May 10, 2005 at 2:19 pm ·
Filed under General
I wrote: "Alcoholism and its symptomatic behaviors are everyone's business. All-too-often, the truth surfaces after tragedy has occurred. Alcoholics are the world's greatest salesmen and frequently make innocent people appear guilty. Talk to the police, dig into his past to see whether he can be held accountable for prior crimes and, while avoiding contact, record every conversation with him that you can."
A friend, Nicky, wrote: "This may be unfortunate advice. It is illegal to record electronically a conversation in California unless all parties to the conversation agree or at least one party agrees and a beep tone is emitted every few secs. Recordings illegally obtained would be excluded from evidence and the person doing the recordings could also face prosecution. ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 2:04 pm ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
Alcoholic Myth-of-the-Month: Song lyrics inspired the crime.
"Nearly a decade ago, three San Luis Obispo [California] youths pleaded guilty to killing a 15-year-old girl, saying [heavy metal rock band] Slayer's songs incited them to commit the crime."
So said the report on the conviction of Alfonso Ignacio Morales for murdering four members of a Whittier, California family, a daughter of which had spurned his romantic advances. The day of the killing, Morales was wearing a Slayer T-shirt. The report says the motive behind the massacre may never be known.
Readers of my books know that the odds of alcohol or other drug addiction in a convicted felon are at least 80%. While mass or serial murderers about whom biographies have been written can ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:51 pm ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviors
Addicts commit the most brazen crimes
"HOUSE ARREST: For nearly three months, people noticed two men dismantling a vacant house in Lindale, Texas. Even the local cops. "We wondered why it was taking so long, rather than just bulldoze it," says Smith County Constable Dennis Taylor. No one thought anything of it since it was right next to two commercial construction projects. But then Taylor got a report of a stolen house. "I said, 'Is it a trailer house, ma'am?"' Taylor says. "She said, 'No, it's a brick house.' I said, 'What?" He quickly put one and one together and arrested the two, Brandon Parmer, 29, and Darrell Maxfield, 44, who confessed to selling the parts ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:49 pm ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
Dear Doug: Our 18-year old has become a different person from the one we know and love
Dear Doug:
Our 18-year-old daughter has been lying, sneaking out at night and smoking dope. She swears and yells at me and calls me names. While she was once a straight-A student, if she graduates it will be due to my helping her with schoolwork.
We tried taking away privileges. When that didn't work, we tried easing up. That didn't work either. We have even let her take the consequences of her bad behaviors. She seems immune from pain.
We are thinking of kicking her out, but are afraid that will further alienate her and make her even more dependent on her fellow addicts. Please ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:48 pm ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
Movie Review: "Falling Down:" unexplained craziness - unless we assume alcoholism
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Starring Michael Douglas as "D-FENS," Barbara Hershey as his ex-wife, Tuesday Weld as his mother and Robert Duvall in a wonderful role as the endearing Detective Prendergast.
"Falling Down" is a very amusing black comedy, with Michael Douglas playing a recently fired defense worker known by his license plate moniker, D-FENS. Stuck in a monumental traffic jam, D-FENS angrily abandons his car and begins walking to his destination: his ex-wife's home, to give his little girl a birthday gift.
Along the way, he smashes up a Korean shopowner's store, stands up to gang members in a style we mere mortals have only dreamed, kills a Nazi, shoots up a ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:47 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
Could addiction be at the root of giving the finger to Wendy's?
Top Story: Employees, shareholders and franchisees suffer financial abuse, costing millions. Was it precipitated by addiction?
When Anna Ayala, 39, first accused Wendy's of serving her a finger in a bowl of chili, it didn't dawn on too many that she might be giving Wendy's the finger in a style only an addict could conjure up. As evidenced from the decline in sales at a number of Wendy's restaurants in the San Jose area where the incident occurred, many people believed her tale. Judy Johnson, the addict who accused the Buckey family of heinous - and on their face, impossible - crimes against children at the McMartin pre-school in ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:45 pm ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviors
Another Survivor; another alcoholic
Tony J. Young would do anything to get back his pride and joy, a Ford Mustang. It had been stolen, with everything stripped from the chrome rims to the $3,500 stereo. Just two months later, it was stolen again, but this time he saw it pull up to a stop sign with the thief behind the wheel. Young asked the driver to get out, but the thief pressed the pedal to the metal. Incredibly, Young jumped on the trunk, hanging on at speeds up to 80 mph with his back on the rear windshield and one hand on the rear spoiler. In one of the most bizarre calls emergency dispatchers had ever ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:45 pm ·
Filed under 4 - Alcoholic Myth of the Month
Alcoholic Myth-of-the-Month: Anything but alcoholism
"Family wonders if Prozac led to shootingâ€
So said the headline describing the "sleepless search for answers" by the family of Jeff Weise, the teen who killed nine at his school in Red Lake, Minnesota, and then himself. They are wondering about the drugs prescribed for Weise's depression.
While we cannot rule out the possibility that Prozac can lead to erratic and dangerous behaviors, there is far more obvious cause. Most massacres have been fueled by alcohol and other drugs. The massacre of the Nepalese Royal Family in 2001, which set off several days of rioting in the Himalayan kingdom, was fueled by a cocaine and alcohol binge by Crown Prince Dipendra. The Columbine High School massacre, reportedly ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:44 pm ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
Dear Doug: Out of control ex-employee
Dear Doug:
When I recently terminated an employee, he suddenly became very hostile. When I asked hm to calm down, he screamed and hurled insults. I am so shaken up by this I worry about a recurrence in future terminations. What could I have done to set the stage for a calmer parting of the ways?
Signed, Terminator
. . . . . .
Dear Terminator,
Other columnists might point out that storms often begin after being asked to calm down. They may suggest that you maintain your composure and tell the departing employee that any discussion is over if the screaming doesn't stop immediately, and that you should walk out and seek help from other staff if necessary. ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:42 pm ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
"The Upside of Anger:" Does anger cause alcoholism, or does alcoholism cause anger?
Movie Review: Reviewers describe Joan Allen's character Terry Wolfmeyer in "The Upside of Anger" as "furious," "rage fuelled" and a "control freak." They also call her a "lush" and one stewing "in a home brew of bile and vodka." Although not as anger-fuelled as many alcoholics (though snappy, nasty and sardonic, there's little outright screaming), for once the reviewers get it partly right. However, they don't seem to grasp cause and effect in attributing the behaviors to alcoholism. Nor does the movie itself, with the narration describing her as the nicest person anyone ever knew until anger turned her into a sad and bitter woman. The role ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:41 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What could "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch be thinking?
Top Story: Connecting the dots from alcoholism to income tax fraud.
The commission of fraud is a criminal act in which the perpetrator wields power over others through deceit and guile. Since over 80% of criminals are alcohol and other drug addicts, this one behavioral clue ups the odds of alcoholism from our starting point of 10%, where we know nothing about the person, to at least 80%. The larger the target, the greater potential for ego inflation. The commission of income tax fraud is not, then, just another form of deception. An attempt to prove that one is more powerful than a government - especially the U.S. Government - is a particularly ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:39 pm ·
Filed under 5 - Amazing Alcoholic Antics
Amazing Antics: Stories of Alcoholism-Driven Behaviors
"Evil spirits" or "shots of spirits"?
Story from "This Is True" by Randy Cassingham, with his "tagline."
SPIRITED OFFENSE: Police in Merrillville, Ind., arrested Jerry L. Jongsma, 55, for criminal recklessness after, they say, he admitted firing a gun outside his motel room. Jongsma allegedly told officers he was aiming at "evil spirits" who were trying to "suck blood from him." (Munster Times)...Leave it to small town cops to get everything wrong: he said he was taking "shots"of "spirits" which made him "evil," as reflected in his "blood alcohol" level.
Randy, with his ingenious tagline, touches upon a truth that few see clearly: heavy (addictive) use of alcohol causes misbehaviors. In fact, alcohol and other drug addiction is ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:38 pm ·
Filed under 3 - Dear Doug...
Dear Doug: I know he's a drug addict, but...
Dear Doug:
My husband of six years, Tony, can be a great companion and provider. He is not only successful at his regular job, but also helps at home with chores and is terrific with my fifteen-year-old son. The problem is, Tony is a cocaine addict, which I had no idea of before we married.
While I want to help him deal with his 20-year problem, I sometimes wonder if I should just walk away. The confusion stems from the fact that while during his occasional binges our family life is disrupted, at other times Tony is wonderful. Still, I'm concerned that he does more harm than good for my son.
Signed, Occasionally ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:37 pm ·
Filed under 2 - Movie & Book Reviews
Fear and Loathing in the Mind of an Addict
Movie Review: Counterculture "journalist" Hunter S. Thompson, who committed suicide at age 67 in February 2005, provides a classic example not so much of all-too obvious addiction, but more so of the enabling and codependency of the media elite. He was lionized, as were so many addicts before him, a hero. When he submitted disorganized notes for an article in Scanlan's magazine that focused more on himself than on the purported subject of his article, the 1970 Kentucky Derby, his notes were published intact. Fellow journalists almost universally acclaimed the resulting piece, one of whom termed his style "Gonzo" journalism. Though nobody seems to know exactly what that means, it is ...
Permalink
May 10, 2005 at 1:36 pm ·
Filed under 1 - Top Stories
The Haidl gang-rape trial: addicts and enablers fill the courtroom
Top Story: Who is most guilty -- Gregory Haidl, Don Haidl, Jane Doe or Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D.?
In the criminal justice system, addict is often pitted against addict. The Orange County, California Haidl gang rape re-trial is yet another in a long list of examples. The testimony shows that defendants and plaintiff alike appear to biochemically process psychotropic drugs in a way that cause them to engage in destructive behaviors, some of the time. Gregory Haidl, Keith Spann and Kyle Nachreiner, as well as the alleged victim "Jane Doe" are, by this definition of addiction, all likely addicts.
Haidl is the most obvious of these. Aside from drinking heavily before the ...
Permalink
« Previous Page —
« Previous entries« Previous Page ·
Next Page »Next entries » —
Next Page »
