January 11, 2011 at 3:30 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
In an early 2009 piece on white collar crime, The Economist magazine suggests there may be some truth in something those who have read my books would predict: “Many [Club Fed and other white collar] prisoners suddenly discover, post-conviction, that they had a drinking problem….” I would add that those who don’t figure this out might benefit from greater introspection. In the spirit of The Economist’s discovery, a recent story follows for which the evidence of alcoholism is in the behavior itself.
U.S. Representative Charlie Rangel (D-NY), found guilty of violating 11 House ethics rules by the House Ethics Committee. Among the 11 violations was a failure to declare about $75,000 in rental income from a Dominican villa over a several ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:29 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Alcoholic victim of the month:
Lauren Ann Freeman, 21, killed after leaving a concert on the Sunset Strip allegedly by Ryan Bowman, 34, the Australian franchisee for “Girls Gone Wild,” in a hit-and-run. Shortly after buying the franchise rights in 2007, Bowman announced plans to sponsor a cruise for high school graduates who would be “plied with alcohol” and filmed. He claimed he didn’t want to promote nudity, but admitted “that’s a byproduct” of the heavy drinking he intended; he scuttled the plans due to public outrage. Surprise, surprise: Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said alcohol “most likely played a role in this tragic event.” Although Bowman and “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis reportedly haven’t done business in years, the story ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:28 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Co-dependent of the month:
Judge DeAnn M. Salcido, who agreed to resign from the San Diego County Superior Court after being censured for a pattern of intemperate behavior toward lawyers and defendants, which included mocking and making rude and off-color comments from the bench. She admitted to making “inappropriate remarks of a lewd nature…[while] proceedings were being filmed” as part of a pitch to a Hollywood producer for her to star in a reality television show. A pattern of such inappropriate conduct and attempts at self-aggrandizement are indicative of alcoholism. However, it’s also possible her long-time codependency to her husband, Edward Salcido, could explain her behaviors. Recall that codependents can, on occasion, appear crazier than addicts as they get lured into ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:26 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Retrospective find of the month:
In the June 2010 TAR Top Story on the BP oil spill, I wrote: “As so often happens, this tragedy may be a result, at least indirectly, of multiple addicts. An Interior Department report alleges that staff members of the Minerals Management Service accepted gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography. It reports a ‘deeply disturbing’ culture of ethical failure and cronyism between government and industry. Two employees have admitted to using illegal drugs and an inspector admitted using crystal meth and said he might have been under the influence the next day.” I recently stumbled upon an article, buried in my files, from September 11, 2008 titled, “Federal Oil ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:22 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
“Invincible” act of the month:
Interim city administrators of Bell, California, who could not provide documentation setting the exorbitant salaries for which the city has become famous because, as Bell’s interim chief administrative officer Pedro Carrillo said, it “simply does not exist.” As a result, eligible salaries for purposes of calculating pensions will drop to those provided for by the city council long before the escalation in salaries. Former city administrator Robert Rizzo will be entitled to retirement benefits based on a salary of $85,200, about one-tenth of his last yearly pay, which results in an expected yearly pension of about $70,000 rather than the $600,000 he was expecting. His former assistant, Angela Spaccia, who made more than $375,000 a year, ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:21 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Irony of the month:
John Daly, upset over the fact that restaurants around the country are naming drinks after him (especially one containing sweet-tea flavored vodka and lemonade). This is the same John Daly who, by his own admission, drank a fifth of Jack Daniel’s every day when he was 23, was removed from an airplane by airport security for harassing a flight attendant while drunk, who has been divorced three times since becoming a professional golfer and whose fourth wife, Sherrie Miller, spent five months in the slammer on federal drug charges. According to Wikipedia, where his life reads like a classic in the annals of alcoholism (reports of domestic violence, lawsuits, compulsive gambling, multiple marriages and prodigious charity work, ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:18 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Chutzpah of the month:
David Weaving, 48, who is serving a 10-year sentence for killing 14-year-old Matthew Kenney while the boy was riding his bike, suing Kenney’s parents for letting their son ride without a helmet, which has caused Weaving “great mental and emotional pain and suffering” and inhibited his “capacity to carry on life’s activities.” Weaving was driving 83 mph in a 45 mph zone when he struck Kenney. It should come as no surprise to learn that he has five arrests for DUI over a two-decade span. The fact that he was not “convicted” of drunken driving in the incident doesn’t make it so.
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January 11, 2011 at 3:17 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Quote of the month:
Steve-O, whose real name is Stephen Glover and best known for the extreme stunts he’s performed as part of the crew of MTV’s “Jackass” describes his road to sobriety in an interview with Nicki Gostin at www.popeater.com: “I was out of control. People were starting to say I was going to be dead soon, and they were probably right….Most of the crew of ‘Jackass’…came to my apartment and forced me into a psych ward. …They locked me up…and while I was in there it kind of dawned on me that it was time to do something.
“California has a 51/50 law, where if people are deemed to be harmful to themselves or others you can lock them up ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:14 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Bob Guccione, who founded Penthouse magazine, dead at 79 after a several-year battle with lung cancer. A cartoonist who once attended a Catholic seminary, Guccione started Penthouse in 1965 in England and introduced the magazine to the American public in 1969 at the height of the feminist movement and sexual revolution, taking risks most of us would never consider. He was married four times, which by itself indicates an 85% probability of alcoholism. Guccione was listed in the 1982 Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people, having amassed a net worth of $400 million by building an empire under the General Media Inc. umbrella, which included book publishing, merchandising divisions, Viva magazine (featuring nude males aimed at ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:11 pm ·
Filed under 6 - Public Policy Recommendations
“FDA Bans Mixing Caffeine, Alcohol”
So read the headlines on the latest attempt of the nanny-state to control the use of drugs, in this case caffeine-infused alcoholic beverages. As usual, they are targeting the wrong thing.
The powers-that-be are attempting to control use. This is futile. Any alcoholic knows he can feel wide awake by drinking a cup of Joe, having an Irish Coffee or simply popping a NoDoz. Yet, the FDA persists, claiming “there is evidence that the combinations of caffeine and alcohol in these products pose a public-health concern.” Memo to the FDA: so does alcohol by itself, especially if the drinker has the disease of alcoholism.
The move follows a series of highly publicized incidents in recent weeks in which ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:08 pm ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
Alcoholic husband dates the wife’s best friend
Dear Doug:
Several months ago I asked my alcoholic husband, John, to leave the house we share with our children. His life continues to spiral out of control even after a stint in rehab.
Throughout, I have confided in my friend Stephanie about our marital woes. Recently, John asked if I’d mind if he began dating. I told him to go ahead—but guess who he asked out: Stephanie. I couldn’t believe it when she agreed; worse, she sent me emails that were filled with inappropriate language in which she described her feelings for him.
After I let them both know of my anger, they broke it off. But neither of them understands why I feel betrayed. Are ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:08 pm ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
The San Fernando Valley Dental Society newsletter recently included a question, directed to Suicide expert and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of South Carolina Ronald Maris, PhD: “Dr. Maris, I have heard that dentists have the highest suicide rate. Is this true?” Dr. Maris responded, “Wrong question. Dentistry, or any occupation for that matter, doesn’t make you kill yourself.” That’s true. However, Dr. Maris continued. “What causes suicide is a subtle mixture and interaction over time…of…mental disorder (especially depressive disorder), substance abuse (especially alcoholism)...hopelessness, cognitive rigidity…social isolation or rejection (including divorce…), repeated stress and negative life events…neurotransmitter…imbalances and dysfunctions (mainly in the prefrontal cortex), unemployment, impulsivity, [and] sleep disorder….” While Dr. Maris, to be fair, mentions several other “causes,” ...
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January 11, 2011 at 3:05 pm ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics
Alcoholic Antic-of-the-Month
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“PLANT MURDERER: Police in Bradenton, Fla., pulled over a suspicious vehicle. The driver, Paul Ewing, 35, admitted to officers he was damaging his neighbor's yard because the neighbor owed him $200. He said he had been tossing water balloons filled with herbicides into the neighbor's back yard, and he used a water gun filled with herbicides to squirt on plants in the front yard. Damage to the landscape was estimated to be at least $250. Ewing was charged with driving with a suspended license, and criminal mischief with property damage. He posted $500 bail. When police asked why the neighbor owed him $200, Ewing confessed it was for drugs. ...
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November 16, 2010 at 1:38 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Charlie plays Charlie: the Misadventures of Charlie Sheen
“How can you live with yourself, you horrible evil man?”
“He drinks.”
In a 2008 episode of “Two and a Half Men” (“A Jock Strap in Hell”), one of Charlie’s many jilted ex-lovers, Delores Pasternak (played by Alicia Witt) asked Charlie Harper/Charlie Sheen how he could live with himself after he dumped her years earlier. Charlie’s teenage nephew, Jake, tells us all we need to know: “he drinks,” by which he obviously means “he drinks alcoholically.” Alcoholism causes euphoric recall, which makes Charlie/Charlie view everything he does through self-favoring lenses—meaning he doesn’t (and can’t) remember anything he did as horrible and evil. Yet, as your classic Don Juan type alcoholic, he is horrible ...
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November 16, 2010 at 1:35 pm ·
Filed under General
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Rebecca S. Parrett, 62, who fled Ohio two and a half years ago after being convicted on a number of charges involving the nation’s largest fraud of a privately held company, National Century Financial Enterprises, arrested while on the lam in Mexico. She was one of the founders of the company, which financed accounts receivable of small hospitals, clinics and nursing homes. The company failed after executives loaned millions to providers without formalizing the loans and spent millions on lavish lifestyles for themselves. While fraud alone isn’t proof of alcoholism, committing fraud is compelling evidence that one is afflicted with the disease. However, she wouldn’t have made it to “runners-up” were it not for ...
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