I Didn’t Quit Drinking to Get High On Hope and Change

With the holidays fast approaching, I thought it might be a good time to jot down some thoughts on drinking.  Or, more specifically, not drinking – booze or Kool Aid.

Recently, I celebrated my eighth year of sobriety.  I have 9/11 to thank for that; it was shortly after the attacks that I began attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous with regularity.  I’d been to AA once before, at 25, when a DUI arrest landed me in “the rooms.”  But at the time, I still had 15+ years of drinking to get out of my system, plus a mid-life crisis to go through that sent me flying out to La-La Land (which is where I was when the towers fell back in my home town).

I’m proud I haven’t had a drink since 2001.  After spending decades trying to flee my “issues” like an adolescent hamster on an existential wheel, the fog gradually lifted from my brain and I stopped running.

They say when you drink, you stop growing emotionally, that you’re almost in a state of suspended animation – normal on the outside, stunted on the inside.  Sobriety gets the spiritual gears moving again.  Suddenly, years of pent-up, delayed maturation caught up with me – real fast. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 9/11, Alcoholics Anonymous, BDS, Big Book, Bill Wilson
Posted Nov 23rd 2009 at 5:03 am in Culture, Featured Story, Politics | 21587885 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/11/23/i-didnt-quit-drinking-to-get-high-on-hope-and-change/I+Didn%27t+Quit+Drinking+to+Get+High+On+Hope+and+Change2009-11-23+13%3A03%3A43Charles+Winecoff

Obama Nation: His Defenders Earned a Name

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "Obama Nation", Obama, tea baggers, Tea Party
Posted Nov 8th 2009 at 12:59 pm in Art, Politics | 25860271 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/hudlash/2009/11/08/obama-nation-his-defenders-earned-a-name/Obama+Nation%3A+His+Defenders+Earned+a+Name2009-11-08+20%3A59%3A18James+Hudnall+and+Batton+Lash

I Am Kenneth Gladney

This week’s Washington Times column:

The first round of protests against the Obama administration’s chaotic and rapid-fire expansion of government came in the form of grass-roots “tea parties,” which were predictably met with scorn by the Democrat-Media Complex (the natural coalition of the Democratic Party and the mainstream media.)

CNN’s Anderson Cooper and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow led the charge, declaring concerned Americans “tea baggers,” an allusion to an absurd sexual fetish beneath describing in a family newspaper. This attack on hundreds of thousands of people practicing their constitutional right to protest speaks volumes not just about the hardened sociopolitical leanings of America’s journalistic elite, but about the brazenness with which they are now wielding their unprofessionalism.

Last week on the grounds of the once-venerated White House, Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, taking his cues from his allies in the media, referred to last week’s health care town-hall protesters as “tea baggers.”

How far we have fallen.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Anderson Cooper, bush, CNN, Democrat-Meda Complex, Dick Durbin
Posted Aug 9th 2009 at 4:24 pm in Featured Story, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 203226150 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/08/09/i-am-kenneth-gladney/I+Am+Kenneth+Gladney2009-08-09+23%3A24%3A19Andrew+Breitbart