Juiced Post 2

As I continue to read Juiced by Jose Canseco, I continue to read more things that I already knew but I also read thing that I have not learned before. In the recent chapters Canseco has talked about something that I had to do a lot of research on for my senior project in english, and that is BALCO. BALCO stands for Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operatvie. BALCO, founded in 1984 by Victor Conte, was originally used to make sure that athletes mainted the right vitamin and mineral count by using blood and urine test. Conte discovered that he could create a steroid that was undetectable by drug tests. BALCO began distributing steroids to many high profile ahtletes including Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi. This was talked about by Canseco in Juiced. The raid of BALCO in 2003 was also described in the book. The book is really heating up because this is when he comes out and says that both Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds took steroids, both are not shocking but allegations they are. These allegations led to them appearing in court and so-on, we all know what is going on with Barry Bonds. I am going to read a few more chapters and then I'll get back to the blog, I will make one more post to conclude the book, and then I will be done with senior year.

Juiced post 1

Juiced is a book that written by Jose Canseco that came out in 2005. It led to the huge drama about steroids in baseball. To go along with my issues class topic, and for all of the doubters in my class, Jose Canseco goes ahead in the first few chapters to talk about this specific topic; "One of Juiced's central precepts is that steroid use is not in fact a bad thing, as long as the person is being monitored by a physician, and the dosages are small". In class today, during my presentation I had specific questions regarding this specific issue, including Mr. Kramer asking me a question about it as he went on to rip my presentation to shreads. From the mouth of Steroid Expert, Jose Canseco, "steroids can not only improve the game of baseball, but also improve and lengthen our lives". He also argues that steroid myths are false and that they can help you recover from injury quicker. So for all the haters out there who were not sold by my presentation, you should be sold if you read Juiced. The first few chapters mostly deal with his life before he got into steroids, about how he got caught up in all of the fame. I cannot wait to see what I read next, I will keep you updated.

High School steroid testing

I do not believe that their should be testing in high school for steroids for a number of reasons. First off, it is an expensive waste because the amount of people you are actually going to catch doing a "random" drug test is slim and not worth all the trouble. Also, I do not believe that steroids, when managed, are bad for you. There are so many people who have taken steroids and their health has not been effected by it. If you take steroids for one cycle like what Alex Rodriguez did in high school then there really is no harm, it becomes harmful when you start abusing them. If athletic coaches and trainers are trained on how to use steroids properly, I see no reason why they can't be legal.

Why Not Take Steroids?

After watching a few videos on youtube of testimonies and high school coaches and trainers, i truly believe that if you can manage your steroid intake at a healthy rate, then why not take steroids. I read "A-Rod: The many lives of Alex Rodriguez" amd he took steroids as a sophmore at Westminister Christain. Look at where it got him, I don't see him having any health problems. Sure, he got caught, but that was the second time. Why not take them through one cycle get really good and then not use them again. Like I said if you can manage it in a healthy way and you are aware of the risks then why should they be illegal. This one video that I watched was of a high school baseball coach adressing the issue of steroids. He made a point of saying that they are illegal and that is why he believes they should not be taken. However, he did say that they should be made legal because steroids can be controlled that way. It is something where in baseball if you hit .220 then it will make you a .280 hitter, which in the major leagues is a difference between a few million dollars. That is where I am right now with my thinking, obviously as a high school athlete is too risky to take steroids because of random drug testing, plus playing in college next year, u are automatically tested, so its not worth. I think if steroids were ever made legal, then that is something to think about, but I am not there yet. This is strictly for project research and my research is showing reasons why steroids aren't such a bad thing.

Are Student Athletes Taking Steroids? Re:

Earlier today an article in the Huffington Post came out with some information and stats about student athletes and steroids. According to the CDC about 11 percent of high school males that play a sport are using steroids. This is a very high number of students using steroids because of the obvious risks of using them. Steroids cause problems on the liver, increase chances of heart attack, and cause depression and suicidal thoughts. They found that students are taking steroids because they believe that famous professional athletes are taking them. The numbers that are shocking to me is that in 2002 only 57% of high school athletes believed that steroids were bad for you. This number should be much higher, I am not sure whether it is because they are not educated on the risks of taking steroids or because they see all of the pros benefit from it, but something needs to be done. Two things should be done, 1) make sure they are banned from all pro sports so these athletes will start setting a good example for the people who look up to them, and 2) start educating teens in health classes about the risk of Performance Enhancing Drugs. If you want to read the full article the link is posted below. There will be more posts about steroids to come in the next couple of weeks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-whyte-md-mph/student-athletes-steroids_b_850952.html

Race In America

Hello blog. Race in America is a very important issue. Lately we have been talking about race issues in America as well as reading many articles from CNN. We also read passages from writers Andrew Hacker and Tom Wise. It is important that every race and ethnicity is accepted in our culture. The days of "White America" are long behind us. It may strike most people that racism still exists in our country, but it does not really strike me. People may just not be as verbal about it. I read this one article that was about wasting our energy on racism. Hacker and Wise are both white, and while they probably threw the entire race under the bus in their articles, it is true when they explained that most whites would probably prefer to have blacks seperated. It is a sad truth. People won't say this, but according to Hacker, they are thinking it. In the article I read about wasting energy on racism, the writer explains that there are much more important things to use our energy on, like helping Japan with their crisis. He said that we need to drop everything and fix the planet. It needs to be a communal effort. I agree with this, it doesn't matter black or white, it is a waste of our time and energy to be focused on racism. There are more important things that we could be doing. We could be fighting to save the children in Africa from becoming abducted soldiers instead of focusing on race. I don't want to be like Hacker throwing my race under the bus by writing in a book every prejiduce there is against blacks, and I don't want to be like Wise and explain all of the advantages and privilages that whites have, but I do want to say that the effort could be better. Although there aren't people openly being racist, there are people who think it. Thinking it and not saying it is still wrong, those thoughts shouldn't exist.

What's Going on in the World?

Wisconsin is in a state of concern. Like the NFL, it seems they are also having a problem with collective bargaining. Unlike the NFL, this is something that has escalated into protests and demonstrations. The people of Wisconsin have been protesting the Governor's budget bill, which would deny collective bargaining to union workers. The people of Wisconsin feel like they are being attacked by this bill and that this is a bill that is taking from the lower and middle classes and giving to the upper class. The bill is allowing the governor to profitize by selling state owned facilites to private entities. The G.O.P. is trying to bust up the unions and cover it up by saying it is budget balancing according to Paul Krugman's article "Shock Doctrine, U.S.A.". The point Krugman is trying to make in this article is that this bares resemblence to Iraq in 2003 when President Bush appointed their new leaders based on what he said to be for "loyalty and political reliability". This has gotten to the point that Wisconsin Democrats fleed to Illinois to get away from all of this. 14 democratic law makers of Wisconsin had been taking refuge in the Northern Illinois area. They were being overwhelmed by the number of bills trying to be passed that they felt the only way they could slow it down was to get up and leave, and so they did. The protests had started in Wisconsin but they have also emerged in Indiana and Ohio. Monica Davey reports in her article "Life on the Run For Democrats in Union Fights" states that "Those left in Madison this week, supporters of Gov. Scott Walker's plan to limit collective bargaining and cut benefits, agreed to a brand new rule about paychecks. Direct deposits to senators' bank accounts are now barred for anyone who misses two or more days of the legislative session. Those who wish to be paid their salary must collect their checks in person, on the Senate floor." This is bad news bears for those on the run because they are not going to be present to collect their paychecks if this keeps up.
The NFL is in a state of crisis at the moment, and that is if the union and the owners cannot come to an agreement within the next eight hours there is going to be a work stoppage and a lockout. That is what is going on right now in Wisconsin, there is a work stoppage. The owners in the NFL are mad because they think the players are greedy, and the players are mad because they think the owners are greedy. They are no where close to a settlement. We get that feeling about Wisconsin. They are already in a work stoppage. Union workers have already started protesting. The unions in Wisconsin feel that the governor is being too greedy. Which is true. He is trying to cover up his chances of profitizing by destroying unions and saying it is for fiscal purposes. This is a load of crap. His plan is to sell all of the power plants and heating and cooling companies to independents like the Koch brothers to make him a lot of money. He created a 144 page bill to hide all of the underlying details.
I am not claiming to be some expert on unions and if they are needed or not, but it seems that it happens a lot when there are unions who do not get along with the other side. I am not saying that it is the unions fault or the other sides fault always. In this case it seems as if it is the governor's fault because he is clearly just trying to make more money out of this. In the NFL, though, I think both the NFLPA (union) and the owners are both to blame. They cannot come to an agreement because neither side is willing to compromise. Nobody is ever going to get everything they want, so there always needs to be a compromise. Again, comparing this to Wisconsin, the unions of Wisconsin and the governor need to compromise. I do not know how they can do that because, like I state earlier, I am no expert on this topic, but the only solution is to compromise. It seems that in both scenarios the sides are on two completley different ends of the spectrum, and it has to be about negotiating. The only way to fix a problem is to sit down and talk it out. Each side states what they want and then bargain. This is the best and the most diplomatic way to do things.