Mr. SponsorPants

jails, institutions and death

The book "Alcoholics Anonymous" uses that phrase to describe the likely outcome for someone suffering from alcoholism who is unable to get sober.

Along the way to those ends, we usually create a lot of wreckage for ourselves and others.

I am deeply grateful that I got sober before the Internet came into existence.  Or before they started making the TV Show "Cops."  My memories (those that I retain) are painful enough without video reminder or extreme internet commentary.

This woman is not so lucky.

Her blood alcohol level when she was arrested was .708 -- and so it seems that her alcohol use has already led her to the first part of that sad pattern:  Jails.

It is not my place to suggest that she is an alcoholic, and I say that with no sly wink intended.  But this gal can drink -- I know from my own experience that you don't get there overnight.  It takes dedication -- literally.  I remember there were times before I got sober when I had the muddled thought that I was literally drinking with a vengeance -- that it felt like I could not drink fast enough and when I passed out I would start again the moment I awoke -- towards the end, anyway.

With all our sharing and reflection and self examination -- all useful, healthy and appropriate -- with all our writing of resentments and discussion of character defects, every so often I think it is important to be clear that the bottom line, the most important thing, the place it all stems from, is physical sobriety.  We must explore those things but AA is not a metaphysical society.  "Our primary purpose is to stay sober ... "

If, by the end of the day, I don't drink or use or kill myself then I win -- and the rest of the mess will either have to wait till the next day or sort its damn self out without me.

NJ Man Pleads Guilty to 15th DUI

As much as I understand what is likely operating in this man, I have no patience with any leniency for drunk drivers -- if I wrote the laws, the penalties would actually be much more harsh than they already generally are.

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NJ Man Pleads Guilty to 15th DUI

AP

MORRISTOWN, N.J. (July 1) – A New Jersey man whose driver's license has been suspended 78 times has pleaded guilty to his 15th drunken-driving offense.

Shaun Campbell of East Rutherford told a judge Tuesday that he had been drinking "quite a bit" of beer when he crashed his SUV head-on into a pickup in April. The truck's occupants, a man and his 4-year-old daughter, were not seriously hurt. The 40-year-old Campbell's blood-alcohol level was .288 percent, more than triple the state's legal limit. Authorities say Campbell's license has been suspended 78 times in 22 years. He still faces drunken-driving charges in two other New Jersey cities. Prosecutors are seeking a maximum prison term of nearly three years at Campbell's sentencing in August. He will lose his license for at least 10 more years.

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It's a reasonable guess that along the way in this man's journey through the court system he has likely been "sentenced" to attend a certain number of AA meetings and given what people in AA usually call a Court Card.

To clarify for the new kids how this generally plays out, a Court Card is a document given by a judge or D.A. as to be used as proof of attendance at an AA meeting.  In theory the person goes to the meeting and someone there (presumably someone "in charge" even though there's no such thing) signs the card indicating that the individual attended the meeting. Where I live there is no follow up on the veracity of signatures on people's Court Cards -- how can there be, really?

I confess to indulging in a little play acting when people have brought me their cards over the years.  I look at it and frown for a few seconds, as if I'm studying the card carefully (they're usually about as legible as a doctor's prescription, I have no idea what I'm looking at, generally, beyond the blank spaces for people's signatures), and say, "I'm going to print my phone number here by my name -- if they ask you about verification calls tell them they can call me."  That is a bald faced lie, of course, there is no such thing as "verification calls" -- not to mention AA keeps no membership records of any kind, plus even if I did know whether or not someone attended a meeting I would never give that information out anyway.

AA is based on attraction rather than promotion, but I trust that God, The Universe or The Great Whatever is working to get the court card kids in the door -- so even if their attendance is grudging I figure once they're in their seat we can work on the attraction part.  I know more than a few people who came in on a "nudge from the judge," identified with what they heard, and decided to stay.  So if I can head off a little forgery on someone's part and plant a seed that will help them to actually show up for the number of meetings they've been sentenced to, I'm all good with that.

AA suggests a program of rigorous honesty.
But I have no intention of changing my behavior. 

Drunkenfreude -- Susan Cheever

The always insightful Ms. Cheever wrote a piece for the NYT that both identified an interesting phenomenon and gave me a new book to ferret out ("America Anonymous" by Benoit Denizet-Lewis).

And if you scroll down and read the Comments on her essay , you'll find a wild mixed bag, much more mixed than I expected -- some of them worthwhile, some of them off the mark, some actually hostile -- and some quite illuminating, though perhaps not in the way the commenter intended.

Impressive.

This man beats my own personal best.  When I was arrested for drunk driving my blood alcohol level was .31 percent.  Of course, I'm not saying Mr. Kobierowski is an addict, but... drinks like a duck, drives drunk like a duck, I think you just might have an alcoholic duck.

Man's Blood Alcohol Stuns Cops

AP

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (July 22) - State police say they arrested a man early Tuesday whose blood alcohol level was 0.491 percent — the highest ever recorded in Rhode Island for someone who wasn't dead.

Stanley Kobierowski was taken to a hospital, put in the detoxification unit and sedated, said Maj. Steven O'Donnell. He was arraigned Tuesday on charges of driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest, and he was released after promising to appear Friday at a court hearing.

Andrew Dickerman, Providence Journal

Stanley Kobierowski is arraigned at the State Police barracks in Lincoln, R.I. Police said he had a blood alcohol level of .491 when he was arrested for drunken driving. They said that's the highest level ever seen in the state on someone who wasn't dead.

Man, am I glad I got sober before the Internet.

Wow. That is just ... wow.

I'm not saying they're addicts, but ...

It seems that three young men in Texas (no comment) dug up a corpse and used the skull for a bong.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5764886.html

If they're addicts then that can sort of explain it, I guess.

(Don't know if I could sit through their share without getting a little queasy though. I've heard some very, very, very strange things in Meetings over the years but ... damn.)

Eventually they may wind up in M.A. (Marijuana Anonymous) which, from my experience, has excellent snacks, so there's maybe an up-side down the road.

(The brownies are always especially good -- all that practice, right?)

But if the skullsmokers aren't addicts, then ... damn.

Or, given that this is a story about Texans ... dang.