[ExI] the myth of the US "liberal media"

[Stefano Vaj]

On 19 July 2011 16:45, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:
> So what you're saying is that if you sneak notes into a Physics final,
> and don't get caught, then that's not cheating? I'm sorry, that
> doesn't meet with my definition of ethical.

No, I am saying that if you are doing something that nobody has ever
thought (yet) to forbid or to test for you are in a different league
from the sportman who takes some cocaine during a marathon and keeps
his fingers crossed not to be randomly picked for testing.

> Motor sports is a little different in that the rules authorize you to
> experiment with your machine to a certain extent and within certain
> parameters. Part of the point of motor sports is to push the science
> of motor cars forward... always has been. You can make improvements to
> your equipment, and next year everyone has the improved equipment.
> That's the way the sport moves forward.
> Same with the America's Cup sailing race...

Yes. So, what's the difference? Improving yourself and/or your
equipment has been typical of us fyborgs for a few centuries now...
:-)

>> Moreover, do you seriously propose that transexuals should not be
>> allowed to compete? Even though, in fact, I suspect that men becoming
>> women and competing with women have always had more of an edge than
>> women becoming men and competing with the latter, as you suggest...
>
> You didn't get the point... This poor East German girl (a real,
> specific girl, named Heidi Krieger) was treated with so many steroids
> that she essentially became a man. Later, twenty years later, she
> underwent surgery to complete her transformation to being a man. It
> was the only way she could survive in a society that saw her as a man
> because of her facial hair, adam's apple, and so forth. She didn't
> choose to become a transexual, she was abused by the state sports
> doctors, without her knowledge, and was turned into a man.

All this is based on the assumption that she did not and would not
have accepted the unintended consequences, something which most of her
rivals probably would happily have, but the evil doctors chose to
impose her out of sheer malice. Any factual ground for this?

> Men becoming women, and then
> competing in strength sports seems a little bit like cheating to me...

Speaking of arbitrary restrictions, we might require people to compete
not on the basis of their phenotype, but of their chromosomic gender.
But the same rationale might be invoked to refuse public recognition
of changes of sex in any other context, even though surgery and
hormones might well remain legal per se.

> They were
> given no choice except to quit being an athlete.

Same as I am given no choice except quitting being a corporate lawyer
if I am not willing to work long hours? Gosh... :-)

-- 
Stefano Vaj