Well, I guess the same can be said about people who suffer diabetes. In America about twetny million people suffer from the disease. Contributing factors include obesity, consuming too much sugar, and a lack of exercise, among others. So I shouldn't feel sorry for the guy who lost his feet to the disease, or the one who had a stroke, or the one who went blind from the disease. One of the other factors is genetics, which is believed to contribute to alcoholism.



I'm not being critical of you or anyone else. But what about obesity? Don't most fat people eat too much and not exercise enough? It's not good for people and they do it to themselves.



When I come back to Portland from most anywhere in Montana except Missoula, I see, smell, and feel the air pollution in Portand After you're here a while you don't notice it, but it's here. It's not good for you and there are alternatives to driving. If the pollution makes me sick, am I to blame for driving. Right now smokers are the pariahs, but twenty million people suffering from diabetes and more suffering from pollution related illnesses costs us just as much money to treat. And secondhand automobile smoke probably harms almost as many people as cigarettes - especially given the prospect of global warming.



You've been given the opportunity we all have: to be compassionate and love another human being when it is hard to. I don't always take that opportunity. Still, I try, and hope someone will be kind to me when I'm dying

I wish it were that simple. Selfish? Maybe, but why? has always to be the question. Is this an typical American response I ask myself? In other words, it is so clear and obvious and what we believe has to be right? Bullshit I'm afraid. The world really isn't that simple. It may be to you 'guys' but some of us have issues that aren't as easily categorised. Perhaps the selfish ones are those that accuse and believe themselves to be so friggin aloof?



No offence cousin.

It's very easy to become frustrated and angry when you're dealing with something as difficult as addiction. I have a brother about a decade older than myself. Growing up I loved him very much; respecting his kind, benevolent nature. In the late sixties he joined the military and came back four year later with a drug problem. Then he was sentenced to three years in prison for possession of marijuana. He has spent his life since going in and out of jail for short terms, going into treatment, and fighting - if not hard enough - the amphetamine habit that has nearly destroyed him now.



I remember, as a young man, crying when he came back from treatment and failed to stay away from it. He told me "I just don't feel whole without it." I looked at him and cried, knowing that I could do no more; only love him, but not let him destory me too.



Easy on the Americans. My father fought to bail your bloody asses out during WWII. Ask me, it's too many Europeans acting uppity. Of course, I could be wrong, it's just an opinion

No offence, just being contravesial for the sake of discussion :-)

Yeah, me too. In all truth most Europeans are a tad more sane than most Americans. I do, however, get a bit upset being considered somewhat less than human just because I was born in this looney bin. How the hell am I going to exploit those less fortunate and realize the American Dream of be obscenely rich if people think like that?



Oh, sorry, some poor bastard's sick child is knocking at the door hoping for something to eat. I'll come back to the computer, tea and cake after I give the little wretch a good kick and urinate on his prostrate form:-)

Don't waste your time if he/she has no oil though eh? :-)

Canada found some big reserves in, I think it's Alberta. By the end of the year Iraq should be the 51st and Canada will make it an even number again. Doesn't matter much since the U.S. is getting its ass kicked economically and the beating has just begun. I've heard it said that if we were to fight another conventional world war we'd lose because we no longer have the manufacturing capacity.



The U.S is a failing social experiement. The powerful control much of the media and use basic psychology to control us as well. Every first year student knows that if you belong to a group and want people to band behind you, just pose an external threat. The same student knows that scare tactics work if you offer a solution, i.e. scare them silly and present yourself, or your group, as the solution



Another control tactic that works well is to get people in debt as far as possible, then keep them preoccupied with making enough to pay their debts off. Orwell was a few decades off, but it's nearly here.

Yeah, um... Anyway, back to reality. What were we talking about? Oh, alcoholism, yeah. Now, I'm sure nobody here is a Saint. Some of you may be sober, or just the occasional social drinker, whatever. ...I've had the same kind of experiences with alcoholics in my life. I had a friend who would tell me he wasn't drinking anymore as he stood there with a Jim Beam and ginger in his hand. He's dead now. What these people have is like an allergy. Some of us aren't able to control ourselves when we take too much of a substance into our bodies. It's probably got to do with heredity and body chemistry. You'd think the alcoholic would realize what he/she is doing to family and loved ones. People struggling with alcoholism usually become so far gone that they lose touch with reality and can't see what pain they are putting others through. The crazy thing is the only thing that really seems to work is AA. I'm a big believer in it -and I don't think it's a cult -whatever.

It's well established that alcoholism is a hereditary disease with a symptom called denial. I've never heard alcoholism being compared to an allergy, but it's definitely an addiction. AA is a good thing for many people.



You didn't understand my earlier post because it sounds like I'm saying the media uses psychology to manipulate people. What I meant is that leaders and some other people are doing so, often using the media Anyone who has studied psychology sees the obvious use of scare tactics in many societies. As for Orwell, look around

It is an addiction, and a horrible one. Alcohol is the second worst addictive substance next to nicotine. LIke it or not, as you know, we live in a culture that glamorizes it. You are correct about the leaders (and others) manipulating people, but that's not the only thing. Media can be a horrible monster when misused. Think about kids growing up today seeing alcohol and drugs in movies and on TV.