Archive for September, 2012
Would you:
1. Patiently wait until morning, have a cup of coffee with her and then broach the subject?
2. Turn the lights on and, when that doesn’t rouse her, shake her?
3. Call her name until she wakes up?
4. Yank the covers off and, if that doesn’t work, shake her until she wakes?
5. Take her handgun and fire a "warning shot" 12 inches from her head?
Congratulations if you selected # 5, which is what Thomas Lee Nunes, 61, of Oregon City, Oregon did after a night of drinking with his wife, Lisa Nunes, 54. After drinking at home, they went out to several bars. Lisa, who recently retired as a lieutenant for the Oregon City police, consumed at least ten beers throughout ...
What would you do…if you’re driving drunk and hit an object on the interstate—and you have alcoholic biochemistry? (TAR Lite # 20)
Would you:
1. Pull to the shoulder of the interstate and park until you sober up?
2. Keep driving, but more slowly and really carefully?
3. Pull over to the shoulder, take a look at the damage and, in a moment of clarity, decide maybe you should get off at the next off-ramp and find the nearest motel to sleep it off?
4. Keep driving, full speed ahead, and hit another object—this time a concrete barrier—disabling the vehicle, stopping in the fast lane, where you climb into the back seat and promptly fall asleep?
Congratulations if you selected # 4, which is what Sheri Reuther, 40, did on I-10 in Louisiana. A trooper found her car blocking the far left lane, Reuther unconscious in the ...
What would you do…if you’ve crashed and a rescue crew and some cops are using the Jaws of Life to free you from your vehicle—and you have an addictive biochemistry?
Would you:
1. Sit tight, quietly waiting for emergency personnel to do their jobs?
2. Ask for pen and paper so you can write down your last wishes in case something goes horribly wrong?
3. Ask for a priest to assist you in praying for a positive outcome?
4. Grab some pot from a bag on the passenger seat, attempt to light up and later tell police “that was my best bag of stuff!”?
Congratulations if you selected #4, which is what Byung Lee, age 29, did after driving at least 60 mph in a 25 mph zone. He collided with a dozen moving and parked cars before rendering his car inoperable, smashing the front and passenger sides of his car, crushing one front tire ...
What would you do…if a woman rejects your advances at a bar — and you have alcoholic biochemistry?
Would you:
1. Go home, as it's just not your night?
2. Approach another woman and hope things go better?
3. Don't take "no" for an answer and try another approach?
4. Tell her she's missing out, turn around and scope out the bar for another victim?
5. After she turns away from you, pee on her leg?
Congratulations if you selected # 5, which is what Timothy Paez, age 22, did at the Shooters Grill and Bar in Boulder, CO, after he came up from behind a woman, put his arms around her and was rebuffed. The woman told police she initially thought Paez was spilling beer on her and was shocked to find he was urinating on her leg and the bar, with penis ...
The case that James E. Holmes, who committed mass murder at an Aurora, Colorado theater, is an addict.
James E. Holmes Murders 12 in an Aurora, CO Theater: Another mass murderer, another undiagnosed substance addict
I used to say, “While the vast majority of mass murderers in U.S. history have been alcohol or other-drug addicts, I’m sure there are exceptions,” and used as my prime example Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. However, I eventually learned I was wrong: McVeigh was a methamphetamine addict.
In the Top Story of issue # 29 of TAR, I suggested that Cho Seung-Hui, who murdered 32 and injured 25 in a shooting spree at Virginia Tech, was no different. I examined an article by Bob Unruh entitled, “Are meds to blame for Cho’s rampage?” in which he, like many, blamed anti-depressants (which are not psychotropic ...
Runners-Up: Wade Michael Page commits murder at a Sikh Temple; Rx Sciences Professer Rainer Reincheid (allegedly) commits arson as an irrational (read: alcoholic) reaction to his son’s suicide; Hans Kristian Rausing, megabillionaire, lets his wife rot.
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Wade Michael Page, who murdered six before being gunned down by police at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, was described as a “gentle and kind and loving” child by his stepmother Laura Page. She wondered, “And what happened, God only knows, because I don’t.” Let me try and explain, Ms. Page: your step-son, gentle and kind and loving though he may have been, inherited alcoholism. How do we know? He had convictions for criminal mischief and arrests for driving under the influence; as a soldier in 1998 he was demoted for being drunk on duty and was later discharged for “patterns of misconduct”; he was also fired by a trucking company after ...
An unknown, likely alcoholic, fires marbles and takes out dozens of storefront windows; Ryan Lochte, Olympian swimmer, succeeding against the odds with an alcoholic father.
Under Watch:
Michael Steven Poret, arrested on suspicion of vandalism, having “calmly [fired] metal marbles from a slingshot across six lanes of Ventura Boulevard in broad daylight,” as well as at night, and shattering windows at dozens of businesses and homes over a several month period along the Sherman Oaks-Encino-Tarzana-Woodland Hills corridor. Poret, 58, a vice-president at UBS Financial Services in Beverly Hills, may have been stressed by the markets. More likely, he’s just doing what alcoholics do: wielding power capriciously, however odd this particular style appears to be. Los Angeles police raided his Encino home and found an arsenal of slingshots, marbles, BB guns and firearms. Note to law enforcement authorities: this could have been a lot worse. After all, ...
Thomas Eagleton, George McGovern’s one-time running mate, was a likely alcoholic who went undiagnosed by a reviewer.
Untrue quote of the month:
“[Thomas] Eagleton, little more than an acquaintance of Mr. McGovern’s, was hurriedly picked despite vague rumors of alcoholism (untrue) and mental illness (true).”
So wrote Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard, in a review of Joshua M. Glasser’s new book, The Eighteen-Day Running Mate. Partly as a result of the failure to properly vet the late Senator Thomas Eagleton (D-MO) while running for President in 1972, George McGovern suffered a landslide defeat. Eagleton was diagnosed with clinical depression and clearly suffered the extreme and prolonged highs and lows of someone with bi-polar disorder. However, friends also “noted his drinking” and described him as having “drank quite a bit….Sometimes he was funny, sometimes he was frightening, ...
A classic case of an alcoholic estate: artist Thomas Kinkade, and a classic case of tax fraud: a meth-head. We wonder about the state employees.
Battle of the month:
The $60 million plus estate of “Painter of Light” Thomas Kinkade, at the center of a legal battle with two wills, two women and two very different pictures of his last wishes. The estranged wife has one will; his girlfriend another. The details hardly matter—the crucial point being that Kinkade had alcoholism, a manifestation of which is frequently awful planning for estates where heirs have clear conflicts.
Retrospective look of the month:
A 24-page search warrant affidavit regarding 25-year-old Krystle Marie Reyes, a runner-up for Top Story in the June-July 2012 issue of TAR, disclosed that three Oregon Department of Revenue employees were required to override the flagged payment, resulting in the issuance of a fraudulent $2.1 million state ...
Chutzpah of the decade: perp David Belniak sues victims with sister-lawyer Debra Tuomey leading the insane charge.
David Belniak and his sister, attorney Debra Tuomey have earned what could be the “Chutzpah-of-the-Decade” award. Belniak pleaded guilty to killing three people in a DUI car crash and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The estate of the deceased sued in civil court to recover damages; later, Tuomey filed a countersuit, saying her brother wasn’t actually guilty and instead the crash resulted from the victims’ driver swerving into the lane where Belniak struck them. She asked the court to award Belniak for his pain, suffering, mental anguish and medical bills for a permanent scar on his arm (which the court could barely see when he held his arm up for them). All this, despite the fact that:
...
Dr. James W. West, RIP.
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Dr. James W. West, 98, dead from complications related to old age. West was a pioneer in the area of organ transplants, having been part of a team of surgeons who performed the world’s first kidney transplant in 1950. He was already addicted to alcohol and, due to a fellow student’s introduction in medical school, amphetamines. He eventually sought help, which led him to study psychiatry and substance disorders. While we have not been able to ascertain when he got sober, we suspect it was long after he began performing surgery, but likely by the early 1970s when he helped to found the Haymarket Center in Chicago, a well-known alcohol and other-drug addiction treatment center. After ...
Real-life TV often stars real-life alkies. “Bachelorette” and “My Cat from Hell.”
TV’s Real-Life Alcoholics
I’ve noted previously (in issue # 9 and issue # 14 of TAR, among others) that reality TV is filled with alcohol and other-drug addicts; “Survivor” and “Big Brother” are replete with them. While identifying such addicts on “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” might be a bit of a challenge (only a few are immediately obvious), they appear ubiquitous in this summer’s reality trash “Bachelor Pad.” In the latest incarnation of the series, Ed Swiderski is the patently obvious person with alcoholism, as he can’t seem to go a day without naked swimming, loud hook-ups and running around like a crazy person while clearly under the influence. In general, his poor morning-after performances in the competition events confirm middle-stage alcoholism ...
Financial self-abuse is frequently a clue to alcoholism. Get your alcoholic son sober–first.
My son keeps getting deeper into debt
Dear Doug:
My son, who doesn’t earn enough to cover regular expenses, spends some $400 monthly on beer and cigarettes. He and his wife owe $15,000 on five credit cards and over his wife’s objections he just bought a new flat-screen TV. He refuses to see a counselor. What can be done?
Signed,
Concerned and frightened father
Dear Codependent,
Other columnists might suggest that your son turn his paycheck over to his more responsible wife. They might also suggest divorce, keeping in mind your daughter-in-law would still likely be on the hook for the debt. They’d say she could try earning more, which would only serve to further subsidize and thereby exacerbate your son’s irresponsible behavior. A fourth approach ...
We’ve all suffered losses, you idiot “expert.” That doesn’t turn us into alcoholics who commit mass murder.
“Individuals who commit acts of mass violence often have suffered some kind of loss and aren’t able to bounce back from it.” *
So said* Secret Service and the U.S. Marshals Service behavioral threat assessment consultant Barry Spodak, commenting on the James E. Holmes mass shooting. Some myths make my hair stand on end; this, one of the most ignorant statements ever made by someone who should know better (what?! He consults for the Secret Service and U.S. Marshals Service?!) is one of those. I suspect everyone reading this article has suffered a severe loss (likely several) during their lives. Were you able to “bounce back” without committing violence? Of course you were. If you didn’t or know someone who didn’t, ...
Alcoholism doesn’t mesh well with a GPS.
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“PENALTY STROKE: Patricia A. Maione, 46, ‘stated that her GPS had told her to turn left,’ a Northbridge, Mass., police officer wrote in his report. ‘She stated that this left brought her into a 'cornfield' and once she was in the 'cornfield' she kept driving trying to get out of her 'cornfield'.’ It wasn't a cornfield, it was a golf course: the officer found her car stuck in a sand trap. And, witnesses say, she took the turn onto the course at about 45 mph. It wasn't so much of a failure of the GPS navigation unit as it was, the officer found, that Maione allegedly admitted she had drunk ...