Indicted one season too late

Bonds' indictment sparks talk throughout baseball

Excerpt:

Barry Bonds, baseball's all-time leading home run hitter, was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on charges of perjury and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about using steroids.

The indictment in San Francisco probably ends the 43-year-old slugger's career three months after he broke Hank Aaron's home run record under a cloud of suspicion about whether Bonds had taken performance-enhancing drugs. Now Bonds — a hulking symbol of an era in baseball that featured booming home runs and questions about whether steroids were tainting the game's integrity — could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

The indictment stems from a four-year probe into steroid use by athletes who got supplements from a firm known as the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO). Bonds, formerly an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants, faces four perjury counts and one count of obstructing justice stemming from his testimony to a federal grand jury in December 2003.

During that grand jury appearance, the indictment says, Bonds repeatedly was asked whether he had received anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancers from a longtime friend — and whether Bonds had used such substances. The indictment recounts more than a dozen denials by Bonds during his testimony and alleges that they were lies.

See CFG: * Ball

Comment: Too bad he was not indicted before he broke Aaron's HR record! Barry and Pete Rose ... 2 guys who should never be in the Hall of Fame

Bonds won't make Hall of Fame, but records should stand

Excerpt:

Barry Bonds, if convicted, faces up to 30 years in prison (a year or two would be more likely) and the loss of whatever chance he had, after years of alleged steroid use, of enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. The churlish, bulky slugger — Major League Baseball's all-time home run leader — has been indicted by a federal grand jury on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

Pete Rose, baseball's all-time hits king, served time in prison on tax evasion charges and is stuck with a lifetime ban from the game and, for all practical purposes, from Cooperstown for violating rules against gambling.

Marijuana and mental health

Marijuana may increase psychosis risk, analysis says

Excerpt:

Using marijuana seems to increase the chance of becoming psychotic, researchers report in an analysis of past research that reignites the issue of whether pot is dangerous.


The new review suggests that even infrequent use could raise the small but real risk of this serious mental illness by 40 percent.


Doctors have long suspected a connection and say the latest findings underline the need to highlight marijuana's long-term risks. The research, paid for by the British Health Department, is being published Friday in medical journal The Lancet.


Smoking just one cannabis joint raises danger of mental illness by 40%

Excerpt:

A single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 per cent, a disturbing study warns.


The Government-commissioned report has also found that taking the drug regularly more than doubles the risk of serious mental illness.


Overall, cannabis could be to blame for one in seven cases of schizophrenia and other life-shattering mental illness, the Lancet reports.


Comment: While, I have never used marijuana before, I have limited personal experience with this. I know several who were heavy marijuana users in their youth. Now in their 30's ... well let's just say "they aren't quite right!".

40th Anniversary of the "Summer of Love"

The Summer of Drugs

An unclouded, un-stoned view by Ted Nugent!

Excerpts:

Forty years ago hordes of stoned, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which was the calling card of LSD proponent Timothy Leary. Turned off by the work ethic and productive American Dream values of their parents, hippies instead opted for a cowardly, irresponsible lifestyle of random sex, life-destroying drugs and mostly soulless rock music that flourished in San Francisco.

The Summer of Drugs climaxed with the Monterey Pop Festival which included some truly virtuoso musical talents such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, both of whom would be dead a couple of years later due to drug abuse. Other musical geniuses such as Jim Morrison and Mama Cass would also be dead due to drugs within a few short years. The bodies of chemical-infested, brain-dead liberal deniers continue to stack up like cordwood.

As a diehard musician, I terribly miss these very talented people who squandered God's gifts in favor of poison and the joke of hipness. I often wonder what musical peaks they could have climbed had they not gagged to death on their own vomit. Their choice of dope over quality of life, musical talent and meaningful relationships with loved ones can only be categorized as despicably selfish.
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The 1960s, a generation that wanted to hold hands, give peace a chance, smoke dope and change the world, changed it all right: for the worse. America is still suffering the horrible consequences of hippies who thought utopia could be found in joints and intentional disconnect.

A quick study of social statistics before and after the 1960s is quite telling. The rising rates of divorce, high school drop outs, drug use, abortion, sexual diseases and crime, not to mention the exponential expansion of government and taxes, is dramatic. The "if it feels good, do it" lifestyle born of the 1960s has proved to be destructive and deadly.

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Where was I that summer?

1. Just graduated from High School
   
2. Worked at a greenhouse for the Summer (and my first year of college at the University of Cincinnati)
   
3. Was not a Christian - that would come 2 years later
   
4. I enjoyed the music ... but never tried the drugs!
   
5. "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" (see below): was somewhat of the theme song for that Summer. Really looks and sounds stupid in 2007!
   

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