- A different way of fighting addictions. Article is a little vague on whether these newish ways are more effective than the old. But it’s certainly good to see the old “you’re helpless, forever sick, and dependent only on a higher power” model of treatment getting some competition.
- Kim Jong Un is terrified of … poor-quality imitation Moon Pies??? Well, take it with a grain of salt, but stranger things have helped bring down tyrants.
- Yes, some cops should be charged with murder. And conspiracy. And attempted coverup. And …
- Obama The Great. Or why he thinks he is and is expects us peasants to acknowledge it. (Presidents do tend to be a scurvy lot, but I don’t believe we’ve ever had one more narcissistic than this guy.) UPDATE: G**gl* cached version, H/T. M. Original article has slipped behind a paywall.
- It figures. There are actual scientists studying that great (and I really mean it) problem of modern life: why the heck all those electrical cords tangle into Gordian knots just by being left lying around.
- Via jed: Order restored to universe as Microsoft gives back all those other-people’s domains it managed to crash.
C.M.C. sounds like a good addition to the options available. My mother was an “alcoholic” after my father died, but found help and health through AA within a short time and totally abstained for more than 30 years. In later life she was able to take a drink on occasion without problems, though having been raised with the AA mantra, it was hard for me to believe at first.
I had my own problems with alcohol for a while after my divorce, trying to deal with both physical and emotional pain, and was fortunate to find that my children and career were more than adequate to fulfill my needs in the long run. I still enjoy a beer now and then, or a wee dram of a good single malt, but I’m too cheap to buy much of it. Being “scotch” has its benefits.
More murdering ‘Heroes’ Of course nobody will even lose their jobs or a days pays. And Ayoob will be defending these courageous Heroes,bet on it.
Well, the mathematical analysis isn’t all that useful. Really, it’s almost always just loops sliding past each other. This can be avoided. I usually braid my cords. Garden hoses can be hung or laid down in a figure-8 pattern, which also aids in having them lay straight when you pull them across the yard, instead of trying to maintain the coil. If you lay them on the ground in a figure-8, the coils can still catch other coils and pull them, but with a bit of care, you can avoid that too.
For short power cords, I either double or quadruple them, and tie them in an overhand knot.
@jed: Nice job on the HTML, there dude!
Fixed that for ya, jed. (Can’t tell you how many times I’ve made that exact same goof. Too bad I’m the only one with the super-duper magical comment-editing button around here.)
I’ve always understood that cops meat out punishment based on how they feel about the crime. However, they are getting better and better at going after those less able to protect themselves. This picking on the weak is really nothing more than torture for now reason, otherwise known as sadism. When it comes to life experience most cops have very little to none prior to entering the academy. That may make for an apparent “perfect” record in society with no arrests, nothing untoward beyond a couple of speeding tickets. This also makes for a young man who’s probably living at home, single and doesn’t know himself very well. What alarms me the most is how often all available officers join in on these murders. I’m guessing we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg and those who believe that cops will back those of us interested in freedom have another thing coming. Sadists are rarely in control of their impulses. They will not be wanting to endanger the satisfying of those impulses by joining forces with us.
Obama Akbar, indeed!!!
Re the cop thing…. I dunno, lessee…a cop is a sort of civilian “soldier” for lack of a better word. I mean he does supposedly put his life on the line at times. Well, I have over 16 years of service to my credit in the military and I cannot imagine anyone who ever was in the military not realizing they might be called upon to make “the supreme sacrifice”. That said, I galls the hell out of me when I read that some Chief of police say that the only thing that counts is that his people get/got to home at night. If one notices, it seems that cops never want to get themselves “exposed” to harm. All their actions are passive, not what I would call proactive. Take Collumbine for example, How long it took for the cops to finally enter the building. Yet, if there are more than one or two cops confronting a suspect, I say suspect because there has not been an arrest in our hypothetical case, they get this puffed up ego warrior attitude. Something else, I was brought up when I was a kid to consider cops as your friend. Ha! Today I know of no cop that even though they know me or I know them they will NEVER act like a neighbor would. They for the most part a bunch of standoffish jackasses.
I really understand now how a civilized nation like Germany produced the horrors they did in WWII. Just hire the sub intelligent,sociopaths and bullies,pay them more than they could ever earn,give them unlimited immunity for their actions,give em toys REAL soldiers use and it doesnt surprise me one bit what we are seeing now.
I grew up knowing an officer was where you went when in need,now I have no use for them at all.Just another group of gangbangers that are ABOVE the law,making them more dangerous still.
Karma is a bitch though,and we are starting to see it play out,all brought on to themselves by their actions.The Bundy show showed them for what they are,a bunch on quivering cowards when they arent outmanning and outgunning the populace,face a real battle,nope,just cowards,like all bullies and gangbangers.
Dont know if this will print or not,but I dont blame you Clare if it doesnt,just how this average schmuck feels and I suspect many many more feel the same.
My theory (based on some research and much observation) is that there are at least two versions of alcoholism.
Some people have a physiological addiction. When they take a drink something inside makes them take another. Being drunk then leads to other problems: job loss, destroyed relationships, homelessness, etc.
Some people already have the other problems: job loss, destroyed relationships, homelessness, etc. and self-medicate with alcohol. Getting drunk isn’t a cure, of course, so their problems escalate.
Treatment depends on which version is present. In the first case abstaining from alcohol will enable the person to deal with the other problems. In the second case, the “other problems” are the root problem. While abstention can help them find better ways to cope than self-medication, it’s still the job loss, destroyed relationships, and homelessness that need fixing. Once that happens such people can drink in moderation.
I think LarryA is right on both types of “alcoholic”. Some bodies can “handle their liquor” and some can’t. It depends on the individual ― including physical response to alcohol and emotional problems or desire to lessen his drinking. For those whose problems are temporary (or non-existent), it will be straightened out in a few years as the person matures and circumstances change; for those whose problems are more severe or who react physically to alcohol, that gives him time to become an “alcoholic”.
The C.M.C. _sounds_ like a good thing and I hope it works, but it seems to be structured toward the relatives’ understanding as much as the drinker’s understanding of the problem. (Perhaps because it was started by relatives of drinkers.)
And rarely did it mention voluntary participation by the drinker. If he’s not interested in investigating his own “addiction”, where does that leave the relative and what benefit is the C.M.C. to the drinker? (Or is the purpose of C.M.C. to help all relatives become amateur psychologists in order to understand the drinker?)
“Just hire the sub intelligent,sociopaths and bullies”
Fred, the problem with Sociopaths is they don’t really care for the money all that much… However, in the case of a lot of cops the money’s pretty damn good. But at the end of the day sociopaths like being sociopaths above all else.
Cops do not have a dangerous job.
The actuarial figures for injuries and deaths at work for cops are way down, and they’re getting lower all the time.
Forestry, commercial fishing, farming, construction (especially quarries – which generally get counted with construction) are all far more dangerous occupations.
If you see or hear claims that “cops put their lives on the line for us” counter them. Very few of them do, and even fewer “pay the price”
The 12 step chronic disease model has worked for far more than ANY other method. Perhaps more than all of them combined. I have always believed that there are genetic and psycho social factors to addiction. In fact, I don’t think anyone can argue agains that. If someone finds something that works, hey great. If it doesn’t work, they die and often others die with them or from the actions they take. Finding alternate treatment methods that work is like taking a box of grenades and trying to figure out which is a dud by pulling pins out. If you have enough volunteers you may eventually find that dud.
The WSJ article on Obama the Great is now behind their paid login, but Google cache has it here:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-daydream-and-the-nightmare-1404421159
That article on Obama is a bit schizophrenic. “Instead he seems disinterested, disengaged almost to the point of disembodied.” Well, wasn’t Warren Harding disinterested? That was why he was the best president of the 20th Century. “He is steering the world toward not relying on America.” That is a bad thing? “President Lincoln of course had been badly abused in his time. Now his greatness is universally acknowledged.” Only if all you read are court historians. Has this guy bothered to look at the Internet?
I can’t get too worked up about “worst president since X” articles. They are all bums. Anyway the flavor of those articles seems to be, “We need a REAL leader.” That’s the last thing I want.
Re: cops, “Just hire the sub intelligent,sociopaths and bullies,pay them more than they could ever earn,give them unlimited immunity for their actions,give em toys REAL soldiers use…” Don’t forget about giving them a defenseless population to push around. One of these days people are going to start shooting back. Then you will see cops getting out of their uniforms quickly enough!
I might point out that the “you’re helpless, forever sick, and dependent only on a higher power” model of treatment has been the most successful of the alternative treatment modalities promulgated by new agers and the self appointed experts in the field.
This is based on personal experience and 20 years working in substance abuse treatment programs.
Having said all that, it all boils down to motivation. If a person has sufficient motivation almost any “program” will work.
kycolonel has it right, its all about motivation. But I’d add, its about having the strength to perservere too.
I dabbled pretty heavily with alcohol and some illicit substances in my youth. Call it a moment of motivation, an epiphany, or whatever you will, I woke up one day and said “I don’t like the person who that stuff makes me, so I ain’t gonna do that stuff again”. That was about 28 years ago, and I’ve never slipped and never gone back. Had that morning of motivation with alcohol too, been dry over 25 years now. Thankfully, none of these epiphanies came after a tragedy.
Never went to a program, but know people who have. Most seem to start after an accident/arrest/fight, and their participation is court ordered. Once the mandate has been satisfied, few ever returned.
Just came across this. Seems even some animals know what freedom is.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/elephant-chained-50-years-cries-freed-india-article-1.1857195
Peggy Noonan’s articles do tend to be a bit “schizophrenic”, and I always approach them with caution. Still, in this one she makes an important point, even if she doesn’t know what to do with it: Obama does seem to have “checked out”. The bloom is off the presidential rose, and he’s now just in it for the perks and (he hopes) all the money he’s going to make after leaving office (a la the Clintons). Frankly, I think that’s a good thing. I’m happy to see my tax dollars spent on his (and his unpleasant wife’s) lavish vacations and junkets, if it means less use of that vaunted “pen and phone”. Obama can’t cause much damage when he’s on the golf course (beyond tearing up the occasional divot), so by all means his golfing should be encouraged. For the same reason, legislative gridlock pleases me; less mischief occurs when the Congress is paralyzed by political intransigence. Heaven save us from “bipartisanship.”
So if Obama is bored and has decided to “phone it in” and put the Oval Office on autopilot, that’s just fine by me. In fact, it’s the best scenario imaginable. A seatwarmer president sounds like a distinct improvement over what we had to endure during his first five years.
Peggy Noonan is a professional black-propagandist for the ruling class, and the article is an example of the fact.
While Obama may have checked out of his “job,” we need desperately to stop pretending that his actual job is either to manage the US Empire at a profit for its real owners – who are not “us,” not “the Jews*,” and most especially, not “the people” – or to serve as front-man while his handlers do the managerial stuff.
No one has or will ever be inaugurated President who hasn’t agreed to those terms.
Now it’s true that Obama may be slacking on his real job. But let’s consider: he’s expanded the US’s covert wars of colonial reconquest worldwide, particularly in Africa; displayed a paranoid secrecy-obsessed style that makes Nixon appear to have been made of Saran wrap, while expanding the police state so catastrophically that he can assert, and exercise, his right to have any American murdered openly on his whim, with massive bipartisan support; and of course, funneled tens of trillions of dollars to favored companies and cartels, like his recent trillion-dollar gift to an insurance cartel in the form of the ACA. In other words: expanding upon the almost-unprecedented work of his predecessor (or his handlers) in expanding the scope, power, and greed of government.
In other words, maybe he feels he deserves to rest on his laurels.
Of course, whether his actual employers agree remains to be seen. They may decide he’d make a convenient martyr. Or scapegoat. Or both.
*Added to head off the various sorts of nonsense which frequently accompany acknowledgement that we’re ruled by an institutional though by no means static class of oligarchs. Whom evidence suggests are mostly WASPy old white men.
Gah! Stop pretending his actual job is anything *but* managing the Empire, or fronting for the real managers.
I grow weary of all this “Obama’s disengaged” nonsense. He’s intentionally trying to guide this country into a Statist Shithole. There are radio talk show host that always deride Obama’s schedule cuz there’s usually only 2 to 4 appointments in a day. It’s not true. He meets with quite a few people every day… but most of them he doesn’t want us to know about.