It's not whether you win or lose...

...but on second thought maybe it is.

I was watching Real Time last night and Maher interviewed Pete Rose. Their conversation turned towards Barry Bonds and the whole steroid controversy, and Maher said something that I thought was particularly interesting. He asked Rose, "Don't you think that cheating really is the American pastime?" Rose laughed it off, but the question set off a chord within me. Maybe cheating really is the American pastime.

Think about it. Steroids in baseball is only one example--the proverbial tip of the iceberg--But there's also Enron, Abramoff, Bush, Worldcom, Global Crossing, Frist, Bill Clinton etc etc...and when you put it all together you realize that cheating--far from being punished--is rewarded highly, and the more deceitful the greater the prize.

The funny thing is, I bet half of you are saying, "Well, Duh!" and the other half are saying, "Come on, you're exaggerating!" And that right there is the essence of the problem. It's not that people cheat and get away with it but it's the schizophrenia regarding our feelings towards cheating that has led us down this road of hypocrisy towards madness. We're taught at a young age Sesame Street values and end up with Machiavellian principles. The fine veneer of morals and ethics are slowly being shed as we speak, and, no, I don't think its because we're becoming more secular as a country, and I don't think its because of Hip-hop or Grand Theft Auto, or Marilyn Manson, or Reality TV or Michael Moore. I think what's happening stems from the same things that make this country great: our consumerism and our desire to succeed. By itself ambition is a wonderful trait, but it must be tempered with ethics and morals. Not because its the Christian thing, but because when ethics have vanished the system itself collapses upon itself.

Look at baseball. Some people would say that steroid use should be allowed. Some people would say that the juice makes the game more exciting. And watching some drug inflated freak hit a ball 700 yards is pretty interesting, but while you're busy doing that the entire sport falls apart. Baseball, as Pete Rose noted, used to be a sport of values where the players gave something back to their communities and encouraged others to get in the game. This week the USA got their asses handed to them by the world in the World Baseball Classic because we'd outsourced half our players. We forgot about the fans and it shows.

Not only that but we also forget that (Regardless of what Jose Canseco says) steroid use is BAD. It will KILL you. When professionals endorse steroid use, and the public embraces them it encourages kids to juice up.

Starting to see a cycle appear?

And no I'm not blaming Baseball and Barry Bonds for the disintegration of America. For that I blame the Neo-conservatives.

And I'm not kidding. They are the Barry Bonds of politics. The policies they embrace are the political equivalent of steroids. Their belief in preemptive wars, weakening social programs, might makes right, increasing executive power, and lack of international respect shoots the crap outta the spirit of America like Cheney shoots his friends. Constitution? What Constitution? To this crew, the Constitution is a annoyance that hinders their agenda. When you look at baseball all you are seeing is the microcosm of the greater infection that assaults America. The irony of Bush using the steroid issue to distract from his policies nearly slays me as much as him telling me about my oil addiction, and as my father says it would be funny if it weren't so serious.

So to cheat or not to cheat, that is the American question and how we handle these issues in the next couple of years will determine the fate of our country. If baseball legalized steroid use in the majors our pastime would become a side show, but if the cheating continues in DC then entertainment will be the furthest thing from our minds.