Call the Doggs off Barry

Now that baseball season has opened for the year the nation turns its attention to our national pastime -- drug use. Sadly, I missed my annual trip with friends to Spring Training this year but I have been unable to avoid the drug use debate.

With Giants slugger Barry Bonds under attack by the media and fans -- including one who threw a very large syringe on to the field in reference to Bonds' use of performance enhancement drugs - I really started thinking about celebrities' use of performance enhancement drugs. For Mr. Bonds in particular there is a real question whether or not there should be a footnote added to his statistics should he surpass Babe Ruth's home run hitting record. Since legend has it that the Babe drank alcohol to excess perhaps he used booze to enhance his own performance -- steady the nerves a bit for a game or just to relax -- which of course is a pretty big stretch from the alleged regular use of performance enhancers by Bonds but I hope you appreciate the point.

Now for the big leap in thinking so hold on -------------- Hopefully you have seen the Daimler-Chrysler TV ads featuring former CEO Lee Iaoccoa and musician Snoop Dogg:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/05/news/newsmakers/Iacocca_snoop/

Since Mr. Dogg has made it perfectly clear to the public that he loves smoking his marijuana/pot/mary jane/weed which apparently has enhanced his language performance given Chrysler's willingness to hire him for his laid back, smooth talking style-- which is completely unintelligible to most audiences so it makes me wonder which consumers Chrysler is targeting. I may have missed it but I don't see activists or the media digging into Mr. Dogg's drug use or calling on Chrysler to "Trade Dogg" to General Motors for some minor league players or a future draft choice ;)

The bottom line for me is call on fans to back off Barry Bonds -- boycott his games if you disapprove but look beyond Barry to have a much more comprehensive debate on the subject of drug use in America. The terrorists making money off the opium crop in Afghanistan are watching and waiting.

This is your brain on blogs,

Todd