Archive for September, 2007
FYI: This review is posted on this site as well as on http://www.DougThorburn.com because, as the mass of evidence in my book "Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse" shows, financial abuse"as all thug-like behavior"is often rooted in alcohol or other-drug addiction. I cannot find any personal info on Mr. Andrew, so I have no proof whatsoever that what in my opinion is a book filled with erroneous ideas, which may contribute to the financial abuse of others, is rooted in this disease. However, when errors are consistently made with the singular goal of selling the mark on one of two ideas"that only an idiot wouldn't hock his home to the hilt and invest the ...
OJ’s latest escapade
Journalists everywhere are asking questions about OJ's arrest. "Does OJ's arrest in Las Vegas tell us anything about anything important?" "What is up with this guy?" "Just what drives him?"
O.J. Simpson's long-standing alcoholism was bound to land him in hot water again. His arrest tells us what a sense of invincibility rooted in alcoholism can do to someone, and how the resulting behaviors can affect others.
Evidence for OJ's alcoholism begins with his 1989 letter of apology to the wife he later murdered, Nicole Brown Simpson. "...I'm not going to blame being drunk [for having struck you] that's (sic) no excuse. (But I have decided to stop drinking and will go to AA)" (parentheses in the original). Everything else that has ...
Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Nicole Richie could easily follow in Eddie Griffin’s footsteps. The trouble is, the former NBA player is dead. Enablers were all over.
NBA Player Eddie Griffin was Enabled to Death. Will Starlets Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Nicole Richie be Next
NBA forward Eddie Griffin, the seventh overall pick in the 2001 draft, was killed instantly in a fiery collision with a freight train August 17 at age 25. There was no sign of skid marks and his body was burned so badly dental records were required to confirm his identity. While friends and peers alike agreed that a sober Griffin "had the innocence of a child" and "would give you the shirt off his back," all hell could break out when alcohol coursed through his veins--which it often did.
Two public incidents were notable. He was indicted on charges of felony assault stemming ...
Runners-up “Dietrich” (Enzo Ferrari crash), Daryl Strawberry and actor Owen Wilson do crazy things, which alcoholism explains.
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Trevor Michael Karney, who may prove to be the mysterious "Dietrich" reportedly in the passenger seat of a $1-million Ferrari Enzo that spectacularly crashed on February 21, 2006 and was runner-up and antic-of-the-month in the March 2006 issue of the Addiction Report http://preventragedy.com/pages/TAR/019.mar06.html. Karney was arrested on charges of DUI, resisting arrest and giving false information to a police officer. After the crash, in which former head of the now defunct video game company Gizmundo, Bo Stefan Eriksson, was at the wheel, Karney reportedly fled the scene. The DUI is unrelated to the Ferrari incident, but we might surmise that being a willing passenger in a vehicle driven at 162 mph at 6 a.m. ...
Financial guru Wade Cook and “Queen of Mean” Leona Helmsley go down.
Under watch:
Former investment guru, author and speaker Wade Cook, sentenced to prison as part of a tax evasion case in which he was found to have repeatedly defrauded the IRS. He was ordered to pay $3.75 million in back taxes on $9.5 million generated from sales of financial books, tapes and seminars in the late '90s. His wife, Laura, previously pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and admitted she created false documents with the intent to understate income. While Cook's net worth was at one time estimated at $200 million, his publicly traded company, Wade Cook Financial Corp., filed under Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2003. Just what were Wade and Laura Cook thinking? As usual, we offer the benefit ...
NBA referee goes down by enabling, and an actor enables a dictator
Co-Dependents of the Month:
Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy, who pleaded guilty to felony charges related to a betting scandal in which he provided picks to co-conspirators as to which team they should bet on in games he officiated. Donaghy, who admitted to a severe gambling compulsion, seemed contrite as he told the judge he was seeing a psychiatrist for his problem and taking antidepressants and anxiety medication (which may or may not be psychotropic in its effects). My bet (so to speak) is he is not an alcoholic as we define it, which dramatically increases the likelihood that his co-conspirators, Thomas Martino and James Battista, are. If correct, his codependency will cost him up to 25 years in prison. Martino ...
Amy Winehouse’s parents-in-law try to disenable.
Disenablers of the Month:
Georgette and Giles Fielder-Civil, parents-in-law to singer Amy Winehouse, who not only went public about their son Blake Fielder-Civil and Amys addiction to coke, crack and heroin, but also asked everyone to stop buying her CDs immediately. They said fans should send a message to Winehouse, who has been spiraling down the path of late-stage polydrug addiction with Blake, that "her addiction and her behavior are not acceptable" and to stop giving her money with which to buy drugs. They also said Amy shouldn't be rewarded with more MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards, explaining that such awards only serve to condone the addiction. Their plea is reminiscent of Lucy Barry Robe's comment in Co-Starring Famous Women ...
Journalists could help the public “get” alcoholism if they would stop writing news stories backwards.
The "nobody gets it" story of the month:
The 26th paragraph of a Los Angeles Times story on the murder of Neal Williams and his two small sons by his wife, Manling Williams, of Rowland Heights, California, reported that a neighbor said Manling "was barefoot, wearing boxer shorts and smelled of alcohol" when she ran from her house screaming that her husband was hurt. The first 25 paragraphs reported on the impromptu memorial set up by caring neighbors, donations collected to pay for the three funerals, the charges against Manling (including special circumstances of multiple homicides and lying in wait), incriminating statements made by Manling to officers, incomplete autopsies with toxicology tests and descriptions of the Williamses as "happy and outgoing" ...
Nautilus inventor Arthur Jones: Alcoholism would explain his life.
Sometimes, it takes a (likely) addict:
Nautilus inventor Arthur Jones, the "flamboyant" entrepreneur whose weightlifting machines were instrumental in creating the health club industry, dead at 80. At various times in his eclectic career Jones operated an airline in South America, collected big game for zoos and circuses, worked as a pilot, produced movies and hosted a syndicated animal show, "Wild Cargo." Jones' 600-acre estate in Ocala, Florida (part of a series of estates that Jones developed consisting of fly-in only properties, the most famous resident of which is actor John Travolta), included 90 elephants, 300 alligators, 400 crocodiles, a gorilla, three rhinos and a collection of poisonous snakes and insects. He was self-taught in most of his careers, including physiology, ...
Law enforcers who get into accidents should be alcohol/other drug tested. Every time. Especially those who make or enforce the law.
All law enforcers involved in accidents should be tested for alcohol and other drugs in the system
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published a series in early August entitled, "A broken system works in favor of cops busted for DUI." Inspired by a state anti-DUI ad warning, "Drive Hammered, Get Nailed," investigative reporters Eric Nalder and Lewis Kamb found that some police officers are exempted from such consequences. With the caveat that the sample size of police officers didn't compare with that of ordinary citizens, the reporters found the likelihood of a citizen having his license suspended was twice that of cops after a breath test indicated a blood alcohol level over .08 per cent. For those who refused a breath test, the ...
Why the fact that alcoholics really do change is important.
Dear Doug: An addict in recovery
Dear Doug:
I dated a heavy drinker with a violent criminal history who repeatedly lied to and cheated on me. When I understood how deep his issues were, I dumped him. Now, over two years later, he contacts me, admits he is an alcoholic, tells me he has been sober for two years and wants to see me again. I don't want to be conned yet again, but he was funny, intelligent and a joy to be with when he was on his good behavior. Do people really change?
Signed,
Cares about an addict
. . . .
Dear Disenabler,
Some columnists might respond with a flippant remark such as, "Do you really care?" and suggest that being with a drinking, ...
Does jealousy cause murder–or does alcoholism cause jealous rage?
Is it jealousy--or is it psychotropic drug addiction-driven jealousy that is the leading cause of murder?
"Jealousy is possibly the most destructive emotion housed in the human brain. It's the leading cause of spousal murder worldwide, according to analyses I did of data over the last century."
So said David M. Buss, professor of psychology at the University of Texas, in explaining why astronaut Lisa Nowak tracked down and threatened her romantic rival after driving 900 miles in a diaper. It just goes to show, you can prove anything with statistics.
I was reminded of this myth when recently reading that Nowak, awaiting trial on charges of attacking her romantic rival, was allowed by the court to remove her ankle bracelet (intended to ...
She was fired for drinking on the job, then she almost killed someone
Story from "This is Trus" by Randy Cassingham, with his "tagline:"
"WE DELIVER: A woman drove her car through the front window of Papa Murphy's Pizza in Carson City, Nev., hitting a customer who was reading the menu. She then backed out and drove off, witnesses say, and then crashed broadside into another car. After she left that accident, too, police say, a passenger decided she had enough and bailed out of the car, rolling to a stop in a parking lot. Police finally pulled the car over and Nicole Andrews, 23, blew a blood alcohol reading of .264 percent -- more than three times the legal limit. "Please don't let this go on my insurance," she begged of the officer ...
How to screen roommates, so you don’t end up with a roommate from hell
A querier asks: "What are the best ways to pick a roommate? And what relationships make the best roommates? Are there certain personalities who should just live alone?"
The main concern in personal and professional relationships alike: might the person with whom I am becoming involved on a fairly intimate basis be an alcohol or other-drug addict ("alcoholic")? If so, steer clear, because a non-addicted roommate could end up victim to theft of personal belongings, the sole payer or rent, or worse.
Roughly 85% of domestic violence results from alcohol or other-drug addiction ("alcoholism") in one or the other or both. Severe non-violent strife is not very different; therefore, we can ascribe similar odds of alcoholism in such situations. If we can ...