Really, What’s The Difference???

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Yesterday,  Red Sox slugger, David “Big Papi” Ortiz has admitted that a New York Times article was correct when it name the Left Fielder as one of the players to have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003 .

The Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez didn’t deny the report either.  The former Red Sox starter star who’s already served a 50-game suspension for a failed test earlier this season, was also named in the Times report.

What’s interesting here, is that while Oritz admitted being on the last, he insists that he has no clue as to how or why he tested positive in the first place.

The next few weeks should be interesting.

Performance Enhancing Drugs.

Three words that have plagued the once stellar and untarnished world of baseball for years.

In December 2007, I wrote a post about America’s pastime and certain players’ use of anabolic steroids and how that has failed a country full of wide-eyed baseball fans ,who still believed their heroes were naturally gifted and that plus, conditioning, practice and drive allowed them to earn the term “slugger” the old fashioned way;  NOT through chemistry.

While my opinion regarding the use of steroids hasn’t changed in the two years since originally writing that post, I’ve also chosen to look at the subject from a different perspective.

One could argue that PEDs (performance Enhancing Drugs)  give fans more bang for their buck.    Jose Canseco accused baseball superstar Mark McGwire of being a steroid pin cushion not long after McGwire’s record breaking season  in 1998.    That’s when he wowed the country and baseball fans around the world were completely wowed when he and Sammy Sosa both surpassed Roger Maris’  61 homerun record in a single season.

Maris achieved that feat in the early 60′s and did it through grit and guts and probably a whole helluva lot  of gin, but let’s face it, alcholol isn’t an enhancer unless of course, you consider that it helps make make homely  people much prettier at closing time.

But herein lies the question I want to pose:

What really is the difference between any player using anabolic steroids AND a model who’s achieved superstardom in the world of fashion, glamour and thin, corporeal perfection courtesy of boob jobs, butt lifts,  lipsocution, tummy tucks, Botox and collagen puffed bee stung  lips?   And then even with all that there’s the magic of make-up, lighting  and technology.  Her photographs are often air brushed and retouched to enhance her looks even more.    It suddencly ceases being natural and becomes man-made and technolically enhanced.

Like an injection of Andro or any of the the countless other types of gym candy usesd to bulk up. 

I’ve included a video, that was  produced by Dove two years ago.   It’s made  the rounds on You Tube and  in email inboxes and and perfectly exemplifies the concept of  enhanced beauty.  And in many cases,  where there was none intially.

 

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Granted, the model only poses for a camera and with the exception of long, enduring hours under hot lots and a photographers glare; there’s very little physical exertion or the need for a specific skill set.    In baseball, it’s imperative that you have raw skills or you wouldn’t be playing professionally, be it on farm teams or up in the Big Show.

Nevertheless, if a model is paid ridiculous amounts of money simply for looking good while being photographed, how is that any difference from a player who juices?   How is the enhanced beauty of a model any more wrong than that of a pro-player who shot up to give himself an edge in the game?

As I see it,  a model is already pretty.   Nature has been kind; Max Factor even kinder.  That said, beauty is enhanced through all the applications and methods listed abve.   

A truly talented baseball player can already hit a ball close to the Green Monster in Boston, but a few shots in the butt with PEDs can often mean the difference between a base hit and a homerun.

Fashion magazines sell more magazines when a beautiful woman graces the cover.   In 1998, when the homerun record breaking drive was in full swing, baseball franschises sold more tickets and the game as a whole, had higher TV ratings than it ever had before.

So really, what’s the difference?  

Let’s just say for instance, it’s ultimately determined that there is none bythe  various regulating commissions, could you ever foresee a day when models are fined and suspended from multi-million dollar photo shoots or fashion shows for what amounts to be  the very same offense as steroid users in college or professsional sports?

Faith Or Ignorance?? You Tell Me

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Having reported on the news most of my professional career, it’s truly the last thing I want to encounter in my life as a civilian.   I am blissfully unaware of most current events.   The story your about to read unfolded throughout most of  2008, but I only recently found out about it.

Here’s the story:

Wisconsin father, Dale Nuemann, charged last October with reckless homicide for not taking his dying daughter to a doctor, told police that he believed God would heal her.  He went on to say that when she lapsed into a coma, he merely thought she was sleeping.

Eleven-year-old Madeline Neumann lost a battle with undiagnosed diabetes in March of 2008 at her family’s rural Wisconsin home.   She lying on the floor, surrounded by people who’d been praying for healing.    It wasn’t until she stopped breathing that someone finally called 911.

Prosecutors say her father, Dale Neumann, had a legal obligation take his dying daughter to a doctor or a hospital.

Neumann told investigators that in the weeks leading up to Madeline’s death, he noticed that was a “little weak and a little slower,” something he attributed to puberty. Her condition deteriorated, and the day before her death,  Madeline could no longer walk or talk.

“We just trusted the Lord for complete healing,” he said. “We didn’t really sense it was like a life-and-death situation. We figured there was something really fighting in her body. We asked people to join with us in prayer agreement.”

Neumann said it never crossed his mind that his daughter might have lost consciousness.

According  to Neumann,  “I didn’t believe at all that the Lord would even allow her to pass.”

Neumann also told detectives that even though he’s convinced “sickness is a result of sin”, his daughter’s death hasn’t shaken his faith or belief system.

The family does not belong to an organized religion, and Neumann’s wife, Leilani testified that she and her husband have nothing against doctors. But, she said, she viewed Madeline’s illness as “something spiritual.”

Leilani Neumann was convicted of second-degree reckless homicide this spring and faces up to 25 years in prison..

Dr. Joseph Monaco, who worked on Madeline in the hospital emergency room, said she was “very, very emaciated and wasted physically.”

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I hear stories like this and I get very angry.  And not only that, people like this make me angry.  I’m talking about those who believe God will handle everything in a flash, like one of Samantha Stevens’ (TV’s “Bewitched”) magical finger snaps. 

As if even Almighty God can take someone in the latent stages of Level 4 Cancer; when the death rattle has begun, that suddenly  He/She will make that poor emaciated creature well, then hope on out of their one-time death bed ready to dance a hula.

I wonder when people (even those who are limited in scope as the Nuemanns) will understand that God isn’t this better-than-a Vegas-act magician!!   Sure, mmiraculous events still happen these days.  Granted, they’re not as convincing as the Bible would have us believe, but miracles still occur.  The problem is people aren’t aware of them, or take them for granted.  It’s hard not to witness childbirth or a massive suspended bridge connecting two land masses across a huge body of water and not marvel at the miracle of technology.

But technology isn’t magic.  It’s applied science.  Therefore, I suppose my question at this point is when will people understand that God isn’t magic?   And when we people understand the role they play in their own survival?

I’m not an incredibly Godly woman.  While I believe in a very defined higher power that works for me, I also believe in the power we have within us.  God given power, one could say. I believe in our power to affect change and that covers an extremely broad scope.  

 The Nuemanns are what I called “literalists”.  They can’t see beyond the words of the Bible that they firmly believe are ccompletely infallible.  

OK, cool whatever floats your boat, but if they would have chosen to educate themselves to what exists beyond the scope of  this book’s text (and sorry people, but we’re talking about a book here, that no matter how you slice it, was physcially written by man) they wouldn’t both be facing lengthy jail sentences.. They are guilty of ignorance, extreme provincial thinking and misappropriation of faith.  In my opinion, they’re faith is wrong.   It’s oddly scoped.   They are entitled to believe as they see fit, but where has it gotten them?   Jail time and a daughter who’s dead.  I pity them them for thinking that all illnesses are the result of sin.  That speaks volumes about these people.

Sadly, they were looking for a miracle; one of those Lazarus type resurrection deals. At the time that happened and if that ever happened in the first place, that could have been described as such solely for the benefit of an even more ignorant and unenlightened group of people…..early man.  

You know, the needed the magic to believe.

What the Nuemanns failed to realize in their own (and yes, I’ll say it) STUPIDITY is that had they taken their daughter to a hospital, she would probably still be alive.   And if anyone would like to take that further and split hairs, we can do that:  That said, one then could argue that God paved the way for medical technology to be as cutting edge as it is today.  He gave people the drive and the intellect to invent these mmiraculous processes, such as dialysis, tumor removal and neurosurgery.  The list is endless.

 Go have a mole removed by laser surgery and then argue that point with me.

I don’t have more to say about the subject other than it reminds of a parable I’ve heard for years.

A man  was caught in a terrible flash flood. 

He prayed, “Lord, save me!” 

Shortly after his prayer, a boat paddled towards him and the people urged the man to get in.

“No thank-you”, said the man, “The Lord is going to save me”.

An hour later, a motor boat drove by and the people urged the man to get in.

“No thank you”, said the man, “The Lord is going to save me”.

The water continued to rise; so much so that the rescue efforts were significantly hampered. The man, at this point, was clinging to the roof-top; floodwaters were about to completely engulf him.   He knew his life stood in the balance.    Then suddenly, a helicopter flew overhead and lowered a rope ladder next to him as he clung to the roof for life.

“Don’t worry about me. The Lord is going to save me”.  

Shortly after that, the man drowned.

As he stood before God in Heaven, he asked Him, “Lord, I trusted in You–Why didn’t You save?”

“Save you???”, replied God, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter! What else did you expect?”

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Well, there you go.

Maybe it’s just me, but I do believe that sometimes we haveto make the effort to see the ecclesiastical forest for the trees.  As this case perfectly exemplifies, do the alternatives really give us much of an option otherwise?l