Mishmash Musings

So after all that hullabaloo surrounding the Mitchell Report, did Major League Baseball ever come out with a revised policy regarding steroid use by players? If so, what is the final word?

I know that most performance enhancing drugs are probably prohibited, but I do know that there are legal steroids available on the market. Has anything been said about these kinds of products?

I would just like to know this stuff before investing any time and money watching baseball games this year. I don’t want to find out three months from now that my favorite players’ records and achievements are being called into question because of some supplements that they took or whatever.

Has the commissioner released a statement since the Clemens grand jury appearance? If so, I haven’t seen it. Maybe I ought to head over to MLB.com to check it out.

I just got done reading an AP article about how inmates in Vermont are filing a class-action suit against the prison system over what they deem unfair punishment — involving food.

Apparently, when inmates misbehave in some instances, they’re given something called “nutraloaf” which, according to reporter Wilson Ring, is “a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes” instead of regular cafeteria fare. This nutraloaf tastes so bad that prisoners claim it’s punishment, and as such, there should be due process before they’re given the concoction.

Ring further writes that inmates are usually put on nutraloaf for such offenses as messing around with their food, utensils, and trays in the cafeteria, or for throwing feces and urine. Prison officials believe using nutraloaf as a dissuasive tool helps protect staff from this type of behavior.

I can’t believe that a case like this is actually going to the Vermont Supreme Court. I get why prisoners might not like nutraloaf, but it’s not as though it’s in the same league as solitary confinement or restricted yard privileges, is it?

The article said that one guy was given nutraloaf after smearing his own feces all over his cell. Yeah, he sounds like a class act right there. Let’s listen to him boo-hoo about the food he’s given… at least he gets something to eat, all on the taxpayers’ dime.