Archive for August, 2006
Public Policy Proposal:
Require that all apprehended traffic violators be tested for DUI
Mel Gibson provides a classic example of the reason we need to narrow the scope and focus of the War on Drugs. Rather than maintaining a broad and ineffective "war,"we should concentrate our efforts and scarce resources on those who create problems for others as a result of drug use, including use of the drug alcohol. We need to admit that the person on the drug, not the drug, is the problem.
Countless recovering alcoholics admit they bottomed out after a DUI, or a second or third DUI. Every addict's pain threshold is different, but that doesn't mean we should ever give up. They should be arrested and videotaped, ...
Yet another alcoholic–and enabled–cop
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviorsâ„¢
Story from "This is True"by Randy Cassingham, with his "tagline:â€
Story from "This is True"by Randy Cassingham, with his "tagline:"
"HOW THEY DO THINGS IN FLORIDA: Laurie Primeau, 47, a police academy instructor and 27-year veteran officer in Plantation, Fla., was pulled over for speeding after she allegedly swerved and nearly hit a sheriff's cruiser. The deputy who stopped her noted two odd things. First, she had an open bottle of whiskey in her car (a training aid for police cadets, her lawyer said later). Second, "I asked her, 'Where are your pants?'," Deputy David Alvarado said" she wasn't wearing anything below the waist; she replied that she didn't know. She refused to take a breath ...
Top Story: Mel Gibson
Actor-Director Mel Gibson's Horrific Relapse
In 1947, Dr. William D. Silkworth authored a piece for the magazine of Alcoholics Anonymous, The AA Grapevine, entitled, "Slips and Human Nature."Silkworth explained the process of relapse, that it is not a mystery and should not be surprising. Yet, when a recovering alcoholic of the stature of Mel Gibson relapses and mouths obscenities and hatred, people are stunned. While we wish it weren't so, we should not be shocked. Relapses are fairly normal experiences in the lives of alcoholics, particularly when wealth, fame, family, friends and even law enforcers enable by protecting the alcoholic from appropriate and logical consequences. And, as I explain in my latest book, "Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the ...
Runners-Up: Travis Armstrong (S.B. News-Press publisher), Mindy McCready, “Survivor” winner Brian Heidik, Actress Lindsay Lohan, Pamplona bull-runners and Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Acting publisher of the Santa Barbara, California News-Press, Travis Armstrong, for failing to pour on the alcoholic charm required to keep almost a dozen reporters, including seven out of the paper's top eight editors, from walking out after managing to silence a story on his arrest for driving drunk the wrong way down a one-way street. His Blood Alcohol Level was .23 per cent, which requires the equivalent of 15 shots of 80-proof liquor in a period of four hours for a 200-pound person.
Country singer Mindy McCready, who recently testified she thought that police pulled her over in May 2005 to "give her a hard time,"not because they thought she might be driving ...
Under Watch: Castro and Wendy McCaw, S.B. News-Press
Under watch:
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding, temporarily ceding power to his younger brother Raul. Castro has been one of the few despots in whom I have so far been unable to confirm addiction. However, in the autobiographical expose, Castro's Daughter: An Exile's Memoir of Cuba, Alina Fernandez mentions the prevalence of cocaine in Cuba. For the first 212 pages, there are no clues to drugs in Castro's life (he, like amphetamine/barbiturate addict Adolf Hitler before him, is a relative teetotaler). Then, "Cocaine was everywhere in Cuba…There was so much cocaine available in Havana that…all production indexes seemed to improve….One could easily conclude that cocaine was the sole impetus behind all the revolutionary marches….This was no secret ...
Co-Dependent of the Month: Wendy McCaw
Co-Dependent of the Month:
Mrs. Wendy McCaw, owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press, for having named and stood behind Travis Armstrong, this month's top runner-up, as acting publisher of the paper despite his DUI and serious problems with staff. As noted in the "under watch"section, she supported the squelching of a story on Armstrong's guilty plea and four-day jail stint. At best, she's an extreme codependent.
Enablers: Malibu Sheriffs and Survivor’s Heidick’s father
Enablers of the Month:
The Malibu sub-station of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department, for having initially attempted to squelch the truth about Mel Gibson's behavior during his arrest, deserves top honors. They also deserved it one year ago and three years ago for having let Mr. Gibson off with warnings. Hopefully, Mr. Gibson will later forgive the department for having failed to inflict necessary pain then and, most recently, for attempting to reduce the pain, which would have served to dramatically decrease the odds of long-term sobriety. Mr. Gibson owes a big "thank you"to the investigative journalists at TZM.com and Deputy Mee, who at least attempted to do his job.
Bruno Heidick, the father of "runners-up"subject Brian Heidik, who told a ...
Do not enable by giving money that isn’t hers
Dear Doug: Indian Giver
Dear Doug:
My daughter gave me a lotto ticket for Mother's day, which turned out to be a $10,000 winner. I promptly gave my daughter $2,000 of the winnings, thinking that she'd be thrilled. Instead, after telling her husband, she called her father and told him she should be given 50% of the winnings, not 20%. My husband explained that the ticket was a gift to me and I was under no compunction to return even 20%, much less half of the winnings. Our daughter abruptly hung up on her dad and has not called back. It's been three weeks already and I'm concerned we will never get to see our grandchildren again. What should we do? ...
“Alcohol is truth serum.”
"Alcohol is a revealer, not a creator of human behavior.""Alcohol is truth serum.â€
So said countless pundits in a sentiment echoed across the country when discussing Mel Gibson's "true"feelings about Jews. Yet, none of these talking heads grasp a fundamental truism of alcoholism: due to brain damage, it interferes with the seat of reason and logic, resulting in behavioral changes that mimic those of Jekyll and Hyde. Alcoholism causes egomania, which requires that the addict attempt to wield power in whatever way circumstances and environment allow. This sometimes takes form in hatred and bigotry.
Myth # 65 in "Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease" is, "He's no alcoholic; he's just a racist."This myth, since Mr. ...