Nick Gillespie on Ryan Braun and the Lastest Sports Steroid Freakout

"Why not have an actual public conversation about how and why performance-enhancing drugs are used in professional sports," asks Nick Gillespie in the wake of last week's suspension of baseball star Ryan Braun. "Baseball players, who show a remarkable willingness to sacrifice their bodies in pursuit of beaucoup bucks and a few lines on a plaque in Cooperstown, and team owners, who rightly see players as investments worth protecting, might come up with a drug policy that actually has a chance of working without forcing grown men to pee into cups or lie to a disbelieving public.

"Openly allowing PEDs might not sit well with sportswriters, who have to blow smoke on a semiregular basis like old Chief Noc-a-Homa used to do at Atlanta Braves games. But I suspect that poor, suffering fans who genuinely seem not to give a fungo bat about how athletes manage their incredible feats would be fine with it all."