From the Associated Press:
As the Top Ten Conservative Idiots summarized, this is essentially saying, “Don’t do this thing. It’s bad. Yes, I did it when I was young, and no, I don’t have any regrets about doing it, but you shouldn’t do it. Because its bad.”
(But then, isn’t that normal for conservatives?)
Well he is correct to say that it was legal at the time and administered by a doctor so I don’t see how he wrong to do it. It was a different time and place. Also I believe he says something in the article along the lines of he would not want kids to do it. What more do you want from the guy? Should he really feel guilty about something like that?
Well, Schwartzenegger isn’t all that conservative, but anyway, what he’s saying is, in summary, “I support athletes taking legal drugs to improve performance, but it’s wrong for them to take illegal drugs, because it sends the wrong message to kids (presumably that illegal drug use is ok.” He also points out that when he took steroids, he did it under a doctor’s supervision, and it was legal, so he doesn’t have any regrets. So that’s not hypocritical. He supports athletes using legal means to improve performance, and that’s what he did.
Thalidomide has been authorized for use in the United States for treatment of a complication of leprosy. If a woman who took thalidomide in the ‘60s for morning sickness treatment and whose children had no ill effects of taking said, "I have no regrets about it, because at that time, it was something new that came on the market, and we went to the doctor and did it under doctors’ supervision" but further opined that prospective mothers should not use the same thing for that purpose today, would she be a hypocrite or an idiot or whatever the fuck you’re going on about?
rjung, you are seriously a top 10 idiot, without regard to political stripe.
Some fool is going to link to DU without even blushing?
Um, wow. Great points have been made in the first three posts. I think it’s assholish to say “conservatives are like that, anyway”. I see no difference between that and saying “All YOU people.”
Besides I adore Arnold flicks.
Does this make Lyle Alzado a liberal then? No.
Your weekly (if not daily) sniping isn’t really helping your misguided cause, rjung.
Anybody, whether it’s; Giambi, Canseco, McQuire, Bonds or Arnold - who’s willing to take the risk and inject themselves with something that will likely cause testicle shrinkage, acne and possibly man-tits - all in the name of being on top of their game - deserves aggrandizement…not scorn.
Wow, this is really fucking trivial, rjung. Normally I’d say something here to the effect of “I thought better of you” but I guess I really didn’t.
Look, I’m as big a leftie as you can imagine. But Christ, isn’t the country’s current hysteria regarding steroids kind of unnecessary? And don’t you have something real to do with your life, rjung?
Also, even if the drugs had been illegal then, then not necessarily any real hypocrisy involved, i don’t think.
Personally, i support the decriminalization of most (actually, all) of the drugs that are currently banned in America—marijuana, cocaine, ecstacy, herion, you name it.
At the same time, if anyone asks me whether i do drugs, and whether i would recommend that other people do drugs, the answer is still no on both counts. In fact, i would go out of my way to tell people that i think that doing hard drugs is stupid, and a good way to end up dead, diseased or impoverished in short order.
And once again, Arnold proves he’s my kind of republican. The libertarian kind. Do what you want to your body, just make sure you get professional advice first. What’s the problem with that, you expect him to be knee-jerk anti-drugs?
Let me get this straight… A politician is actually honest about his past, even though it will be viewed unfavourably, and he’s getting pitted? 
Good for you, Arnie. I don’t like your politics, and I don’t want you to be President, but I respect that you for being honest here.
What are you proving rjung? When there’s nothing better to bitch about, lower your standards?
Not to beat a dead horse here, but
rjung - I’m as liberal/progressive/tree-hugger as they come, but it seems like these days you’re just throwing negative things about the right against the wall and seeing what sticks.
You’re a rational man. Why don’t you try to take a break from the politics entirely for a while, and try to restore a little balance to your worldview?
Yes, the current crop of right-wingers is worse than usual. Yes, Bush and co. are corrupt, lying criminals. But Jesus H. Fucking Christ on a Goddamned Popsicle Stick, not everything is about politics, and not everybody and everything Right is immoral and wrong.
There’s a lot to be learned from everybody, even if some of those lessons are merely learned by example.
Personally, my biggest problem with Arnold is not actually his own politics, but how, during the last Presidential election, he toadied up to the true liberty-hating fuckwads who are running country. Everyone knows that he actually shares very few of Bush’s “ideas” of what constitute government’s proper role, but he was still willing to bend over and take one for the team. For that, i think her’s a dick.
It’s Monday, it’s the BBQ Pit, what more excuse does one need? 
It’s not as if there isn’t a precedent for lame-ass political rants here, such as this one.
It’s certainly not as if I’m losing sleep over this silly thing; I just find it typically conservative that the Dark-Haired Austrian Savior of the Right is saying “Sure, I did steroids, I’m glad I did 'em, but I don’t want you kids to follow my footsteps.” IMO, it’s no different than if a former alcoholic were to say, “Hell yeah, I used to drink I college. I’ve got great memories of all-night binges where I drank until I puked. But I don’t want my kids to emulate me.” Any way you slice it, there’s a disconnect between the first two statements and the last third.
As for “throwing negative things about the right,” it’s not my fault if they give me so much fodder these days. Whose brilliant idea was it to give gay escorts with false identities access to the West Wing on a daily basis?
Word.
He’d have had better luck including the George W. Bush phone recording if he were trying to make a larger point. “I smoked dope when I was younger! I don’t want anyone to know because I don’t want anyone to think the fact that I did it makes it okay for them to do it!” Instead of the more sensible realization that, hey, it’s possible for someone to get wasted, clean up, and then become freakin’ President of the United States. If being a pothead is no obstacle to that, then it can’t be that bad to be a pothead. Right? Right.
But no, instead, rjung shoots his wad on a spectacularly lame Ahnuld rant.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
mhendo, my opinion there is that Arnold was just elected, it’s not the time or the place. Arnold’s not stupid. He can use his charisma, and he’s got it. But the time was at least two years after Bush got elected, and the place is to start in the back doors. Build a coalition first, then lever your muscle. Don’t disagree when you don’t have the muscle yet.
Arnold may be a kingmaker one day, but on that day, it was too soon.
Now, Rudy, I’m pissed at.
Ah, the battle cry of mainstream politics:
“I’ll rebel when i’ve got enough power!”
Course, you know what happens once they have the power…
Wait wait wait… rjung has standards?
Colour me shocked.