We love fake. Facebook "friends," Twinkies and double Ds not endowed by our creator.

We love enhanced. Plump chicken breasts and airbrushed photos.

We love short cuts. Weight-loss surgery, no-fault divorce and CliffsNotes.

We love lies, too. Living in houses we cannot afford, living with debt we cannot handle and arguing -- not unlike, say, Brady Anderson -- this is all a result of hard work.

So where exactly does the moral authority to sermonize on the horror that is steroids in sports come from? I played that game for a while, tearing into Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds as scoundrels. What I finally realized is steroids outrage is pious fraud. And it is time to say to hell with all of that.

What I dare to suggest is a war on the war on steroids. Because this fake moral outrage about the "disgraceful state of competitive sports nowadays" that serves as a running dialogue every time an athlete is busted for steroids is just about played out. The fact is almost every single argument against performance-enhancing drugs falters when viewed in light of how we live the rest of our lives.

Think of the kids.

It is cheating the game.

Oh my, the health risks.

Why do we pretend Bonds doing steroids endangers the health of kids, yet pumping them full of all kinds of pharmacological remedies does not? Why is Melky Cabrera cheating the game and the guy selling subprime mortgages while also wagering on them to fail on Wall Street is just playing it? Why is Lance Armstrong "awful" for allegedly risking his post-cancer health to win Tour de France titles while our willful acceptance of the side effects of all those erectile dysfunction cures recited to us during every sporting broadcast is not?

They may be cheats. But we are hypocrites.