July 12, 2006 at 9:53 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Co-Dependents of the Month:
The six nations attempting to control Kim Jong Il's North Korea qualify for codependents of the month, and perhaps the decade. Like any other addict, Kim makes numerous promises he never keeps. Like other codependents, those dealing with him try negotiation, logic and reason. As pointed out in Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease, "Attempting to negotiate with a brain affected by alcoholism is like trying to be rational with a reptile….The brain of the practicing alcoholic, soaked in acetaldehyde, is not a rational one. The addict cannot see that his troubles extend any further than your toes, which he will crush if given the opportunity."
Aside from the countless behavioral indications ...
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July 12, 2006 at 9:53 am ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Enabler of the Month:
The Law, which offers only limited choices for the California State Commission on Judicial Performance in meting out consequences for errant Officers of the Court. The commission decided that Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard J. Schwartz can continue to preside over criminal hearings even though he was arrested for driving under the influence with a Blood Alcohol Level of .18 per cent and repeatedly tried to get preferential treatment and avoid being arrested because he was a judge. The Commission censured Schwartz, which is reportedly the most serious punishment short of being removed from the bench. Perhaps, a compromise in the law is in order: a judge can return after a year (or two, after his ...
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July 12, 2006 at 9:52 am ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
Review: "Broken Trailâ€
AMC's first full-length original motion picture, "Broken Trail,"which originally aired in two parts on June 27 and 28, was deservedly the most-watched program in the network's history. Print Ritter (Robert Duvall) and Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church), Print's nephew, were two horse wranglers driving a herd of 400 mustangs across wild country with gorgeous backdrops from Oregon to Wyoming in 1898. The movie received well-deserved rave reviews from critics and viewers alike.
The obstacle the two cowboys unexpectedly faced was in having to free and protect five Chinese women from their kidnapper, who was selling them into prostitution. The kidnapper was an obvious and vile alcoholic. Yet not one reviewer, professional or otherwise, thought the motive force behind ...
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July 12, 2006 at 9:51 am ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
Dear Doug: Closet Abuser
Dear Doug:
My wife, with whom I am going through a divorce and battling over custody of our 7-year-old, would love take my child away. If I asked for proof of paternity, she might succeed, because she continuously cheated on me and the child might not be mine. She wants alimony and child support, which she would lose if our son is proven to be someone else's, and I don't bring it up.
The trouble is my wife provides no supervision for our child when he is with her. He goes for days without bathing or even changing clothes, he's lucky to get macaroni for dinner and he has been seen by neighbors in her front yard ...
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July 12, 2006 at 9:50 am ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
"To you, that angry, horn-blasting tailgater is suffering from road rage. But doctors have another name for it " intermittent explosive disorder " and a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans"
So wrote Lindsay Tanner, AP medical writer, reporting on a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. The study was based on a national face-to-face study of 9,282 adults who answered diagnostic questionnaires. Dr. Emil Coccaro, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Chicago's medical school and one of the study's authors, said that treatment with antidepressants and behavior therapy is helpful in treating the disorder.
This is junk science at its finest.
National Highway Transportation Safety ...
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July 12, 2006 at 9:48 am ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviorsâ„¢
Story from "This is True"by Randy Cassingham, with his "tagline:â€
"THE DUH BOAT: Thomas Williams, 20, and two roommates decided to go rafting on the Colorado River near Vail, Colorado. Instead of hiring an experienced guide, they bought a blow-up raft from Wal-Mart. Instead of life jackets, they brought along a couple of 12-packs of beer. The river in the area they chose includes "Class III" rapids. An experienced guide saw their raft overturn and rescued them -- barely. "I was under for so long I just blacked out," Williams said, vowing he won't go back on the river unless he's properly prepared. On the other hand, he says, he seeks out thrilling sports such ...
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June 11, 2006 at 3:19 pm ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
"Men of Honorâ€
"Men of Honor"is an inspiring story about overcoming obstacles and steel-willed determination. It's also about one of those obstacles, alcoholism-fueled racism, from which redemption becomes possible. The result is one of the great unsung alcoholic movies.
Navy dive school instructor Master Chief Billy Sunday, played by Robert DeNiro in a role reminiscent of another alcoholic he played, Tobias Wolff's father in "This Boys' Life,"is a typical highly functional alcoholic. Behavioral indications of alcoholism such as those mentioned in my book, How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics: Using Behavioral Clues to Recognize Addiction in its Early Stages, are evident long before we see or hear about any actual addictive drinking. Early on, Sunday is magnificently abusive and likens himself to ...
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June 11, 2006 at 3:16 pm ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviorsâ„¢
Story from "This is True"by Randy Cassingham, with his "tagline:â€
These antics involve law enforcers who, like Kennedy in this month's top story, could have easily cost lives.
"WHO CONTROLS THE CONTROLLERS? ‘Due to circumstances that I deeply regret,' said Teresa L. Kaiser, 56, she resigned as the executive director of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. What sort of circumstances? While driving -- not in a state car, her deputy was quick to point out -- she swerved into oncoming traffic, causing a crash with injuries, and was arrested after her blood alcohol was shown by a breath test to be double the legal limit. Kaiser told police she
had only drunk two glasses of wine ...
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June 11, 2006 at 3:13 pm ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
"There's certainly a streak of recklessness in the family, despite how much they've achieved.â€
So said Ron Kessler, author of a book on the Kennedy clan's patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy (The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded), in commenting on the family's latest front-page antics. Unfortunately, Mr. Kessler lacks an understanding of the key ingredient to alcoholism: a biochemistry that, with use, causes addicts to view themselves as godlike. This egotistical self-perception makes the addict truly believe he or she is invincible, which often manifests in reckless behaviors. And, those who think they're God tend to develop a need to control others. Overachievement provides a ready means by which to control fans, constituents, co-workers, employees, ...
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June 11, 2006 at 3:12 pm ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
Dear Doug: Backstabbing Employee
Dear Doug:
One of my subordinates invariably puts himself in a positive light at my expense in front of my manager. He's either not truthful or fails to give the whole story. Should I say something or let it go?
Signed,
Slighted
. . . .
Dear Slighted,
Other columnists might suggest that you carefully, professionally and in a mature way correct his comments, so that your manager doesn't buy into the misinformation. Such columnists might also suggest a private encounter with the employee, letting him know you expect the cheap shots to stop. There might even be an allusion to the behavior as a "power game."Indeed.
Left unsaid is that power-seeking behaviors, especially those coming at the ...
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June 11, 2006 at 3:11 pm ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
Review: "The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years,"by Edward Klein
Edward Klein covered John F. Kennedy's 1960 Presidential campaign and later served as foreign editor of Newsweek and editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine. He has authored countless articles and several books, including two others on Kennedy family members. He's a good writer and meticulous researcher. However, despite his resume and, sadly, in concert with virtually every other biographer and historian, he reverses cause and effect.
As discussed in by books, How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics: Using Behavioral Clues to Identify Addiction in its Early Stages, and Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease, alcoholism mimics virtually all the ...
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June 11, 2006 at 3:10 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
How Many Times Will Kennedy Fans Enable Before he Dies from his Disease?
The cops do what they can to prevent another attempt at sobriety, but (fortunately) fail
Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, six-term congressman from Rhode Island, entered rehab"again"for an admitted addiction to pharmaceuticals after crashing his car. He remembered nothing of the incident (meaning he was in a blackout), which occurred May 4th at 3 a.m. A police report stated at the time of the accident Kennedy's "eyes were red and watery, speech was slightly slurred and, upon exiting his vehicle, his balance was unsure…. [His car] had no lights running"and almost swerved into a police car traveling in the opposite direction. When an officer tried to stop him, Kennedy ...
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June 11, 2006 at 3:09 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who told a reporter inquiring about reports of evacuations, extreme poverty, mass killings and gang rapes in Darfur, "These are all lies. I tell you these are lies. There is no mass killing."Sudan, the largest country in Africa at nearly a third the size of the lower 48 States, has a per capita gross income of $530, 1,200 miles of paved and gravel roads (the U.S. has 2.4 million miles of such roads) and six million internally displaced refugees, 61 per cent of whom have experienced a family member killed in its Civil War.
Actor Kiefer Sutherland, reportedly throwing a tantrum in a Tennessee restaurant after being asked to smoke ...
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June 11, 2006 at 3:08 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
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 ...
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June 11, 2006 at 3:06 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Codependent of the Month: The U.S. Army. If the incident in Haditha proves true, we can look to soldiers with symptoms of alcoholism as the source of the atrocities. According to the Los Angeles Times, at least one prisoner told investigators that "he frequently smelled alcohol on the guards' breath in the cellblock where most of the abuses occurred"at Abu Ghraib (June 13, 2004). Who doubts that alcohol and other-drug addiction wasn't at the root of Viet Nam atrocities, particularly My Lai. Due to the possible misbehaviors of a few, all U.S. soldiers will be subjected to "ethics training."Unfortunately, such training offers no benefit for those in whom the biological processing of alcohol damages the seat of reason and logic, ...
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