Archive for August, 2011
The Code of Silence, Enabling by Unions and Alcoholism: Kelly Thomas, RIP
I first got a hint of the negative consequences of compulsory unionism* when I worked as a box boy for the old Hughes Supermarket in Van Nuys, California in my teens. I worked my tail off for $2.12 an hour, a wage also paid to those who goofed off. The checkers made nearly four times that amount, some of whom likely earned their wage (including one who may have been the planet’s fastest checker—remember, those were the ancient days when checkers punched in numbers) and those who didn’t, who were slow and rude to customers. Discovering that union bosses protected bad employees, I figured out unions were great for ...
Runners-up: Congressman David Wu in a very unusual outing by staff, rapper Ja Rule commits tax fraud, R & B star R. Kelly also commits tax fraud, and ZZZZ Best’s Barry Minkow heads back to prison.
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Rep. David Wu, D-OR, saying he would resign from Congress before the end of August after coming under scrutiny for allegedly making an “unwanted sexual advance” (some say a euphemism for “rape”) on a supporter’s 18-year-old daughter. By itself, assuming the accusation isn’t false, this behavior is compelling evidence of alcoholism, especially when the alleged perpetrator is a 56-year-old 7-term Congressman. Even if the “unwanted” part of the allegation is false, the age difference alone is pretty good evidence. In the case of politicians, this is generally as far as we could go because getting proof of alcoholism in those who make (and enforce) laws is usually challenging at best.
David Wu is ...
Under Watch: girl sets hillside on fire because her car won’t start; Jose Baez, Casey Anthony’s defense attorney, has a storied past; Medicis’ Jonah Shacknai’s girlfriend dies under circumstances that suggest murder by alcoholic rage and retribution.
Jena Liberty, 48, who while driving from Fresno, CA to Manhattan Beach took a break near Santa Clarita and locked her keys in her car. There was no one around to help. What would you do? Probably try to flag down another car and patiently wait. But then, you’re sober. She was apparently in a hurry and, like a toddler chasing after a big red ball, incapable of controlling her impulses. Like the baby-king, she just had to continue on her way. So, to get the attention to which she felt entitled, she set the hillside on fire. Lucky for civilized man, she got the attention of sheriffs before the fire did too much damage and she was arrested for ...
Victims of the month: proving once again that alcoholic non-fiction is much stranger than fiction.
Alcoholic victims of the month:
Blake and Mary-Jo Handley of Port St. Lucie, Florida, who were beaten to death with a hammer by their 17-year-old son because they didn’t let him have a party. The boy used Facebook to invite friends to his house for the Saturday night event after his parents were already dead. The bodies were found the next morning when police received a tip, presumably from one of the partiers. You just can’t make this stuff up—fiction is so much more believable, isn’t it?
Everyone who pays for insurance in Australia if Michelle Egglestone wins a lawsuit against her ex-fiance’s insurer. When Egglestone leaned against a railing in order to relieve herself at her ex-fiance’s house in ...
Codependent of the month Diana Page, mother of Marvin Norwood who beat Giants’ fan Bryan Stow into a coma–“Oh my son could never have done that!” Yes, Diana, he could have. He’s an addict. Addict’s are capable of anything.
Co-dependents of the month:
Marvin Norwood’s mother Diana Page, who said her son would never have beaten paramedic Bryan Stow, the San Francisco Giants fan who dared to show up at a Dodgers’ game in a Giants’ T-shirt because, to paraphrase, “He’s a good son, a hard-working contractor, charming, compassionate; he confronts his problems with his heart and not his fists and is incapable of this sort of behavior.” Ms. Page, while this may be true when your son is sober, it’s apparently not the case when he’s drinking. Your son Marvin, 30, went to the fateful opening day Dodgers game on March 31 with his cohort Louis Sanchez, 29, his long-time partner Dorene Sanchez, 31 (Louis’s sister) and Louis ...
Enablers of the month: Daniel Schuler sues the state for his stoned wife’s accident and Barry Minkow’s doctor(s) gives him Oxycontin.
Enablers of the month:
Daniel Schuler, suing the state of New York for the accident in which his wife Diane Schuler drove her brother’s Ford Windstar the wrong way down the Taconic State Parkway in New York for nearly two miles before slamming head-on into an SUV, killing herself, four of the five children in her van and all three adults in the SUV (as seen in issue 50 August 2009 TAR). Suing for what, you might wonder? Why, the state’s “wrong way!” and “do not enter” signage wasn’t adequate and was, therefore, negligent, careless and reckless! Of course, his drunk and stoned wife, with a .19 per cent blood alcohol level and plenty of THC (think: active ingredient in ...
Quote of the month: Convict Rhod Blagojevich continues to foam at the mouth.
Quote of the month:
“Patti and I obviously are very disappointed in the outcome [of the second trial on corruption charges]. I, frankly, am stunned.” So spoke former Illinois Gov. Rhod R. Blagojevich, one of the most amazing egomaniacs ever to grace these pages. For a review of a story that makes fiction seem realistic, take a look at the top story in issue 45, January 2009 edition of TAR. His brazen words and attitude continue to be a classic in the annals of likely alcoholism. He was finally convicted on 17 charges of corruption, including trying to sell the Senate seat formerly held by President Obama. He will hopefully spend at least a decade behind bars.
Sometimes it takes an addict: Betty Ford and Amy Winehouse
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Former First Lady Betty Ford, dead from natural causes at age 93. A full-on addict while First Lady, it wasn’t until sixteen months after Gerald Ford lost the 1976 presidential election that her family staged a professionally-aided intervention. Like any other addict, she was angry and resentful and later likened it to “hitting a wall; the wall is the disease.” Fortunately, the intervention was successful and she decided to scale the wall, while publicly announcing her addiction. She had become addicted after a doctor prescribed painkillers when she pinched a nerve in 1964 and later admitted to taking 20-30 pills a day, including “sleeping pills, pain pills, relaxer pills and the pills to counteract the ...
A global commission, consisting of some very big names, admits the war on drugs has been a complete failure. We can hope this is the beginning of the end.
“War on Drugs: Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy”
“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.”
It seems almost everyone I talk to knows that the war on drugs is an utter failure. This misguided public policy response to a serious problem has managed to corrupt entire police forces and even, arguably, whole countries. Because prices take into account risk factors in supplying goods it has, as the James Bond movie “License to Kill” so graphically showed, enabled really bad people to become obscenely wealthy. The fallout has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people caught in the cross-fire between gangs of thugs, while doing nothing to ...
Dear Doug: yet another undiagosed addict wreaks havoc in the life of someone who likely doesn’t have a clue.
Daughter in the dumps because of boyfriend
Dear Doug:
Our talented and beautiful daughter graduated with honors in music. While her peers are finding work as performers, she’s “too upset and depressed” to work because of her boyfriend, with whom she argues all night and over whom she cries all day because of their arguments. He dropped out of college, doesn’t work and lives with and off of his aunt because his mother kicked him out. Now we have our daughter’s student loans, car loan and bills staring us in the face. We’re almost ready to send her to live with this jerk’s aunt. What do you suggest?
Signed,
Concerned about our daughter
Dear Codependent,
Other columnists would suggest you tell ...
We have no idea if an addict has hit bottom until he’s in a program of sobriety. (And then we don’t know if the bottom will “stick.”)
“He has definitely hit rock bottom at this point.”
So said a close friend of comedian Andy Dick after he was caught with a woman in the men’s bathroom at a club and seen snorting cocaine off a CD cover in his car. The same friend, however, contradicted himself when he added, “Unless he gets help fast…he’s going to kill himself, because he is totally out of control….” So, either he’s bottomed and lives or he hasn’t bottomed and dies. Which is it? Of course, there’s no way to know without the benefit of hindsight. The good news is many addicts get sober who we think “no way, ever;” the bad news is some never get sober and die all-too-young. ...
A very drunk teacher gets by because of “omerta”–the code of silence–and endangers scores of students.
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“ANIMAL HOUSE: Sheriff's deputies responded to an out-of-control house party in Valley Center, Calif., and found ‘at least 100, mostly inebriated, teenagers’ inside. ‘Every room was trashed,’ said Sgt. Bob Bishop. ‘Booze bottles and beer cans were laying all over the place.’ In one room, four girls were playing strip poker while boys took pictures. Deputies finally found the hostess: Nancy Jean Hildebrand, 56, who was allegedly throwing the party as a graduation present for her daughter. ‘My name is Nancy, I'm [daughter's] mom,’ her name tag read. Hildebrand was ‘drinking with everybody else, and handing out beers to kids,’ Bishop said. She tried to get officers to leave ...