Under Watch: Arsenic and Old Lace, Bolivian President Evo Morales and financial commentator Louis Rukeyser
Under watch:
Helen Golay, 75, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 72, who allegedly offered room and board to Los Angeles area homeless men in exchange for their cooperation in applying for insurance policies on the men’s lives. More than $2 million was collected from policies, which paid off when the men were killed in mysterious hit-and-run crashes. The women initially took out small policies but duplicated the men’s signatures on rubber stamps, which were used to obtain more policies, keeping each policy small enough to stay under life insurers’ fraud radar. They were caught only when two detectives were sharing “war”stories and realized an unsolved murder of a homeless man in 1999 was similar to another one in 2005, both of which involved the two elderly women collecting insurance. This “Arsenic and Old Lace”story is already proving to have “legs”on par with that of Stefan Eriksson, who crashed an Enzo Ferrari into a power pole on Pacific Coast Highway at 162 mph in February.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, leading his country towards despotism via the ballot box with the aid of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. As money is the addict’s biggest enabler, so it is with despots, including those masquerading as populists. Whether his government will be as irresponsible as his rhetoric, which is virulently anti-American, will depend upon whether or not he is an alcoholic. Unfortunately, I suspect Morales and Chavez are drinking buddies, with Morales following in his footsteps by attempting to draft a new constitution, which was Chavez’s main legal tool for concentrating power into his own hands. Recall that Hitler, whose drugs of choice were amphetamines and barbiturates, was also elected democratically.
Financial commentator Louis Rukeyser, who delivered the fun- and pun-filled commentary on economic and financial events for over three decades as host of “Wall $treet Week With Louis Rukeyser,”dead at age 73 from a rare bone cancer. Rukeyser was considered warm, witty, highly intelligent and charming by almost all his viewers. Peering through the veil, there were several public and inexplicable events that raised my antennae: he capriciously fired long-standing panelists on at least two occasions and lambasted a guest with whom he happened to disagree more than once. Since his style was generally non-confrontational and interviews were intended to extract as much information as possible from both panelists and guests, this made no sense until I asked, was Louis Rukeyser a hidden alcoholic?
His refusal to do a small favor for a cruise ship’s captain, Loren McIntyre, reported in a 1991 Inc. Magazine article by author Michael Lewis, was a petty but telling incident. The captain needed to have a cassette mailed and heard that Rukeyser was leaving the cruise early. Rukeyser was reluctant, but finally agreed to take the tape when the captain all but begged him. McIntyre asked Rukeyser to write his name and phone number down, in case something went wrong. Rukeyser asked, “You mean you don’t know who I am?”McIntyre admitted he had no idea. Rukeyser responded, “If you have to ask that, I’m not taking it,”and marched out without the cassette. It is little, seemingly unimportant incidents such as this, suggesting an inordinately large sense of self-importance, that have often been my first clue to alcoholism.
Also notable were his disdain for being upstaged, some raucous partying where alcohol was served and a love of gambling, all of which are consistent with alcoholism. But despite several hours of research including interviews with a number of people who knew him, I found no hard evidence of addictive use. Few, even those who related bitter feelings in private, were willing to go on the record saying anything negative about Rukeyser, avoiding what many might consider an attack on a dead person who can’t defend himself. Still, while most seem to have enjoyed his public persona (including this correspondent), one explanation for Rukeyser’s occasional personality defects and capriciousness”love him or not”is alcoholism.
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 misbehaviors and proactively intervene.