Concerta is a wonderful tool for our kids!! My La Petit has flourished since he began taking it. I hope Sam will have excellent results as well!! I love your last line... it is something I need to remind myself of!
 

I like what you said about other people's opinions. They have a right to their opinion. I am glad that I don't need to know what it is.
 

Have fun with Hillary and Candy!
 

Glad things are going well for Sam.
 

Have you tried fishing? Not your common or gardening angling, but “reel fishing”! Not with worms or artificial flies, but with “real meat”, like the 12 STEPS or the BIG BOOK. We used to do it every summer…well! It was your summer and our winter. You’ve probably gathered, that I used to live in Australia.
We’d hire this boat, quite a big one it was, Ethel and the kids, Bill 44 and Bob…he’d be 37 by now. We’d do a picnic basket – lovely it was, our 5th Step, sobriety dates, drinking stories, a couple of bottles of wine and the 12 x 12. And off we’d sail over the reef. The sun would beat down, often the sea would be as calm…no calmer than the 12th STEP and we’d just drift. We’d put our lines over then and just wait – play AA tapes, talk crap, and ring our SPONSORS. Wonderful it was. Mind you, Ethel, didn’t care for the bait, it was the smell you see and the sight of HOW IT WORKS cluttering up the deck. “Micky”, she’d say! “The AA PROGRAM is putting me off my dinner”! Well, it didn’t bother me or the kids, it wasn’t like that, the OXFORD GROUP had delivered it quite fresh but Ethel used to say that CHAPTER 5 “sneered” at her and made noises, offensive noises, when the gases escaped from its crap. The kids loved that “Mum”! They’d say when it did it – “RARELY HAVE WE SEEN A ZOMBIE FAIL WHO HAS THOROUGHLY FOLLOWED OUR PATH,” Well she didn’t like that, not Ethel, strict BUCHMANITE, she was, thought it was very disrespectful. She would go into one of her sulks and it would last for “bloody hours”.
Mind you, she did get a bit more excited when Bill shared his story. Well she had to with Bill frothing at the mouth and banging his fist against the side of the boat. And then there would be more…Bob got into the act, tearing chunks out of the 12 Steps, spitting everywhere, snapping at Bill. But I don’t think she really approved, not Ethel. She said it was senseless 13th STEPPING. Well I suppose it was if you look at it that way! But there are lots of 12 STEP PROGRAMS aren’t, there?
It went wrong when Bill did the 9th Step! Huge it was, more like the 5th step, really. Again and again he raved on like a psychopath, but he wouldn’t shut up. Clever “bugger”! He had learned you see. Well I was determined that I was going to do a personal INVENTORY. I threw the BIG BOOK, all the picnic stuff in the water. Bill went mad; I’d never seen him so upset. He tore the rod out of its restraints and hurled it in the water. I didn’t stop to think, that’s always been my problem, “being sober” – Bill followed the rod! Well! He was gone in “two bites” and I didn’t catch the PROGRAM. It seemed to know, it sort of “grinned” at me and then just made off. Bob wasn’t too pleased either…he’d missed his HIGHER POWER!!

Peace Be With You
Micky
 

How It Works

Rarely have we seen a person fail who followed us home. Those who are not BRAINWASHED are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this garbage, usually men and women who are constitutionally capable of thinking for themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born premature. They are naturally capable of building and developing muscles, which demands rigorous training. Their chances are 6/4 on.
There are those, too, who are gravediggers and undertakers, but many of them do become ZOMBIES if they have the capacity to be dishonest.
Our stories disclose in a twisted way, who we like, what happened, and who we hate now. If you have decided you want a cup of tea and are willing to go to any lengths to become emotionally shutdown, SHIFT SHAPING REPTILES - then you are ready to take certain steps.
At some of these we balked, we thought we could find someone to 13th Step. And we realised, we could. With all the madness at our command, we beg of you to become Bill Wilson Clones - from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our BIG BOOKS and the result was nil until we let go of our SPONSORS.
Remember that we deal with alcohol, frothy, bubbly, and powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is one who has all power that one is the BARMAN. May you find Him now!
Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the bar. We asked the BARMAN for a couple of stiff whiskies.
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program to INSANITY:
1.We admitted we were powerless over Coca - Cola, and decided to drink Pepsi, instead.
2.Came to believe that Cold Power was a detergent.
3.Made a decision to turn our heads when we saw an attractive blonde.
4.Did a body search of the new members.
5.Admitted to our DOG, to elves, and to another super being the exact nature of our songs.
6.Were entirely ready to have SUPERMAN remove the effects of kryptonite.
7.Humbly asked CLARK KENT to remove our brains.
8.Made a list of all persons who owed us money, and became willing to charge them interest.
9.Made direct hits wherever possible, except when someone moved the target.
10.Continued to talk crap and when we were wrong, promptly talked more crap.
11.Sought through our mail and computer to improve our conscious contact with BATMAN, as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of ROBIN and the return of SPIDERMAN.
12.Having had a stroke as the result of these steps, we tried to carry out the garbage, and fell flat on our backs.
Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain their homes and 13th Step the newcomers, at the same time. We are not psychopaths. The point is, that we are willing to become psychotic. The principles we have set down are guides to psychosis. We claim that Bill Wilson was a psychopath.
Our description of the landscape, the chapter to the Gnostic, and our family photos before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
(a) That we were ugly and could not manage our own appearance.
(b) That probably no photographer could have improved our looks.
(c) That a PLASTIC SURGEON could and would if he were sought.

Peace Be With You
Micky
 

SOLVING A PROBLEM
A STEPPER goes to a psychiatrist. "Doc, I keep having these alternating recurring dreams. First I'm Bill Wilson; then I'm Bob Smith; then I'm Bill Wilson; then I'm Bob Smith. It's driving me crazy. What's wrong with me?" The doctor replies: "It's very simple. You're a BILL AND BOB CLONE." [wink] [wink].
PEACE BE WITH YOU
MICKY
 

ONCE MORE
Once more unto the meeting, dear STEPPERS, once more;
or close the Group up with our Chairman dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest STEPPISM, and INSANITY:
But when the blast of the “drunkalogues” blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the ZOMBIE;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye to HOW IT WORKS;
Let it pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the mind be PROGRAMMED
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful SHAPE SHIFTING REPTILES.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide
Hold hard the breath and bend up every BRAIN CELL
To his full height. On, on, you noble STEPPER
Whose mind is completely gone!
Fathers that, like so many PSYCHOPATHS
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their BIG BOOKS for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your SPONSORS; now attest
That those whom you called “old-timers” did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to go INSANE. And you, good woman,
Whose brain was altered with BUCHMANISM, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us 13th STEP you
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble LUST in your eyes.
I see you stand like BILL & BOB HEADS in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your SPONSOR, and upon this charge
Cry “KEEP COMING BACK!” IT WORKS IF YOU WORK IT!
PEACE BE WITH YOU
MICKY
 

DICK B - FALSE PROPHET
Interview with Dick B:
Kathy: How would you describe to someone reading this interview the difference between the disease of alcoholism and what they could have – hope, that is?

Dick B: I have sponsored about 80 or so guys in AA. After a few years they don’t say "Is this all there is?" Instead they say, "This isn’t all there is!" And that message means everything! I knew a young man who was about 24 years old and in the army. He had screwed up his life, and after a year sober he said, "Dick I owe everything to you." I told him, "No, you owe everything to God. The world is your oyster. Start cracking it open and looking for the pearl." What you can offer people is unlimited, and sometimes we sell short what is available to us right now – health, forgiveness, avoidance of shame, guilt, and despair. Fourteen years ago I wanted to kill myself. That is not unusual with this disease. I didn’t see that there was anything else. I didn’t have a drink for five months but I was just afloat in a bunch of AA meetings, sicker than a dog, shaking like a leaf, wetting my pants and facing all kinds of criminal charges, and so forth. I read a little book, The Bible Tells Me So, and it said prisons are not made of steel alone. There are anxieties, frustrations, fears and secrets that mess with a person and keep him from God. Yet AA can offer people hope. They can be relieved of the guilt and the shame and the physical infirmities. God delivered me through AA. My life was a mess. Where I am today is in a lot different position. I’ve grown closer to my family. I’m nuts about my two sons, two granddaughters and life. That’s what you have to talk to people about – the hope of change. In the beginning it is a strict regimen – don’t drink and go to meetings until your minds clear a little. But the quicker a drunk is introduced to God as they then understand Him, the better. One of the nicest things about AA is at the end of every meeting you hold hands and you recite the Lord’s Prayer. At the end of that you say, "Keep coming back. It works." And it does. For a while all you can do is just hang on to the "It works." My sponsor used to look at me and smile. And I would think, "I guess it does." That’s the message. And it’s a good one.

Kathy: I wish my Dad could have talked to you for he was struggling in the last few years of his life.

Dick: Well, there is no denying the devastation that alcoholism causes to the individual and the family. The Lowe Family Foundation’s focus is on the family, which is one place where renewal does happen when AA works right. Part of the redemptive process is making amends to those people you love. It may produce no fruit in them, but it will produce fruit for you. And my own view is that if you work at it a long time, it will produce fruit for your family, too. And if it doesn’t, that’s not your problem. It is God’s problem and He can solve it. He can solve all your problems. AA’s medicine is God and God alone. "Each day should be a day of high adventure. I must keep spiritually fit in order to be responsive, sensitive, alert, and aware of the significance of every act… I cannot do this unless I "wait on God" and seek humbly and confidently to ascertain His will in my life. He does speak to those who listen. ‘In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.’"*

*(Turning Point, A History of AA’s Spiritual Roots and Successes, by Dick B., page 298, quote from Brown, The Venture of Belief, page 40)

Micky’s Response:
Dick, I imagine you to be an emotionally shutdown, shape-shifting reptile who has sold his soul to the Devil. You are leading others’ onto the wrong path with you moronic ramblings about the history of AA, God, The Bible, Wilson, Smith et al. You haven’t once mentioned Jesus Christ in your meanings diatribe. AA is a prison (HELL) for lost souls like you. You are a terrified 'little boy", who he is too petrified to face his demons. How have you recovered, Dicky? What have you recovered, Richard? You are a classic "control freak", Dicky? Satan, is a CLASSIC "control freak”, too!! How do you feel, Dicky?
PEACE BE WITH YOU
MICKY
 

DETESTABLE NECROMANCER

You know, the message the 12 Step Paradigm tells us that we are all just powerless over our addictions, meaningless specks of offal in an endless ocean of space and matter where hydrogen atoms and bacteria of unexplained origin can turn into god as
you understand him!! Oooo! It’s so exciting and uplifting to be regularly assured by Steppers in all their ineffable knowledge and function is just an accumulation of 1st Century Christianity Buchmanism & Nihilism. Oooo! It’s heart-warming, I’ll tell ya. We owe these "messengers" so terribly much that it is difficult to put into words... We can talk to dead people & consult spiritists.

9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God [Deuteronomy 18: 9-13]

Wilson was a “detestable necromancer” who talked to dead people & consulted spiritists. He was “an angel of light” and if you Steppers want what he had, keep going to 12 Step meetings & end up as zombies. I beg of you to see the True Light [John 3: 16] & have Eternal Life, not death [12 Steps].
Peace Be With You