George Best, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, and other “runners-up” and “under watch” for December ’05
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Venezuelan de facto dictator Hugo Chavez, calling Mexican President Vicente Fox “a lapdog”of the U.S. at the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, after Fox argued in favor of global free trade. The Mexican government, which considered the attack “over the top,”recalled its ambassador from Venezuela and booted out the Venezuelan ambassador to Mexico.
Actor Robert Blake, found liable by a civil jury for “intentionally [causing] the death”of wife Bonny Lee Bakley and ordered to pay her children $30 million in damages. You’ll find the story of the criminal trial in the January 2005 edition of the Thorburn Addiction Report (http://www.addictionreport.com).
Prime Minister Tony Blair’s father-in-law Tony Booth, criticizing the British government for allowing pubs to serve liquor 24 hours a day. Booth explained he recognizes how close alcohol came to destroying him and says, “Some people will never be sober again.”On the other hand, the government will be cracking down on alcohol-fueled violence. This could prove an interesting experiment: will alcoholics bottom more quickly with the spigots turned on 24/7?
Dominick Maldonado, accused of a shooting spree at a crowded shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington, in possession of plans for making bombs and the poison ricin. His ex-girlfriend explained she had broken up with him “because of an issue with a drug.”
Soccer great George Best, dead from complications of alcoholism. With a reputation as a womanizer who was linked to some of the world’s most beautiful women, he was rumored to have slept with seven Miss Worlds, but admitted to only four because he “didn’t turn up for the other three.”He ran into trouble with the law, including the British taxing authorities, and was jailed for three months in 1983 for DUI, assault on a policeman and jumping bail. In a classic case of temporary control, after appearing “wildly”drunk on a live TV show in 1990, his second wife helped to contain his drinking by enough to allow him to appear regularly for a stretch as a soccer commentator. He was known to be unreliable in keeping his appointments as a player, TV soccer analyst and after-dinner speaker. He was described as “a talented soccer player, then a talented celebrity, tout de suite [in short order] a talented womanizer, and when all his other talents seem to have failed him, a talented drinker.”As usual, while he was no doubt destined to be an extraordinary soccer player, the description is at least partly backward: he was able to drink alcoholically, which drove him to inflate his ego as a celebrity and womanizer while allowing him to function extraordinarily well as a soccer player. Despite his talent, he was flat broke by middle age. Still, he had plenty of fans to enable him to his grave, as fans worldwide have done with so many. After decades of heavy drinking and a liver transplant in 2002, as a late-stage alcoholic he began drinking again and was banned from driving for 20 months after pleading guilty to DUI in 2004. In a recent update to his second autobiography he wrote, “Drink is the only opponent I’ve been unable to beat.”It is improbable that he mentioned the enigma that it also impelled him to win. He was 59.
Under watch:
Rep. Randy “Duke”Cunningham, a Vietnam War ace and eight-term congressman, who pleaded guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and others. The case against him grew from the sale of his home for $1,675,000 in Del Mar, California to a defense contractor in 2003, who sold it seven months later for a $700,000 loss in a booming California real estate market. This act, reported in this section several months ago, could be one of those, “Just what was he thinking?”moments in the annals of an alcoholism-fueled sense of invincibility. In his plea agreement, he admitted to being given $1,025,000 to pay down the mortgage on the home he bought after the Del Mar sale. He also made $400,000 selling his 65-foot flat bottom riverboat to New York developer Thomas Kontogiannis, on whose behalf Cunningham wrote a favorable letter to prosecutors investigating a bribery and kickback scheme involving school computer contracts.
Note to family, friends and fans of the above: the benefit of the doubt is given by assuming alcoholism (they are either idiots and fundamentally rotten, or they are alcoholic/other drug addicts”which would explain the misbehaviors). If alcoholic, there is zero chance that behaviors, in the long run, will improve without sobriety. An essential prerequisite to sobriety is the cessation of enabling, allowing pain and crises to build. Thus far, many have done everything they can to protect the addict from the requisite pain, making these news events possible. The cure for alcoholism, consequential bad behaviors and, ultimately, tragedy, is simple: stop protecting the addict from the logical consequences of the misbehaviors and proactively intervene.
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