On my way to get some dinner tonight I was listening to the Jim Rome show. He had George Lopez guest hosting for the evening.

George was talking with Rod Carew, and going over how atheletes today are all cheaters, how baseball has changed for the worst, etc.

Then George asked Rod about all the 'powdered stuff' players use today, like protein and creatine. Rod goes off, saying that players have "No business" using that stuff and that they’re "endangering their health".

I was as upset as I would have been listening to any right wing wacko radio station. God bless media sensationalism, and media figureheads talking about issues they obviously know nothing about.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Married people are healthier than other adults, though husbands have a tendency to pack on some extra pounds, says the National Center for Health Statistics.

Some noteable Quotes from the article:

"the theory that healthy people get married and stay married, whereas less healthy people either do not marry or are more likely to become separated, divorced or widowed."

"Overall, this association between marital status and health persists regardless of socio-economic status, education and poverty, where people were born or their ethnicity," she said.

An association between marriage and health was first reported in the 1970s, and the relationship persists although much has changed since then.

I wonder if the people who are not married are eating too many of the Monster Thickburgers?

The two hypotheses work pretty well in tandem; without data, I think it's fair to say that when a marriage is working, the husband gets moral support and builds a social network with other couples whose marriages, we assume, are also working pretty well. All in all, a healthy spiral.

But when a marriage is failing, a guy will tend to drink more, have affairs, take risks, and generally hit the skids. The marriage could suck because the guy has a predilection toward doing all that in the first place. But the bad marriage could also drive him to it.

However, I think the government study misses two huge points:
Married guys have more sex than single guys, and tend to make more money.

I don't know if having a good income makes for a healthy marriage, but it sure doesn't hurt, given how many marriages founder when they run into financial trouble.

And, while we all joke about how little sex we have, it should be some comfort to us married guys that multiple studies and surveys have shown that single guys are getting MUCH less.

We know that income and social status tend to be pretty good predictors of exercise behavior -- higher-status guys will exercise more. Sex? Well, if it isn't good for your health, then I don't want to be healthy. (Fortunately, it is. But I did enjoy writing that line.)

So add it up:
Guys in decent marriages trend toward higher income and social status, get more sex, and are less likely to smoke or drink heavily.

Not sure if you have heard of Hardee's Monster Thickburger, all 1,420 calories of it. Its two-thirds of a pound of red meat, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese, mayonnaise, on a buttered sesame-seed bun. (The butter on the bun is a nice touch, a final "fuck you" to anyone with a sub-40-inch waist.)

Apparently, a lot of people are interested:

"People have just had to try the Monster. All of it.

"'You can certainly say it exceeded all my expectations,' [Andy Puzder, CEO of Hardees' parent company] said of sales, although he declined to offer specifics."

I love this quote:

"'Not every product has to be aimed at the health-conscious,' Puzder said, noting that since the introduction of the Thickburger family in April 2003, sales for the 2,067-restaurant chain have risen steadily."

I agree with him, but if I were religious I'd hope there's a special place in hell for people who deliberately target products to the non-health-conscious.

So the rumors we've been hearing for almost a year are indeed true: Bonds did tell the grand jury he took steroids.
Grand jury transcripts show that Bonds testified that he took BALCO's "clear" and "cream," but didn't know they were steroids.
The second part is absurd, but the first part is now undeniable: Barry Bonds took apart baseball's record book while using steroids. And, given that his trainer, Greg Anderson, was caught with growth hormone, you can bet Bonds took that, too, among the myriad of other drugs.
"I'm black, and I'm keeping my money"
Some fun details from the article:
"Prosecutors confronted Bonds with documents dating to his record-setting season of 2001 that allegedly detailed his use of many drugs, including human growth hormone, steroids and insulin. He said he believed he only used legal products to treat arthritis and fatigue.
"Bonds danced around questions, saying he couldn't explain a calendar with the name 'Barry' on it; he had never seen a bottle that says Depo-Testosterone; he had never heard of the drugs Clomid, modafinil and trenbolone; and he couldn't pronounce EPO.
"Bonds testified that he didn't think any of the substances worked but kept using them out of loyalty to Anderson. He also said he never consulted with the Giants about what Anderson gave him.
"'No way ... we don't trust the ball team,' Bonds said. 'We don't trust baseball. ... Believe me, it's a business. I don't trust their doctors or nothing.'
"Sheffield also testified to the grand jury that Bonds arranged for Anderson to give him 'the clear,' 'the cream,' and another steroid from Mexico, but also said he did not know they were steroids.
"Bonds said he never paid Anderson for drugs or supplements but did give the trainer $15,000 in cash in 2003 for weight training and a $20,000 bonus after his 73-homer season.
"Bonds said that Anderson had so little money that he 'lives in his car half the time.' Asked by a juror why he didn't buy 'a mansion' for his trainer, Bonds answered: 'One, I'm black, and I'm keeping my money. And there's not too many rich black people in this world. There's more wealthy Asian people and Caucasian and white. And I ain't giving my money up.'"

And he wonders why no one likes him? I cant stand him.
-Mike

An interesting quote from the ESPN.com story:
"Colin Kelly, a 48-year-old amateur bodybuilder from Hermosa Beach, Calif., says he uses Serostim [a popular synthetic growth hormone] to help him bulk up his physique. He says he gets the drug from middlemen in the black-market pipeline who buy it from AIDS patients.
"'Remember when you were 20 years old and could eat ice cream and cake and stuff, and you never gained any fat? This is what it will do for you,' he says. 'You can eat all that stuff again. It picks up your metabolism a lot, so you take the stuff and you gain muscle mass and lose body fat without even working out at all. It's incredible.
"'It's the fountain of youth in a bottle, so who wouldn't want that?'"

Um ... me. Probably you. Probably most people.

Which brings up a point so obvious that I dont even have to spell it out: the "Juiced" Bodybuilders really have no clue how bizarre their goals and habits are. I mean, I'm all for working out hard and consistently, and eating the best foods while trying to avoid the worst, but when you're to the point that you're taking drugs to create an effect you can't get from exercise and diet, to look more muscular and vascular than nature allows ... that's where normal healthy people draw the line. I'm almost embarrassed to be a part of the bizarre Gym/Workout subculture sometimes.

A Bosnian man who couldn't afford a doctor operated on his own kidney stones:
"An unemployed Bosnian performed kidney stone surgery on himself because he did not have any money to pay medical bills."
"'The stones had passed out of my kidney and had got stuck in my urinary tract. I cut the skin under my testicles and with the help of a sterilized needle I managed to dig out three stones.'
"Doctors in the nearby town of Zenica said they were shocked someone had managed to perform such an operation by themselves, and cleaned and restitched the wound for free."

Restitched? As in, the guy sewed himself up, too?

Now, that takes balls.