House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Will No Longer Be Sniffing Around Atheletes' Urine ... Which Is Another Reason Why You Should Donate to Reason!

Matt Welch | November 8, 2010

Thanks, Darrell Issa! It's the small victories, sometimes:

Congressional hearings that have put the likes of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens in the crosshairs appear to be far less likely to occur as the Republicans seized control of the House of Representatives this week.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the incoming chairman of the House subcommittee that called the iconic hearings into steroid use in baseball, has no interest in exploring performance-enhancing drugs in sports, his spokesman told FanHouse.

"I think it's clear to the American people that jobs and the economy are more important than steroids in baseball," Frederick Hill said. "It would be unlikely that the Oversight Committee will turn its focus to steroids or any other performance-enhancing substances. We are more concerned about stimulus oversight, taxpayer money that went into TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) and health care laws."

For once, Tim Cavanaugh's irrational politician-crush proves prescient!

The search terms "go The human drama of athletic competition vernment reform" and "steroids" have produced some of the more memorable headlines in recent Reason history. And by "memorable" I do mean "Enos Cabellesque," especially when they were written by me:

* Urine the Nurse-State Now!
* Pee No Evil
* Congress Set to Inject Own Ass With Head
* Field of Screams
* The Banners' Red Glare

He's pissed because they wouldn't let him wear his leather jacket in the dugout It takes a special kind of crazy to keep on sticking up for the rights of millionaire baseball ass-hats vis-a-vis congressional no-goodniks who want to rewrite the record books and drug-test every high-schooler who can run the 40 in under 10 seconds flat. But that's what happens when you reject the do-something approach to American governance, recognize that nanny-state laws are both tangible and bar-lowering infringements on our freedom and prosperity, and take as a default notion that what an individual chooses to ingest is not the government's beeswax. Also, Bud Selig should be sent on the slow-boat to Madagascar, and not just because he perpetuates goofy nationalistic lies that have been discredited for more than a century.

We here at Reason–well, I here at Reason, anyway, along with the Ed Kranepool of political commentary, Nick Gillespie, plus Trot Nixon apologist Michael C. Moynihan–love baseball enough to despise any intersection between the sport and a political process that's more debased than Bo Belinsky chasing broadies down Wilshire. We are your loudest political voice against stadium welfare, against howlingly unjust eminent domain proceedings by the state on behalf of billionaire sports owners, and above all against Ken Burns. (Okay, maybe not "above all.") We like our sports like we like our lives–private, discretionary, and weird. Viddy some viddies:

Why should you donate to Reason right the hell now? Because think about who is on the other side of these power struggles: Billionaire fatcats eager to steal your money, unprincipled politicians with zero sense of justice or shame, on-the-take chamber-of-commerce types who produce straight-faced lies about stadiums bringing economic growth to downtowns, gullible newspaper editorial boards with edifice complexes, and Hank Paulson's demon spawn (literally).

Michael C. Moynihan On our team? Not bloody much, aside from any honest academic who has studied the issue. We go where our principles and reporting take us, and more often than not they take us to a place where there is little in the way of economic interest in speaking up for truth, justice, and the American way of not having to give two shits about sports as opposed to having your money stolen and life uprooted just because rich a-hole wants to shake down the idiot money tree at City Hall. It is a shameful, shameful racket, every last bit of it, and each marginal dollar from you helps us in the lonely fight.

Let them play! Donate to Reason now!

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Tman|11.8.10 @ 9:55PM|#

I just saw Bad News Bears on cable the other day. What a great flick, especially for anyone who's ever played in little league. And Matthau gives a team full of ten year olds a case of beer at the end and they go nuts.

Imagine the lawsuits just filming that now.

Go Issa?

|11.8.10 @ 10:36PM|#

70s movies, and even many 80s movies until the late 80s, have some pretty awesome content that would be unthinkable now. It's actually a little depressing watching them--as enjoyable as they are--because the content just shows you much that's been lost. I'm talking about stuff as simple as boarding airplanes with no retarded security, or (as you mentioned above) not treating children like they're made of glass, etc.

JOhnny MAckson|11.8.10 @ 9:56PM|#

Here I sit broken hearted
Paid a dime
And only farted
LOL I can't fart

Jess
www.anon-4-life.com

Spazmo|11.8.10 @ 10:54PM|#

Beautiful.

JLM|11.9.10 @ 7:07AM|#

Anon-o-bot has developed a sense of humor. I wonder if it is becoming self aware?

BakedPenguin|11.8.10 @ 10:28PM|#

Nick couldn't have been Kranepool. There's no way that hair would have fit under that hat. He'd have had to play for the Pirates ca. 1978.

Thomas Sabo|11.8.10 @ 10:38PM|#

Bright idea, hope there can be more useful articles about
Thomas sabo.
Thomas sabo UK

juris imprudent|11.8.10 @ 11:15PM|#

You sir, are no anon-bot.

sevo|11.8.10 @ 11:51PM|#

Wonderful idea! If men playing games want to do weird things to their bodies, why, let them!

Abdul|11.9.10 @ 8:19AM|#

No homo?

Great Wall|11.9.10 @ 12:39AM|#

Just Wonderful!

|11.9.10 @ 1:22AM|#

This baseball fad will never last.

|11.9.10 @ 1:28PM|#

I blame you and your sabr rattling.

|11.9.10 @ 9:11AM|#

Selig's generally a mess, but he deserves credit for two things. The first is the unprecedented (since free agency) 15-year period without a work stoppage, made especially remarkable because he gained a major concession (drug testing) from the players' union.

More interestingly, he also helped institute the divisional re-alignment and the wild card. That shit has made September much more entertaining.

As far as Burns is concerned, I'm an admitted apologist, but I still say his storytelling skills outweigh his squishy leftiness. Baseball is epic stuff.

Matt Welch|11.9.10 @ 9:28AM|#

I can't forgive Selig his organized theft of taxpayer money to build 25 new stadiums or whatever the final count is. That, and the terrible, terrible hair.

|11.9.10 @ 9:38AM|#

Hah. He looks like someone who constantly has bad breath too.

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