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Originally Posted by dlb
Yes, but intent is important. If Bonds had no intention of using a banned substance and did not know that the substance he was using was prohibited, his guilt is largely mitigated. If that is the case, I'd say he's suffered enough and in the interest of justice, we should let the matter drop.
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If you believe that to be the case, but then that's not the premise those of us attacking Bonds are working under. Most of us do not buy the suggestion that Greg Anderson walked up with a syringe of clear liquid, squirted it under Bonds' tongue with the athlete all the while thinking "this is flaxseed oil." You're welcome to believe otherwise and ignore anything that came out in "Game of Shadows" with the exception of the limited snippets of Bonds' grand jury testimony, but please don't try to pretend that said position is any more knowledgable or reasonable than those of us who believe that there is ample evidence to suggest that Bonds took steroids knowingly, repeatedly, and unapologetically.
If all he did was injest illegal substances out of ignorance, dlb, then what I personally demand of an athlete and celebrity who has been built up on the shoulders of millions of spectators is honesty, and an apology, and an openness to inquiry. Indifference sends quite a different message.
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Steroids are bad because they subject athletes to terrible side effects, not because they enhance performance. If the performance edge were the problem, then we'd have to regulate nutrition, workouts, surgeries to repair injuries (I may not remember this correctly, but doesn't the "Tommy John surgery" to repair a torn rotator cuff result in the ability to throw a better sinkerball?), and possibly even set maximum heights and weights for players. In short, the performance enhancement argument is both trivial and fraudulent.
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...and then certainly we would have to regulate genetics and upbringing, ensuring that every baseball player be grown in a controlled laboratory environment from identical, cloned embryos. Your comment above does NOT logically follow from legal performance enhancement. Good nutrition and exercise are freely available for those athletes who wish to take advantage, and such means of a competitive edge are perfectly legal. Taking steroids yields a competitive advantage which is NOT legally available to other athletes, and therefore breaches a specific ethical boundary. Steroids are illegal not because of performance enhancement, but rather due to health concerns. Steroid use in competitive athletics is unethical due to both the performance enhancement and the legality.