Does Viagra Enhance “The Rest of the Body”? November 23, 2008
Posted by Joey in War On Some Drugs.Tags: Doping
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Antidoping Agency Studying if Viagra Provides Athletes Competitive Edge
When George Downey volunteered along with other lacrosse players at Marywood University to take Viagra for a study, he received a snickering nickname from his high school coach. His parents jokingly told their friends. Inquiring minds sent messages to his Facebook page.
Kenneth W. Rundell, lead researcher of the Marywood study, said Viagra “provides an unfair advantage, at least at altitude.”
“They’re making fun of me,” Mr. Downey, 19, said good-naturedly. “Deep down, I think they’re looking for tips.”
Except that the Marywood study does not involve the bedroom, but the playing field. It is being financed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is investigating whether the diamond-shaped blue pills create an unfair competitive advantage in dilating an athlete’s blood vessels and unduly increasing oxygen-carrying capacity. If so, the agency will consider banning the drug.
Viagra, or sildenafil citrate, was devised to treat pulmonary hypertension, or high blood pressure in arteries of the lungs. The drug works by suppressing an enzyme that controls blood flow, allowing the vessels to relax and widen. The same mechanism facilitates blood flow into the penis of impotent men. In the case of athletes, increased cardiac output and more efficient transport of oxygenated fuel to the muscles can enhance endurance.
Uh, oh. I’m playing in a golf tournament next month…
US to Leave Iraq by 2011 (Maybe) November 22, 2008
Posted by Joey in War on Terror.Tags: Iraq
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Iraq strikes a deal for the withdrawal of American troops by 2011 | Iraq boots out the Americans
WHEN General David Petraeus, now America’s most celebrated military commander, arrived in Iraq in 2003 at the head of an airborne division, he asked a journalist: “Tell me how this ends?” For years nobody had a good answer. But now, thanks to a military pact between America and Iraq, a conclusion is in sight: America’s war in Iraq will end in three years’ time, with American troops being shown the door and Iraqi politicians competing to claim credit for getting rid of the foreigners.
A “withdrawal agreement” approved by the Iraqi cabinet on November 16th requires American troops to pull out of Iraqi towns and cities by the end of June next year, and to leave Iraq altogether by December 31st 2011. Those deadlines, said Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, in a televised address, would not be extended. The deal was not perfect, but marked “a solid start for Iraq to regain its full sovereignty in three years.”
There were no secret articles, he said, and there would be no permanent American bases. Iraq could not be used to attack others (ie, Syria or Iran). There would be, he promised, “no detainees any more, no detention centres any more, no searches or raids of buildings or houses, until there is an Iraqi judicial warrant and it is fully co-ordinated with the Iraqi government.”
I’ll believe we’re out of Iraq when I see it.
Annika Had to Pee in a Bottle After Final Round of Golf November 21, 2008
Posted by Joey in Sports, War On Some Drugs.Tags: Annika Sorenstam, Golf, LPGA
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After final round, Sorenstam picked for drug test
Even in the first few minutes of a presumed retirement, Annika Sorenstam was subject to drug testing.
An LPGA official told Sorenstam shortly after her second and final round at the ADT Championship that she needed to submit to a random test, which Sorenstam said was her second in recent weeks.
“I really don't know what's going on,'' Sorenstam said. “They're not going to let me go (away).''
The best female golfer of all time plays her last (or maybe not) round of golf, and she gets nabbed for a “random” drug test. The LPGA must be SO proud.
Neo-Cons for Hillary November 21, 2008
Posted by Joey in Politics.Tags: Hillary Clinton, Neo-Cons
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This explains the elation (okay, the relief) that swept over some in conservative circles when it seemed likely that the steely-eyed stare of Hillary Clinton was what Iran, Venezuela, and Russia were likely to get. Differences remain still with Hillary Clinton, but most of these are on social and size-of-government issues, which in her projected new post would be immaterial, much as they would have been if John McCain had won and then named Joe Lieberman, the one Democrat even more hawkish than Hillary, as his man at State or Defense. As it is, foreign policy is the one area in which her ideas seem somewhat in line with those of conservatives; and at any rate, she is the best thing they are likely to get. For the moment, Hillary Clinton will be the conservatives' Woman in Washington, more attuned to their concerns on these issues than to those of the get-the-troops-home-now wing of her party, a strange turn of events for a woman whose husband was impeached by Republicans just ten years ago, and whose ascent that party had dreaded since she went to the Senate two years after that.
It's a long trek from vast right-wing conspiracy to Great Right Hope, but Hillary Clinton, with the help of the far left, has made it. Strange things, people tell you, can happen in politics. But not many much stranger than this.
This is quite possibly the funniest article I’ve ever had the stomach to read at the Neo-Con Weekly Standard.
Neo-Cons for Hillary. Let’s say that again: Neo-Cons for Hillary. This is the same bunch that wet their collectivist panties when it appeared she’d be president.
They love Hillary because they believe she’ll continue the war-mongering policies of Dubya. Any port in a storm.
Friday Demotivator: Karma November 21, 2008
Posted by Joey in Demotivator.Tags: Karma
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Auto Bailout Fails (This Time) November 20, 2008
Posted by Joey in Bailout, Economics.Tags: Chrysler, Ford, GM, Obama Letdown
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Finger-pointing begins as Senate nixes auto vote
A Democratic Congress, unwilling or unable to approve a $25 billion bailout for Detroit's Big Three, appears ready to punt the automakers' fate to a lame-duck Republican president. Caught in the middle of a who-blinks-first standoff are legions of manufacturing firms and auto dealers — and millions of Americans' jobs — after Senate Democrats canceled a showdown vote that had been expected Thursday. President George W. Bush has "no appetite" to act on his own.
U.S. auto companies employ nearly a quarter-million workers, and more than 730,000 other people have jobs producing the materials and parts that go into cars. About 1 million on top of that work in dealerships nationwide. If just one of the auto giants were to go belly up, some estimates put U.S. job losses next year as high as 2.5 million.
"If GM is telling us the truth, they go into bankruptcy and you see a cascade like you have never seen," said Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, who was working on one rescue plan Wednesday. "If people want to go home and not do anything, I think that they're going to have that on their hands."
Obama’s administration is failing already (his party controls both the House and the Senate), and he hasn’t even gotten into office. He’ll be blamed when GM goes under (followed later by Chrysler and then Ford), even though the automakers have no one to blame but their own stupidity.
The Obama Letdown is gonna be huge, just huge.
Oil Below $50 November 20, 2008
Posted by Joey in Economics.Tags: Oil Prices
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The good news: oil falls below $50; gasoline around $2
Oil prices on Thursday hit levels not seen in more than three years and retail gasoline prices are now below $2 across nearly half of the country on dour economic reports suggesting a painful economic pullback.
Benchmark crude fell as low as $48.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, levels last seen on May 18, 2005, when oil hit $46.80 a barrel.
Oil is going lower, below $40, I bet. That’s gonna made the oil oligarchs squirm like pigs on a stick. 
$25 Billion is Peanuts to GM and Ford November 19, 2008
Posted by Joey in Bailout, Economics.Tags: Ford, GM
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Thanks to Declan McCullagh, we discover that GM and Ford burned through a staggering $465 Billion on their way to bankruptcy. It’s clear that $25 Billion ain’t gonna save these hosers.
Over the past decade, the capital destruction by GM has been breathtaking, on a greater scale than documented by Mr. Jensen for the 1980s. GM has invested $310 billion in its business between 1998 and 2007. The total depreciation of GM's physical plant during this period was $128 billion, meaning that a net $182 billion of society's capital has been pumped into GM over the past decade — a waste of about $1.5 billion per month of national savings. The story at Ford has not been as adverse but is still disheartening, as Ford has invested $155 billion and consumed $8 billion net of depreciation since 1998.
As a society, we have very little to show for this $465 billion. At the end of 1998, GM's market capitalization was $46 billion and Ford's was $71 billion. Today both firms have negligible value, with share prices in the low single digits. Both are facing imminent bankruptcy and delisting from the major stock exchanges. Along with management, the companies' unions and even their regulators in Washington may have their own culpability, a topic that merits its own separate discussion. Yet one can only imagine how the $465 billion could have been used better — for instance, GM and Ford could have closed their own facilities and acquired all of the shares of Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Volkswagen.
U.S. Drug Czar: Buy Your Dope Here November 19, 2008
Posted by Joey in War On Some Drugs.Tags: Drug Czar
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U.S. Drug Czar Posts Roadmap to Buying Dope in San Francisco
Vacationers traveling to San Francisco and hoping to score some weed have a great new resource at their disposal, courtesy of the U.S. government: a Google map mashup that shows the locations of all the medical marijuana dispensaries in the City by the Bay.
The map, posted on the blog of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, denotes the locations of 71 pot sellers with tiny cannabis leaf icons. The map also pinpoints all the Starbucks stores — just the thing for smokers looking to satisfy their munchies with a overpriced croissant.
Finally, a drug czar who does something useful. Fine job!
Next week, the ATF will tell us where to buy illegal machine guns.
Harvard: We’re Struggling November 19, 2008
Posted by Joey in Economics.Tags: Harvard University
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Amid poor economy, even mighty Harvard struggling
Despite amassing an almost $37 billion endowment, Harvard University is warning that the economic slowdown has reached America's richest university.
President Drew Faust said Monday the school is looking at ways to cut spending and will review compensation costs, which account for nearly half of the budget.
Harvard also is reviewing its ambitious expansion program, including plans announced early last year to expand across the Charles River from its Cambridge campus into Allston, she said.
The university is considering the steps because the economic slowdown may reduce federal grants and the school's substantial endowment, Faust said.
Poor, poor, Haaaaavaaaaaad. Let’s all break out our wallets and help out these poor schleps.
