time for us to get out/a:br /blockquote “As the old saying goes, ‘Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.’ ” Colonel Reese wrote. “Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose.”/blockquotebr /Reese said Iraqi troops have become “cooler” to U.S. advisors, imposed new restrictions on troops and done other things that make our presence less and less worthwhile.br /br /Gen. Ray Odierno, Iraq theater commander, stressed, when questioned, that Reese’s comments were NOT official U.S. policy. Speaking of that, official policy calls for us to still have 50K troops there a year from now.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-4371869414632684970?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div

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